Cypress, California

Cypress is a city in northwestern Orange County, California, in the United States. It was once nicknamed Waterville because of the many artesian wells in the area, and local dairy farmers incorporated it in 1956 under the name Dairy City, hoping to keep developers away and protect their dairies, as the neighbouring Dairy Valley and Dairyland did. After the Second World War the land became too valuable for farming, and the dairies sold out to housing developers during the 1960s. In 1957 residents voted to rename the city Cypress, after Cypress Elementary School, which in turn took its name from cypress trees planted as a windbreak against the Santa Ana winds. The city holds an annual birthday event, the Cypress Community Festival, held each July at Oak Knoll Park. It has a total area of about 17 square kilometres and a population of 50,151 at the 2020 census.