Five Mexican land grant ranchos make up the area we know today as West Los Angeles.
Once upon a time, the land we know as Brentwood, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, and Bel Air, was open grazing land with plenty of grass, scrub brush, and very few trees. Native America tribes moved across the land in pursuit of game, acorns, and water. In 1540, Juan Cabrillo sailed into Santa Monica Bay, the first European to see the area. He was followed by other explorers and eventually by the families who were granted ranchos in order to graze their cattle and horses–Malibu, Boca de Santa Monica, San Vicente y Santa Monica, La Ballona, and San Jose Buenos Ayres. Sixty-eight thousand acres plus were gradually subdivided into neighborhoods and communities with homes, schools, and businesses to support the people who came to live there.