Just how Cypress got its name is a bit of a mystery. The city never had many cypress trees, local historicans say. In fact, it once was called Dairy City after its principal residents - dairy cows. Civic leaders settled on the name Cypress when the city incorporated in 1956, and legend has it that cypress trees planted around the town's first school gave the area its name. But in one old school photograph unearthed by a city historian, no such trees appear.

Today the dairy farms are gone and Cypress, in northwest Orange County, is an urban community striving for a balance of industial and residential development. It is the corporated home of several national and international companies, shopping centers and the Los Alamitos Race Course.The race track represents the single-largest source of tax revenue for the city.