In 1895, the Southern Pacific Railroad built a route going to Huntington Beach which connected to the farm area. Philip A. Stanton and Col. H.S. Finley visited the area and believed it could be a good location for a resort on the west coast. They bought 1,500 acres for $100,000 and named the area Pacific City. A year and a half later they sold out to another group of investors which included Henry E. Huntington and this is where the city got its name. One of the first things the Huntington Beach Company was build a wooden pier. The city became officially incorporated on February 17, 1909 and its first mayor was Ed Manning.
The pier is one of the most important aspects of Huntington Beach. The first pier was wooden and 1,000 feet long and it was in bad condition after the 1912 winter storms. A bond was approved by voters and the new 1,350 foot pier was the longest, highest, and only solid concrete pier in the United States at the time. It was lengthened by 500 feet and twice again in 1939 and 1983, storms made away with the end of the pier. It wasn't until 1990 that another pier (the one that is there now?) was built, but this time it was built to withstand wave impact, uplift, and earthquakes.
Huntington Beach is well-known for oil. In the olden days, Native Americans used to use it to make their baskets and reed boats waterproof. The Spanish also used it for light and heat for a long time. In 1919, the Huntington Beach Company met with Standard Oil and they leased 500 acres to them for exploratory drilling. Huntington Beach became California's fourth largest oil field.
Photos from https://calisphere.org/ Information from http://www.beachcalifornia.com/hb_history.html