Lake Forest is a city located in the heart of South Orange County California. The rich heritage of the past is preserved and enhanced in this contemporary city ready to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future. Previously known as El Toro, Lake Forest was a thriving agricultural community for better part of the 20th century. After the end of World War II commercial, industrial and residential, development slowly replaced the agricultural and farmland. Lake Forest became incorporated in to a city on December 20, 1991. Lake Forest expanded its city limits to include Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills following a vote in 2000.
Lake Forest gets its name from its two man-made lakes. Two neighborhood associations manage the lakes. Lake 1, known as the Lake Forest Beach and Tennis Club, and Lake 2, the Sun and Sail Club.
The man-made “forest” for which the city is also named consists mainly of Eucalyptus trees. It was created in the first decade of the 1900s when a local landowner, planted 400 acres of Eucalyptus groves as part of a lumber operation intended to bring growth and development to the area.
