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The area was originally occupied by the Tongva people who lived in a rancheria named Tibahangna. Along with other Tongva
villages, it disappeared in the mid-1800s.
The Rancho los Cerritos was divided from the larger Rancho Los Nietos, which had been granted by the King of Spain to a
mulatto soldier, Manuel Nieto. Rancho Los Cerritos was bought in 1843 by John Temple, a Yankee who had come to California
in 1827. Soon after he built what is now known as the "Los Cerritos Ranch House," an adobe which still stands and is a National
Historic Landmark. Temple created a thriving cattle ranch and prospered, becoming the wealthiest man in Los Angeles County.
Both Temple and his ranch house played important local roles in the Mexican American War.
Meanwhile, on an island in the San Pedro Bay, Mormon pioneers made an abortive attempt to establish a colony (as part of
Brigham Young's plan to establish a continuous chain of settlements from the Pacific to Salt Lake).
In 1866 Temple sold Rancho Los Cerritos to the firm of Flint, Bixby & Co, which consisted of brothers Thomas and Benjamin Flint
and their cousin Lewellyn Bixby, for $20,000. Later that year the company selected Lewellyn's brother Jotham Bixby, the "Father
of Long Beach", to manage their southern ranch, and three years later Jotham bought into the property and would later form the
Bixby Land Company. It was during this period that the Rancho Los Cerritos was converted to sheep ranching. In the 1870s as
many as 30,000 sheep were kept at the ranch and sheared twice yearly to provide wool for trade. In 1880, Bixby sold 4,000 acres
(16 km²) of the Rancho Los Cerritos to William E. Willmore, who subdivided it in hopes of creating a farm community, Willmore
City. He failed and was bought out by the "Long Beach Land and Water Company." They changed the name of the community to "Long
Beach", which was incorporated as a city in 1888. When Bixby died in 1916 the remaining 3,500 acres (14 km²) of Rancho Los
Cerritos was subdivided into the neighborhoods of Bixby Knolls, California Heights, North Long Beach and part of the city of
Signal Hill.
The town grew as a seaside resort (The Pike was one of the most famous beachside amusement parks on the West coast from 1910 until
the 1960's) and then as an oil, Navy, and port town. The town was once referred to as "Iowa by the sea," due to a large influx
of people from that state and other states in the Midwest. Huge picnics for each state were a popular annual event in Long Beach
until the 1960s.
The Long Beach earthquake of 1933 was a magnitude 6.3 earthquake that caused significant damage to the city and surrounding
areas. Most of the damage occurred in unreinforced masonry buildings, especially schools. One hundred twenty people died in
this earthquake.
Long Beach used to have a sizable Japanese-American population mostly working in the fish canneries on Terminal Island and
small truck farms in the area, but with intermarriage and other factors, it is now less than 1% of the population of Long
Beach. There is still a Japanese Community Center and a Japanese Buddhist Church in Long Beach.
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