Editing Costa Mesa, California (section)

==History==
[[File:Portrait_of_Don_Bernardo_Yorba_by_an_unknown_artist.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Don [[Bernardo Yorba]], a wealthy [[Californio]] ranchero, owned [[Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana]], which included all of modern-day Costa Mesa.]]
Members of the [[Tongva people|Tongva]] and [[Acjachemen]] nations long inhabited the area. The Tongva villages of [[Lupukngna]], at least 3,000 years old, and the shared Tongva and Acjachemen village of [[Genga, California|Genga]], at least 9,500 years old, were located in the area on the bluffs along the [[Santa Ana River]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/276818569 |title=Early Costa Mesa |date=2009 |publisher=Arcadia Pub |others=Costa Mesa Historical Society |isbn=978-0-7385-6976-5 |location=Charleston, SC |pages=7 |oclc=276818569}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Koerper |first1=Henry |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/745176510 |title=Catalysts to complexity : late Holocene societies of the California coast |last2=Mason |first2=Roger |last3=Peterson |first3=Mark |date=2002 |publisher=Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA |others=Jon Erlandson, Terry L. Jones, Jeanne E. Arnold, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA |isbn=978-1-938770-67-8 |location=Los Angeles |pages=64 |oclc=745176510 |access-date=December 14, 2022 |archive-date=January 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111080309/https://www.worldcat.org/title/745176510 |url-status=live }}</ref>

After the 1769 expedition of [[Gaspar de Portolà]], a [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] expedition led by [[Junípero Serra]] named the area [[Vallejo de Santa Ana]] (Valley of Saint Anne). On November 1, 1776, [[Mission San Juan Capistrano]] became the area's first permanent European settlement in [[Alta California]], [[New Spain]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 8, 1988 |title=Mission San Juan Capistrano |work=L.A. Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-08-li-941-story.html |access-date=March 17, 2022 |archive-date=March 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220317155113/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-08-li-941-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1801, the [[Spanish Empire]] granted {{convert|62500|acre|km2}} to [[Jose Antonio Yorba]], which he named Rancho San Antonio.

After the [[Mexican-American War]], California became part of the United States, and American settlers arrived in this area and formed the town of Fairview in the 1880s near the modern intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Adams Avenue.

To the south, meanwhile, the community of Harper had arisen on a siding of the [[Santa Ana and Newport Railway]], named after a local rancher. This town prospered on its agricultural goods. On May 11, 1920, Harper changed its name to Costa Mesa, which means "coastal tableland" in Spanish.<ref name="cityname"/> This is a reference to the city's geography as being a plateau by the coast. [[Fanny Bixby Spencer]] and her husband sponsored the contest which selected the city's new name.<ref>{{cite news |title=Historical society hosts city 'founder' |url=https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-xpm-2013-02-12-tn-dpt-0213-fanny-bixby-spencer-20130212-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 12, 2013 |access-date=April 6, 2021 |archive-date=July 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726143444/https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-xpm-2013-02-12-tn-dpt-0213-fanny-bixby-spencer-20130212-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Costa Mesa surged in population during and after World War II, as many thousands trained at [[Santa Ana Army Air Base]] and returned after the war with their families. Within three decades of incorporation, the city's population had nearly quintupled.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-me-cm-council-advance-20190301-story.html|title=Costa Mesa council to screen project that would add 1,057 residential units, office and retail space north of 405|last=Money|first=Luke|date=March 1, 2019|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=March 1, 2019|archive-date=March 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190302105038/https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-me-cm-council-advance-20190301-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>