A Short History of the City of Angels

Set picturesquely between the San Gabriel Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Los Angeles now contains more than 80 other incorporated cities, including Pasadena and Beverly Hills. But it hasn't always been a sprawling metropolis. In fact, the Spanish had a hard time finding people to settle it.

Spanish Mission

In 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, an explorer employed by the Spanish crown, became the first European to set foot in California. He wound up on Catalina Island, which also makes him the first European to visit the L.A. vicinity. Hardly anyone followed. Rather than settling in, the Spanish basically left California alone for the next 200 years.

Then, in 1769, an expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá traveled north from San Diego and surveyed the barren area around a river they called the Porciúncula (now the Los Angeles River). They got along well with the local natives and--despite being rocked by three earthquakes while they were there--decided to establish a mission nearby.

Another dozen years passed before the first non-natives actually settled in the area. Finally, in 1781, around 40 settlers of mostly African, Native American, and mixed descent founded a town a few miles from the mission. They called their new home El Pueblo de la Reyna de Los Angeles (The Town of the Queen of the Angels). Spain officially controlled the small, isolated community until newly independent Mexico took it over in 1822.

Gold Rush

In 1846, the United States and Mexico went to war. Two years later, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo reestablished peace. Mexico got 15 million dollars. The U.S. government got 55 percent of Mexican territory, including California.

For the United States, it was a good deal--and the timing was exquisite. On January 24, 1848, just nine days before the U.S. government legally assumed control of the region, a New Jersey man named James Marshall discovered gold in a northern California river. By 1849, tens of thousands of fortune hunters and prospectors had mimicked Marshall's westward migration, swelling California's population.

In 1850, California became the 31st state to join the union. Los Angeles was incorporated as an official American city and made the seat of Los Angeles County. By the mid-1850s, though, the Gold Rush had petered out. Over the next several years, Los Angeles degenerated into a dirty, rough-and-tumble Old West town, notorious for gambling, prostitution, and hard drinking.

Oranges and Water

In 1860, L.A.'s population was still only a few thousand people. By 1900, it was 100,000. Partly this was because a new rail line opened in 1876 linking L.A. with San Francisco, then California's largest city. Also, during the last few decades of the 19th century, California oranges became big business, with L.A. as the center of trade. Even more growth came after construction of L.A.'s seaport began in 1899.

The city's ever-increasing population exacerbated a serious and perennial problem: its lack of fresh water. In 1904, William Mulholland, head of the L.A. Water Bureau, came up with an expensive and ingenious plan for an aqueduct that would bring water down from the mountains, more than 200 miles away. In 1913, the first water from the Owens River Valley gushed into an L.A. spillway. As crowds roared, Mulholland famously announced, "There it is. Take it!"

Today the "City of Angels" is one of the world's largest and most cosmopolitan cities. Of its 4 million inhabitants, nearly half are of Latino or Hispanic origin, while more than 40 percent are foreign born. Of all U.S. cities, only the people of New York outnumber the people of L.A.

--Jeffery Vail