 This started a long, yearly tradition that has lasted to this day.In 1908 and 1909, with permission of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, William Collins moved his small dredge to the eastern part of the Newport bay, a mud flat called "Snipe Island", and begin cutting a channel along the north side of the bay across from the Pavilion, piling the sand and silt up on the mud flat and thus Balboa Island was born.Balboa Island was a summer vacation place.