A Brief History of Huntington Beach California

European settlement began in Huntington Beach when a Spanish soldier named Manuel Nieto recieved a land grant of 300,000 acres in reward for his service.

Huntington Beach first incorporated as a city in 1909, while the Huntington Beach Company was the major developer of the land, it was named after its founder Henry Huntington. The Huntington Beach Company is still a major landowner in the city.

In 1920 oil was discovered, and this relatively small village began to balloon into an industrial giant, and by the 1950s, Huntington Beach was one of the fastest growing cities in the nation.