On September 10, 1870, Captain Samuel S. Dunnels entered Newport Bay for the first time on the steamship Vaquere, landing below this site at a place designated Newport. From 1875 to 1889, the McFadden brothers operated a regular shipping service using a shallow-draft steam schooner named Newport. In 1889, after failing to obtain federal funds to open and improve the entrance to Newport Harbor, the McFadden brothers built an ocean wharf on the sandspit, creating the shipping port of Newport Beach, and the Newport landing site later became a campground. In 1912, the Irvine Company leased this land to the Orange County Country Club for an 18-hole golf course, and a year later a clubhouse was built on this site. The golf course was moved in 1923. In 1925, the clubhouse was refurbished as a restaurant and bar and over time operated as The Countess, Mona's, and the Castaways Club. The Castaways Club was destroyed by fire in 1956. In 1998, this 25-acre bluff-top site was granted to the City of Newport Beach by the Irvine Company and on July 23 was dedicated as Castaways Park.