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Huntington Beach History, California

Huntington Beach in California was originally taken by the Tongva community and was also referred as Gabrielinos. This land stretched from Topanga canyon till Aliso creek present in Laguna Beach. This land had witnessed European settlement and was generally filled with Spanish soldiers. The most familiar name associated with this land is Manuel Nieto that in the year 1784 received accolade of grant of land about 3,00,000 acres and he renamed that piece of land as Rancho Los Nietos as the mark of his unmatched military services to the people here.

The rancho company of stern used to run horses and cattle as well as raise barley on this land that was supplied to the entire terrain of Huntington Beach. In early phase of 1800s, a part of the land was traded to col. Robert Northam that also used it to raise barley crops and supplied them to the ranchers engulfed to the land. By the year 1889, this city was become popular as “Shell Beach” and mainly consisted of minor groups of settlers. In the year 1901, the name shell beach got transformed into pacific city as PS Stanton formed the local syndicate there and bought around 40 acres of land all along the area of beach. Stanton had always dreamt of building a small town on the coast of Pacific Ocean that would rival the Atlantic City formed upon the east coast.

In 1909, Huntington Beach was fully established here under the leadership of the first mayor named as Ed Manning. This city was basically established by the then renowned company known as Huntington Beach Company. This was a real estate development organization possessed by Henry Huntington. Even today this company is one of the major shareholders of real estate properties. Since then this city is there as a sleepy coastal town until oil booms in the year 1920s changed the history forever.

After the oil boom, the city began to develop at a fast pace and became one of the largest oil depositors of the world. Wells simply sprang up within short span of time and town grew at a great speed especially in terms of population from 1500 to 5000 dwellers. But the oil strike that occurred in 1953 brought a slow phase to development and progress.

But as it ended soon and thereafter population explosion happened here as many people from surrounding area entered this land in search of jobs and good living. And since then this city has witnessed unabated growth and development, although population was rising at a faster rate.