History Early pioneers called the coastal region including the Bolsa Chica by the name "shell beach," because of the hundreds of thousands of empty shells left along the beaches and bluffs by Native Americans.  Life was good along the California shore. The Shoshone, who were the first to walk the Bolsa Chica, enjoyed plentiful supplies of fish and shellfish in the wetlands.

Within the Bolsa Chica wetlands and mesas, linger the artifacts and people of early California.  The 8,000-year-old human remains of ancient burials silently mark time. The unique artifacts of the ancient coastal Californians - such as cogged stones, charm stones, and arrow points - have been found since the earliest pioneers arrived at the Bolsa Chica. There is no question:  the first Californians, who still consider the area a touchstone of earlier times, inhabited the Bolsa Chica mesas and wetlands.

The Bolsa Chica, or "Little Pocket" ranch was isolated by "swamps," little pockets of dry land, and the ocean. The name, "little pocket" was given when the vast holding of Rancho La Zanja was divided in 1834.  Still undeveloped save for the small adobe of the Nieto family, the Bolsa Chica was visited solely by wandering cattle and their watching vaqueros.

From this early beginning as part of California's rich history of Spanish ranchos, the Rancho Bolsa Chica avoided mass development. Although utilized by the United States military in World War II for an armament, and visited by farmers, peat harvesters, duck hunting clubs, and oil drills, the enterprises that intruded eventually left the Little Pocket empty again.

Despite the name, the Bolsa Chica presents vast open space along a coastline more often populated by urban skylines than blue sky and sage.