Laguna Beach, the first city to incorporate in south Orange County, achieved cityhood in 1927. It is a destination for tourists and a home to celebrities and artists. First, though, it was home to the Native American Ute-Azteca tribe and later the Shoshone-speaking people who inhabited the rich coastal strip. An ancient skull unearthed in the area, known as "Laguna Woman" was reported to be more than 17,000 years old. Other excavations revealed a Native American burial ground near Goff Island and a reed house near Crescent Bay. A U.S. post office was given the name Lagona for 10 years, until 1904 when residents changed it to what most had called the area -- Laguna Beach. Through an oversight, Laguna Beach was not included when much of California was divided into ranchos granted to favored people by the rulers of Spain and Mexico. As a result, many homesteaders settled here. Under the Timber Cultures Act of 1872, the government gave 160 acres of land to anyone agreeing to plant 10 acres of trees. Homesteaders mostly planted the fast-growing, drought-tolerant eucalyptus. Trees soon forested Laguna, adding color to the scenery and adding to a landscape destined for fame in the art world. Some of the first non-Indian settlers were Mormons. In 1876, they located at the intersection of what is now Laguna Canyon Road and El Toro Road and remained there for 14 years before moving to other parts of the county, sometimes taking their homes with them. Other early settlers are remembered in street and school names: George Thurston (Thurston Middle School) farmed South Laguna. William H. Brooks (Brooks St.) built the Brooks Hotel that contained the post office, barber shop and grocery store. He and his brother Nathaniel Brooks have each been credited as being the "Father of Laguna Beach." Depending on the source. In those days, Laguna was a resort area. Tents were used as houses. But more permanent families started arriving: the Farmans, Hemenways, Warlings, Trefans, Yochs, Isches, Rogers, Hansens, Skidmores, Jahraus', Peacocks, Aufdenkamps to name a few. Joseph Yoch bought the Arch Beach Hotel in 1896, moved it to the Southwest corner of Laguna Ave. and Coast Highway and built the first Hotel Laguna. It was patronized by the society elite, including actress Madame Modjeska and her husband, Count Bozenta Chlapowski. Because Laguna Beach was building hotels for tourists while other landowners were building bunkhouses for vaqueros, the flow of celebrities continued. Famed actress Mary Pickford cut the ribbon opening a new stretch of Pacific Coast Highway in 1926. Errol Flynn filmed Captain Blood near Three Arch Bay. Many of Harold Lloyd's comedies were shot on Forest Avenue. And John Steinbeck wrote Tortilla Flats while staying in Laguna Beach. Hollywood stars who maintained homes here included Pickford, Judy Garland, Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, Mickey Rooney, Victor Mature, Bette Davis, Slim Sommerville, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson and currently, Bette Midler. The event that changed Laguna forever was when watercolorist Norman St. Claire pulled in on the stage in 1903 and began to paint the surf, hillsides and lagoons. His fellow plein air artists in San Francisco were so impressed with his work and his praise of the weather that they followed. By 1917, about 40 artists were established here. Among them: Gardner Symonds, Frank Cuprien, William Griffith, Edgar Payne and William Wendt. Payne formed the Laguna Beach Art Association and opened the first art gallery in 1918. By the late 1920s, there were about 300 permanent residents of Laguna, about half of which were artists. Today, three major art festivals and the Pageant of the Masters are testimony to Laguna's heritage.