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When Capitain Samuel S. Dunnells
successfully steered his 105-ton river steamer
Vaquero through upper Newport Bay in 1870, James
and Robert McFadden rushed from Northern California
by stagecoach to mark the inaugural voyage.
Dunnells' trip cast new light
on the bay, which many had said was too treacherous
for travel. But the principal landowners in the
area - the McFadden brothers and James Irvine
- throught they had something after Dunnells'
trip. A "new port," they mused, and
the name stuck, according to the Newport Berach
Historical Society.
More than 100 years later, Newport
Beach's harbor is crowded with pleasure, fishing
and tour boats, and its streets are busy with
shoppers browsing at Fashion Island mall, tourists
enjoying Balboa bars on Balboa Island and surfers
tackling The Wedge or other hot spots along the
city's 6.2 miles of beaches.
Newport wasn't always such a
desireable place. In the mid-1800s, the state
of Californa sold parts of Harbor, Balboa and
Lido islands for $1 an acre as "swamp and
overflow land," according to the Newport
Beach Historical Society.
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