The name Zihuatanejo may come from the Nahuatl word Cihuacan, which means "place of women". It may also come from the Purépecha language and mean "water of the yellow mountain
Much of the history is described here:
https://www.ixtapa-zihuatanejo.com/info/english.htm?https://www.ixtapa-zihuatanejo.com/info/historia2.htm
According to legend, between the years of 1890 and 1910, Zihuatanejo begins to get known as a fishermen village with all its inhabitants living near or very close to the shore. By 1923, Zihuatanejo gets famous as an exporter of fine woods. La Madera (the wood) beach, gets its name from the loading of wood to the ships at that particular point. La Ropa (the clothes) beach got its name because of a Chinese shipwreck that brought all the clothing material to its shore.
LSD guru Timothy Leary set up camp at Catalina Hotel in the 1960s, but it didn't last long.

Ixtapa, on the other hand, was just a coconut plantation until the 1970s.

and tied into this beach? https://zihuatravels.com/playa-la-majahua-the-not-so-secret-secret-beach/ what happened to that area?

and the area around Jacuzzi de playa la pedregoza ?

I'm curious to know about the whole history of the area - how Zihua and Ixtapa came about. And, the local history of the place from start to current day.

An article from the Mexico News Daily about the Zihuatanejo Parthenon:

The fraud, sex and intrigue behind the Zihuatanejo Parthenon

Can't say I'm thrilled to see an article lauding the monument to PRI corruption that not only continues benefiting corrupt priistas, but that whitewashes the suffering of El Negro Durazo's victims, including the extortion of my wife's family for their piece of adjacent land, now lost amid the gleeful smiles of slimebag politicians trying to pretend it's not a monument to their own corruption.

The fraud, sex and intrigue behind the Zihuatanejo Parthenon