[p. 121]History of Santa Monica Bay Cities
[p. 121] Chapter I. Santa Monica Bay Region
The Bay of Santa Monica extends along the coast from Point Vicente, latitude 33° 40' to Point Dumé, latitude 34° a distance of seventeen miles north by west. The coast line of the bay makes an inward sweep which is some ten miles deep at its extreme point, in the neighborhood of Port Los Angeles, and includes an area of 25,000 miles. The waters of this bay are, ordinarily, quiet since the force of the waves is broken by the seaward islands and the deep , recessed position of the shore line. The depth of the water increases from the beach outward with an easy and gradual slope for several miles.
The shore line is most varied. At its northern extremity, Point Dumé rises, domelike, to a height of 200 feet, and back of it the Santa Monica range rises abruptly almost from the waters of the shore to a height of 2,000 feet and forms the northern border of the bay. Gradually the slope falls into the palisades and sinks to the sand dunes and the Ballona lagoon, then rises again into low hills along the southern rim. Back from the palisades sweep the gently rising plateaus of the San Vicente and San José de Buenos Ayres ranchos. Southward extend the cienegas and pastures of the Ballona creek district and the low, rolling ranges of the Sausal Redondo and San Pedro region.
The Santa Monica Bay territory thus includes a large variety of scenery, a most varied topography and a wide range of resources. Its mountains furnish an invaluable water supply; the greater part of its lower lands are readily supplied with water from wells, while a considerable portion of the region needs no irrigation and includes some of the most valuable farming land in Los Angeles county. The distinctive topography of this district accounts for the climate which is incomparable, since it has all the advantagea of both coast and inland-the freshness of ocean air, with the freedom from harsh winds, of the interior.
[p. 122] Discovery and Exploration
The first explorer of the California coast, Cabrillo, after spending six days in San Diego Harbor, which he named San Miguel, sailed along "a mountainous coast, overhung with smoke," landed at Catalina to which he gave the name of Victoria, then anchored in a bay which he called "Bahia de Fumos" (Bay of smoke), San Pedro Bay and, on October 9, 1542 he dropped anchor in an "ensanada" or bight which is generally granted to have been Santa Monica Bay. At just what point he anchored is not known, but undoubtedly Cabrillo was the first European to observe the palisades, the fair fields and gentle rolling hills that mark this coast. After this brief visit there is no record of vessel or visitor to this region for more than two hundred years.
[p. 122 Arch-Rock. Disintegrated and fell, 1906, 1908b]
The waters of the bay were sometimes disturbed by the rude boats of the Santa Barbara Channel and Island Indians; the valleys adjacent to the coast and the Santa Monica mountains were the homes of a people who have long since disappeared and of whose existence we know only by the occasional uncovering of skeltons and relics. Several caves and mounds containing curious collections of implements, weapons and bones have been found on the Malibu ranch at various times. These Indians roamed over the plains and through the cienegas, killing rabbits and small game and gathering acorns and grasses, roots and berries. They also fished along the shore, mostly with nets, and gathered shells-their most prized possession. It is said that these shells were particularly abundant along the shore where Ocean Park and Venice now [p. 123] stand and that the Indians from the interior and from Catalina used to visit this spot to secure shells which took the place of money with them.
Vizcaino describes the Indians seen along the coast of California during his explorations early in the seventeenth century as of good form and of active character, the men wearing a short cloak made of rabbit or deer skins, heavily fringed, the more industrious having their garments embroidered with shells. He describes a rancheria seen along the shore in this vicinity as composed of about twenty houses made of rushes over a frame of poles driven into the ground . These were very like the brush ramadas still constructed by the Indians of California. Bancroft states that the Indians of Los Angeles county ate coyotes, skunks, wildcats and all sorts of small animals. They would not eat bear meat or the flesh of large game for superstitious reasons. They were poor hunters having no effective weapons, and hunted deer by hiding themselves under a skin with the head and horn intact, until they were within bowshot. They made fishhooks, needles and other small articles of bone and shell, ground their acorns and seeds in a metate, or stone mill, and constructed wooden boats or tule rafts for their fishing expeditions, using seines made of tough bark.
[p.123] The Name
The Indians were the only occupants of the coast for some time after the beginnings of settlement had been made at San Gabriel and Los Angeles. It is claimed that the party of Captain de Portalá, which made the first overland expedition through California in 1769 in search of the Bay of Monterey, passed through a cañada near the present location of the Soldiers' Home and paused under a group of sycamores while Father Crespi and Gomez, the priests accompanying the expedition said mass. A very old sycamore tree is pointed out as the one where the service was performed and is still looked upon with veneration.
