The lands around Agua Hedionda have been inhabited for over 10,000 years, with the rolling hills and canyons around the lagoon providing shelter and food through abundant native plants and trees. For centuries, the Luiseño spent their winters here, making salt and gathering shellfish for food, jewelry, tools, and trade, while spending summers farther inland at higher, cooler elevations. They knew this place as Palmai, or “place of big water,” and their culture was noted for mysticism, religious practices, respect for elders, frequent bathing, sparing eating, and sharing food with others. Their peaceful coexistence with natural forces fostered openness and adaptability, but also left them vulnerable to aggressive invaders. The Luiseño greeted the Spanish expedition of Don Gaspar de Portola and Father Juan Crespi with curiosity and good will, though responses to Spanish authority varied. Through preference for Franciscan ways or submission to Spanish force, they lost much of their ancient relationship with nature and moved into a new pattern of life. On July 17, 1769, Portola and Crespi stopped by the tidal lagoon after leaving San Alejo and traveling one league to a valley where alders sheltered a deserted Indian village; Crespi recorded the name San Simon Lipnica for the valley, while soldiers, objecting to the smell of decaying fish and debris, gave the lagoon the lasting name Agua Hedionda, or “stinking waters.”