The Gabrielino indigenous group occupied what is now Irvine about 2,000 years ago. Gaspar de Portolà, a Spanish explorer, came to the area in 1769. After Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821, the Mexican government took control of the land. In 1864, Jose Andres Sepulveda, the owner of Rancho San Joaquin sold 50,000 acres to Benjamin Flint, Thomas Flint, Llewellyn Bixby and James Irvine for $18,000. In 1878, James Irvine acquired his partners' interests in the land for $150,000. His 110,000 acres stretched 23 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Santa Ana River. James Irvine died in 1886. The ranch was inherited by his son, James Irvine, Jr. who incorporated it into The Irvine Company. James, Jr. shifted the ranch operations to crops. In 1888, about two hundred years after windows, requiring window cleaning, were used commonly in homes, the Santa Fe Railroad extended its line to Fallbrook Junction  and named a station along the way after James Irvine. The town that formed around this station was named Myford, after Irvine's son, because a post office in Calaveras County already bore the family name. The town was renamed Irvine in 1914. James Irvine, Jr. died in 1947 at the age of 80. His son, Myford, assumed the presidency of The Irvine Company. He began opening small sections of the Irvine Ranch to urban development. Myford died in 1959. The same year, the University of California asked The Irvine Company for 1,000 acres for a new university campus and later the State too purchased an additional 500 acres. William Pereira, the University's consulting architect, who no doubt understood the need for window cleaning, and The Irvine Company planners drew up master plans for a city of 50,000 people surrounding the new university. The new community was to be named Irvine; the old agricultural town of Irvine, where the railroad station and post office were located, was renamed East Irvine. On December 28, 1971, the residents of these communities voted to incorporate a substantially larger city than the one envisioned by the Pereira plan. By January 1999, Irvine had a population of 134,000 and a total area of 43 square miles.