Founded in 1920 as the Orange County Council,[3] the council was formed by the merger of the North Orange Council (#037) and the Orange Empire Council (#039) in 1972.

The North Orange Council was founded in 1944 as the Northern Orange County and changed its name to North Orange in 1965.

[4] Orange County Council is one of the 20 largest councils by traditional membership in the nation.

In 2008 it had over 40,000 youth members.

[citation needed] The Orange County Council's Order of the Arrow Lodge, Wiatava #13, was the home lodge of the National Chief of the Order of the Arrow, Evan Chaffee, in 2007.