Fashion Island Begins
In July 1953, open fields on the Irvine Ranch filled with 50,000 Boy Scouts from across the world. Their tents lined new roads cut through dry grass.
Crews built eight miles of gravel paths and 36 miles of lines to move water and power for the event that gave Jamboree Road its name.
For seven days, the land became a city larger than Newport Beach itself, then emptied and waited for its next transformation…