Huntington Beach City Map Poster

About Huntington Beach

The area was originally occupied by the Tongva people. European settlement can be traced to a Spanish soldier, Manuel Nieto, who in 1784 received a land grant from the King of Spain. The area was named "Rancho Los Nietos" (Children's Ranch) because of the small number of children living at the ranch and who were descendants of Nieto's six children; he had been widowed three times before marrying a local woman and starting his ranch. In 1846, during the Mexican–American War, Captain John B. Montgomery arrived to build a sawmill on Rancho Los Cerritos (Cerritos Ranch). In 1869 Samuel Long moved away from other settlers and purchased 160 acres near Long Beach Harbor for $1 an acre stretching along what is now Pacific Coast Highway between present-day Hill Street and Broadway Street in downtown Huntington Beach; this land became known as "Long Beach".