When I was a little kid in Torrance and before we moved to Phoenix in 56/57 everyone called it "tin can beach".
Huntington Beach, one of the fastest growing cites in the nation during the 1960s, has slowed down quite a bit since it was transformed from a rough and tumble oil town into the third largest city in Orange County.
The community was founded in 1901 as Pacific City on the site of a former Spanish land-grant ranch. In 1904, the townspeople changed the name to honor Pasadena developer Henry Huntington, who made the small city a stop on his Pacific Electric "Red Car" Railway line.
The city's first boom occurred after Standard Oil Co. began drilling for oil in 1920, and a forest of derricks lining the beaches led to the nickname "Oil City."
It gained the unflattering nickname of "Tin Can Beach" early on from the debris found in the sand. Following is a first person account from Ed Sweeny, who used to visit the area at the time:
"During the years that we used to go to 'Tin Can Beach' 1946-1956, it was not uncommon for people to go and stay for a week or two at a time. Families with 20-30 members would go during the summer, when it was so hot in the inland valley, and pitch army tents and stay for a couple of weeks at a time. The men went off to work every day and came back to the beach afterwards. The adults slept in tents on cots and the kids slept out under the stars. Families camp fires every night. It was family fun, especially during Grunion run. On the down side, the kids had cuts all over their feet from all the tin can lids buried in the sand...and of course, it was free."
In 1961, the state cleaned up the tin cans and created Bolsa Chica State Beach.