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In early times, local Indians thrived on the rich coastal lands and freshwater canyon lakes that
made up the area they named Lagonas, for ‘lake.’
By the late 1800s, visitors were making an annual pilgrimage on rutted trails through the canyons
to camp at Laguna Beach each summer. By the time painter Norman St. Claire visited from San
Francisco in 1903, Laguna already had become a popular tourist destination with a hotel: the
Hotel Laguna.
By the 1960s, the Main Beach boardwalk was transformed into an open public beach park. The decade
brought other changes, too. A group of artists who thought the Festival of Arts was too restrictive
in accepting exhibitors began the Sawdust Festival, and the Art-A-Fair followed a year later to
focus on traditional arts and new mediums.
As an art colony in the 1960s, the city experienced its share of the ‘hippie’ culture as well,
but that gave way to a new group of people who put the small town on the map: the White House
Press Corps.
During the Nixon years, when President Nixon visited his home in San Clemente, the press corps
took up residence at the Surf & Sand. Fledgling reporters like Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and Diane
Sawyer were frequent guests. Newscasters would do stand-ups from the beach in front of the hotel.
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