We have no authentic account of how the name Santa Monica came to be applied; but the old Spanish settlers have a legend of its origins which may be true. The story is that a couple of Spanish soldiers were given a furlough to explore the region about the new "pueblo de Los Angeles." They came one day to a couple of clear bubbling springs near the ocean. After drinking, they threw themselves upon the ground between the springs to rest. As they lay there on the gently sloping hillside, overlooking the wide, green plains and the ocean, one of them asked, "And what shall we call this spot, brother?"
And the other, turning from one glistening pool to the other, answered: "We will call it Santa Monica, for the springs resemble the tears of the good Santa Monica shed for her erring son."
The legend of Santa Monica is one of the most beautiful connected with the saints. According to tradition the holy woman was born in Africa about 332 A.D. She was brought up so strictly that she was not allowed even a [p.124] drink of water between meals and was early married to Patricius, a gentleman of hot and hasty temper. She had two sons and one of them Augustine, to the great grief of his mother, would not yield to her teachings and be baptized into the church. Instead, he was carried away by heresy and entered upon an immoral life. The mother spent much of her tme in praying for and weeping over the wayward son. For many years she sorrowed and once, in her despair, she went to a good bishop and related her woes. "Wait," the bishop told her, "and keep on praying. The child of so many tears cannnot perish."
At last the son fell ill and came near death. He recoverd however, in answer to his mother's prayers and this so softened his heart that at last he saw the error of his ways and became a devout believer, finally becoming the great Saint Augustine.
Whether we accept the legend or not, the bay and the region were certainly named for the good Santa Monica, whose day in the calendar was May 4th. The name does not seem to appear upon record until the petition for the grant known as San Vicente y Santa Monica was made by Don Francisco Sepulveda and Augustin Machado in 1827. The springs mentioned in the legend, later known as San Vicente springs were included in the grant.
[p. 124] Settlement
What is commonly know as the Santa Monica Bay region includes portions of four land grants, Malibu-extending twenty-two miles along the coast to the north; Boca de Santa Monica, including the mouth of the Santa Monica Canyon; San Vicente y Santa Monica. which has an ocean frontage of a mile and a half and extended back four miles from the coast, covering an area of about 40,000 acres; and La Ballona rancho, with an ocean frontage of four miles.
For nearly three quarters of a century after the first settlement was made on the Malibu tract in 1804, or possibly earlier, this entire region was given over to grazing herds of cattle and sheep and to grain raising, on a small scale. The haciendas of the grant owners were each a little community in itself and the simple, pastoral life of the Spanish occupation lingered, to an unusual degree until the final breaking up of these ranchos, during the past twenty-five years.
But life in those slow-moving days, while not as strenuous as in our day of perpetual rush and change, had its occupations, its interests and its amusements. Most of these rancheros were also residents of Los Angeles and took an active part in municipal and territorial affairs. At their country homes they were surrounded by a large retinue of relations, retainers and servants, the latter mostly Indians. All of these were under the protection and command of the head of the house and all were fed, clothed, and provided for. The number of people about his place was a matter of pride with the ranchero.
[p. 125] And the days on one of these large stock ranges were not all "siesta" by any means. Herds and flocks must be guarded from thieves and the ravages of wild beasts; they must be shifted from plain to valley, from coast to mountain-side, as the season demanded. There were rodeos, the annual rounding-up of stock, to attend and sometimes a large cattle owner must be present at several of these affairs in order to secure all of his stock. Then matanza, or slaughtering, was a busy season requiring a careful selection of animals and good judgement in bargaining with the trader of the hide droghers; sheep-shearing was another period of arduous labor; the tanning of hides, the rendering of tallow and the harvesting of grain all demand due attention. There were dry seasons when losses wer heavy, and cold, wet years which were disastrous to cattle and especially sheep.
The greater part of the necessary supplies were raised upon the rancho, but yearly the hides and tallow were traded with the sailing vessels that put into San Pedro, for such supplies and luxuries as were brought from the Orient, or from Boston. Certainly the life of those years was not without its interests. The unstability of political affairs, the constant bickering and jealous(l)y [sic] of Monterey and Santa Barbara on the one hand and Los Angeles and San Diego, on the other; the frequently changing and very uncertain orders and officials sent from Mexico, all of these afforded pretty steady excitement in Los Angeles. And Los Angeles seems never to have been a really dull place-even in its sleepiest days. There were generally something doing -if it was only a murder before breakfast. For amusements there were balls and weddings, horse races and bull fights and the various fiestas of the church.
The ranchos near the coast were not as exposed to depredations from the dreaded "desert" Indians as were the more interior locations, but there are still traditions of lively scraps wtih bands of thieving Indians on the Malibu and the San Vicente, and there is at least one "encino del Indias" located on the palisades where an Indian horse thief was hanged without legal preliminaries.