Now America’s second largest city and the West Coast’s biggest economic force, Los Angeles was originally settled by indigenous tribes like the Chumash and Tongva, as far back as 8,000 B.C., according to History.com. In 1781, a group of settlers consisting of 14 families made up of 44 people of Native American, African and European heritage traveled more than 1,000 miles across the desert from what’s known today as northern Mexico. These families created a farming community in the area. The Spanish Governor named it "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula.” In English, this translated to "The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula." In the next decades, this community would continue to thrive under the flags of Spain, Mexico, and eventually the United States, until ultimately, it would become one of the biggest, most well-known, and powerful metropolitan cities in the world –– the City of Los Angeles. People usually associate Los Angeles with the movie industry, but it was actually another industry that built this city. In fact, it was oil that played a major role in Los Angeles’ evolution into the powerhouse that it is today. According to the Los Angeles County Office of Oil and Gas, the Los Angeles City oil field was first discovered in 1893 by gold prospectors searching for a different color of treasure. Within four years, there were 500 oil wells and Los Angeles was leading the country in oil production. Within forty years, Los Angeles was producing a quarter of the entire world’s oil. Another fascinating part of Los Angeles history is that, if it weren’t for Thomas Edison and his patents on the other side of the country, it’s highly likely that Hollywood would have become a farming community. That piece of land had already been bought by Harvey and Daeida Wilcox in 1886. They’d named it Hollywood, but their dream was not making movies –– they were fig farmers. Originally, they had envisioned Hollywood as a religious community, a “‘Christian utopia.” But their efforts weren’t fruitful, and these farmers couldn’t realize their dreams. Eventually, they divided and sold the property. According to the Saturday Evening Post, Thomas Edison had been intent on turning the East Coast into the world’s film capital. He had so many patents, including one for the kinetograph, the first-ever video camera, that he used his patent monopoly to control which movies were made. So filmmakers fled west, as far away as possible, where it was impossible to enforce strict penalties for patent infringement. That’s how the movie business took root in Los Angeles and eventually exploded into a major, driving engine of the city and its surrounding communities. Los Angeles’ Hollywood sign is such an iconic landmark and tourist attraction, that it’s hard to imagine it ever being anything else. The truth is, when it was built in 1923, it originally read “Hollywoodland.” The backstory, according to Fodor’s, was that the sign was an ad for a housing development. Finally, in 1949, it became the now-famous sign when the “Land” was removed. Historically, there have been countless other artistic and scientific enterprises fueling the creative giant that Los Angeles has become. That’s one reason why there’s so much more to Los Angeles than meets the eye. According to The Sun, Los Angeles is the first city to ever measure the speed of light. This story takes us to 1926, when acclaimed scientist Dr. Albert A. Michelson invented a way to bounce light between distant points and measure the speed of light with unrivaled accuracy. Baldy Mountain was one of these peaks, and as the first accurate measurements of the speed of light, these proved to forge the way for Albert Einstein. Of course, Los Angeles also became home to a booming tech corridor, with entrepreneurs in the technology and STEM industries moving from the northern part of California and from all over the country to bask in the endless sunshine while bringing their inventions to life.

The City Of Stars is a magical place, with endless activities to satisfy nearly any bucket list. There’s a reason why Los Angeles attracts an astronomical number of tourists; each year, 50 million people travel to LA to see the sights, and that number continues to grow.

First of all, it’s rare for a heavily populated metropolis like Los Angeles to offer hiking on rugged mountains just nine miles away from City Hall. Even with the population density, LA is a city that’s inextricably tied to nature and all of the activities found in mountain and ocean terrains. Many Angelenos are usually busy riding the waves or tying up their hiking laces. Here, vibrant, multicultural neighborhoods back right onto public beaches covered with golden sand, city streets wind up to gorgeous hiking hillsides, and the vast, clear skies are better than any movie screen for star-gazing, sunbathing, or cruising with your convertible, bike, scooter or skateboard.

LA also packs quite a culinary punch. It’s here you’ll find some of the country’s best tacos, most authentic Korean cuisine, and one of the nation’s biggest concentrations of vegan food.

Because dreams are encouraged in LA, every year busloads of dreamers from towns across America make the journey to share their stories in film, theater, music, or visual art. The result is a smorgasbord of creative outlets and forums: countless, edgy art spaces; rock venues with a cult following; nationally acclaimed concert halls, and thought-provoking galleries and stages.

Of course, while there’s plenty of entertainment to go around, one of the quintessential things to experience in LA is taking a tour of Universal Studios Hollywood. The key take-away is that no other city delivers such an electric mash-up of entertainment styles, statements, and influences. Sometimes all of these styles can be found on the same street.