The recorded history of the Newport Beach, California, region began when the area was first explored by Europeans in the 1500s. Prior to that time, Native Americans such as the Tongva and Juaneño/Luiseño people had been living in the area for thousands of years. Explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo mapped the coastline in 1542, but it was 200 years before Europeans settled the area. In 1769, Newport was a small portion of the land grant of Don José Antonio Yorba I, first under Spanish and then Mexican rule. After the Civil War, the land was developed by American settlers: for ranching by James Irvine and for shipping by James McFadden. A small settlement was built around McFaddens’ Wharf (at the location where the Newport Pier is today) and it became the largest business of Orange County, California. Following the opening of the San Pedro Harbor in Los Angeles in 1899, the commercial shipping industry in Newport declined. Newport Beach developed into a tourist and recreational boating community. in August 1906, Newport Beach became incorporated as a city. Early history For thousands of years, members of the Tongva and Juaneño/Luiseño nations long inhabited this area. In 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo first sailed the coast of California for New Spain and in 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno mapped the coast for the Spanish Empire. Jose Antonio Yorba (1746–1825), known also as Don José Antonio Yorba I, was an early colonizer of Spanish California (then known as Alta California). Born in San Sadurni de Noya in the Spanish province of Catalonia, Yorba first came to the New World as an officer in the Gaspar de Portolà Expedition of 1769. For his service, Yorba was awarded with an enormous land grant from the Spanish Empire in 1801 that comprised a significant portion of today's Orange County in Southern California. Covering some , Yorba's great rancho included the lands where the cities of Olive, Orange, Villa Park, Santa Ana, Tustin, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach stand today. From this Spanish period, the Ranchos began trading hides with US merchants in Boston for goods from New England, sailing around South America. The Ranchos also traded with English and European merchants. This trade continued through the Mexican period (1823–1848) as immigrants were offered land if they converted to the Catholic religion and became Mexican citizens, which many did. Many Anglo immigrants married into Spanish families, becoming Californios inheriting and acquiring