A Brief History of Santa Ana, California

Members of the Tongva and Juaneño/Luiseño nations long inhabited the area that is now known as Santa Ana. After the 1769 expedition of Gaspar de Portolà, a Spanish expedition led by Father Junipero Serra named the area Vallejo de Santa Ana (Valley of Saint Anne). On November 1, 1776, Mission San Juan Capistrano became the areas first permanent European settlement in Alta California, New Spain.

In 1801, the Spanish Empire granted 62,500 acres to Jose Antonio Yorba, which he named Rancho San Antonio. It included the lands where the cities of Olive, Orange, Irvine, Villa Park, Santa Ana, Tustin, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach stand today.

After the Mexican-American war ended in 1848, Alta California became part of the United States and American settlers arrived in this area.

Claimed in 1869 by Kentuckian William H. Spurgeon on land obtained from the descendents of Jose Antonio Yorba, Santa Ana was incorporated as a city in 1886 with a population of 2000 and in 1889 became the seat of the newly formed Orange County.