Incredible images of Los Angeles before it was a city

Long before Hollywood's stars descended on Los Angeles, the city was a modest farming settlement inhabited by thousands of Native Americans.

Now home to approximately 3.9 million residents and counting, Los Angeles has clearly changed a lot since then.

Here are the maps, illustrations, and old-time photographs that show the journey of the City of Angels.

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The Chumash people, a seafaring group of Native Americans, were the first to settle in the Los Angeles area around 9,000 BC.

Source: National Park Service

In 1542, Portuguese explorer Juan Cabrillo journeyed along California's coast. He called the city's present-day San Pedro Bay the “Bay of Smokes,” due to rising smoke from fires made by Native Americans.

Source: Los Angeles Almanac

When the first Spanish missionaries arrived in 1602, there were approximately 22,000 Chumash living there. But it wasn't until over a century later that Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola founded LA's first official settlement in 1769.

Source: Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians