Costa Mesa, California

Orange County, California, is home to the city of Costa Mesa, which is located in the United States. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has expanded from a semi-rural farming community with a population of 16,840 to an urban area that includes a portion of the edge city of South Coast Plaza–John Wayne Airport. This edge city is one of the region's largest commercial clusters, and the economy of the city is based on retail, commerce, and light manufacturing. The city is home to the two skyscrapers in Orange County with the highest elevations. At the time of the census in 2020, there were 111,918 people living there.

For a very long time, people from the Tongva and Acjachemen tribes called this region home. In the region on the bluffs along the Santa Ana River were situated the Tongva settlements of Lupukngna, which are estimated to be at least 3,000 years old, as well as the combined Tongva and Acjachemen hamlet of Genga, which is estimated to be at least 9,500 years old.

The region was given the name Vallejo de Santa Ana in 1769 by a Spanish expedition commanded by Junpero Serra, who followed in the footsteps of Gaspar de Portola's expedition (Valley of Saint Anne). The first permanent European colony in the region was established in Alta California, New Spain, on November 1, 1776, when the San Juan Capistrano Mission was founded.

In the year 1801, the Spanish Crown presented Jose Antonio Yorba with a grant of 62,500 acres (or 253 km2), which he later called Rancho San Antonio. The enormous rancho that belonged to Yorba formerly included the areas that are now occupied by the cities of Olive, Orange, Villa Park, Santa Ana, Tustin, Costa Mesa, and Newport Beach.

Following the conclusion of the Mexican-American War, California was annexed to the United States. Shortly thereafter, American colonists moved into the region and established the community of Fairview in the 1880s in the general vicinity of the intersection where Harbor Boulevard and Adams Avenue are located today. Nevertheless, a flood that occurred in 1889 destroyed the train that served the village, and as a result, it shrank.

In the meanwhile, to the south, a village known as Harper had begun to develop on a siding of the Santa Ana and Newport Railway. This settlement was named for a local rancher. This town's success may be attributed to the agricultural products it produced. On May 11, 1920, the city of Harper adopted its current name, Costa Mesa, which derives from the Spanish phrases "table coast" and "coast mesa." This makes a reference to the topography of the city, which consists of a plateau near the ocean. The competition that was held to choose the new name of the city was sponsored by Fanny Bixby Spencer and her husband.

Since so many people were stationed at Santa Ana Army Air Base during World War II and then relocated there with their families after the war, the population of Costa Mesa exploded both during and after the conflict. Throughout the first three decades after the city's formation, the population almost quadrupled to its current level.