A history of the Port of Long Beach, Calif., from the days of Native Americans in San Pedro Bay to the present, Port Town tells the story of the men and women who took a mud flat and turned it into an economic powerhouse, one of the world's most modern ports.

The author chronicles LA's emergence as the nation's leading trade centre and gateway to the Pacific Rim in the 20th century, exploring recent epic battles over port development, expanding LAX, creating a new international airport in Orange County, building the Alameda Corridor rail link and more.

Few other cities can boast of the natural assets, the people, and the events that shaped the first 50 years of their history, as can the city of Long Beach, California. First inhabited by the Tongva people, the land was taken away by the Spanish, then granted to "friends of the King," who in turn sold parcels to real estate speculators working with the railroads. It was called many names before Belle Lowe suggested in 1884 that the townsite be known for its eight miles of long beaches. Its oceanfront provided a resort area, a landing strip for early aviators, a fishing industry, a port for shipbuilding and trade, and a location for the US Navy to anchor its "battle fleet" in 1919. However, discovery of oil in 1921 transformed the city, bringing incredible wealth and an explosive growth in population. By 1938, the city's population was 200,000 and would be a major factor in the Southern California war effort.

Rising from a tidal mudflat at the mouth of the Los Angeles River, the Port of Long Beach has grown through the 20th century into the one of the busiest deepwater ports. The ultramodern Port of Long Beach, the second-largest active harbor in the United States in the first decade of the 21st century, progressed steadily through a difficult adolescence fueled by the ambitions of a visionary few local community leaders who overcame political opposition to create a port separate and distinct from its neighboring Port of Los Angeles. Fueled by oil, Southern Californias unprecedented postWorld War II growth, and the container revolution, the Port of Long Beach surmounted numerous natural and man-made hurdles to position itself, in its own right, as a critical link in the nations global supply chain.