The Wiyots were among the last natives in California to encounter white settlers. Spanish missions extended only as far north as San Francisco Bay. Following a brief visit in 1806, Russian fur traders, whose 18th-century invasion in search of the sea otter had devastated the Pomo, were uninterested in the area, which was not a sea-otter habitat. The way of life of the Wiyot people, after many centuries of isolated development, was disrupted by the settlement of Europeans. The Josiah Gregg exploring party spent the turn of the years 1849–1850 at Humboldt Bay; subsequent to their return to San Francisco several ships set out to settle the bay. The crew of seafarer Douglass Ottinger became, in 1850, the first Americans to enter Humboldt Bay. White settlement followed swiftly.