The city is named after American businessman Henry E. The population was , as of the census , making it the fourth most populous city in Orange County, the most populous beach city in Orange County, and the seventh most populous city in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Huntington Beach has a long 9.
Swells generated predominantly from the North Pacific in winter and from a combination of Southern Hemisphere storms and cyclones in the summer focus on Huntington Beach, creating consistent surf all year long, hence the nickname "Surf City".
The Tongva village of Lupukngna was located in what became Huntington Beach, with an approximate location near the Newland House Museum. The main thoroughfare of Huntington Beach, Beach Boulevard , was originally a cattle route for the main industry of the Rancho. Since its time as a parcel of the enormous Spanish land grant, Huntington Beach has undergone many incarnations. Once it was known as Shell Beach, the town of Smeltzer, and then Gospel Swamp for the revival meetings that were held in the marshland where the community college Golden West College stands.
Later it became known as Fairview and then Pacific City, as it developed into a tourist destination. Huntington , and thus became a city whose name has been written into corporate sponsorship, and like much of the history of Southern California, boosterism.
The original Huntington Beach Pier was built in and was a 1,foot-long timber structure. The Huntington Beach Company is still a major land-owner in the city, and owns most of the local mineral rights. The company is wholly owned by the Chevron Corporation. Though many of the old reserves are depleted, and the price of land for housing has pushed many of the rigs off the landscape, oil pumps still dot the city.
