IV Los Ángeles and Her Neighbors
Los Ángeles (the angels). In the diary of Miguel Costansó, date of August 2, 1769, we read: “To the north-northeast one could see another water-course or river bed, which formed a wide ravine, but it was dry. This water-course joined that of the river, and gave clear indications of heavy floods during the rainy season, as it had many branches of trees and debris on its sides. We halted at this place, which was named La Porciúncula. Here we felt three successive earthquakes during the afternoon and night.”—(Translation edited by Frederick J. Teggart.)
This was the stream upon which the city of Los Ángeles was subsequently built and whose name became a part of her title. Porciúncula was the name of a town and parish near Assisi which became the abode of St. Francis de Assisi after the Benedictine monks had presented him, about 1211, with the little chapel which he called, in a jocular way, La Porciúncula (the small portion). By order of Pius V, in 1556 the erection of a new edifice over the Porciúncula chapel was begun. Under the bay of the choir is still preserved the cell in which St. Francis died, while a little behind the sacristy is the spot where the saint, during a temptation, is said to have rolled in a brier-bush, which was then changed into thornless roses.—(Catholic Encyclopedia.) In this story there is a curious interweaving of the history of the names of our two rival cities, St. Francis in the north and Los Ángeles de Porciúncula in the south.
Continuing their journey on the following day, the Portolá party reached the Indian ranchería (village) of Yangna, the site chosen for the pueblo established at a later date. Father Crespi writes of it thus: “We followed the road to the west, and the good pasture land followed us; at about half a league of travel we encountered the village of this part; on seeing us they came out on the road, and when we drew near they began to howl, as though they were wolves; we saluted them, they wished to give us some seeds, and as we had nothing at hand in which to carry them, we did not accept them; seeing this, they threw some handfuls on the ground and the rest in the air.”
August 2 being the feast day of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, as the Virgin Mary is often called by the Spaniards, this name was given to the place.
The actual founding of the pueblo did not occur until September 4, 1781, when Governor Neve issued the order for its establishment upon the site of the Indian village Yangna. It is said that the Porciúncula River, henceforth to be known as the Los Ángeles, at that time ran to the east of its present course. The name of the little stream was added to that of the pueblo, so that the true, complete title of the splendid city which has grown up on the spot where the Indian once raised his wolf-like howl is Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula).
The social beginnings of Los Ángeles were humble indeed, the first settlers being persons of mixed race, and the first houses mere hovels, made of adobe, with flat roofs covered with asphalt from the springs west of the town.
El Rancho la Brea
La Brea (the asphalt), has been retained as the appropriate designation of the ranch containing the famous asphaltum beds near Los Ángeles. Ever since the days of the Tertiary Age, the quaking, sticky surface of these beds has acted as a “death trap” for unwary animals, and the remains of the unfortunate creatures have been securely preserved down to our times, furnishing indisputable evidence of the strange life that once existed on our shores. Fossils of a large number of pre-historic and later animals have been taken out, aggregating nearly a million specimens of bird and animal life, many of them hitherto unknown to science. Among them are the saber-tooth tiger, gigantic wolves, bears, horses, bison, deer, an extinct species of coyote, camels, elephants, and giant sloths. Remains are also found of mice, rabbits, squirrels, several species of insects, and a large number of birds, such as ducks, geese, pelicans, eagles and condors.
Among the most remarkable of these fossils are the saber-tooth tiger and the great wolf. Specimens of the wolf have been found which are among the largest known in either living or extinct species. This wolf differs from existing species in having a larger and heavier skull and jaws, and in its massive teeth, a conformation that must have given it great crushing power. The structure of the skeleton shows it to have been probably less swift, but more powerful than the modern wolf, and the great number of bones found indicate that it was exceedingly common in that age. One bed of bones was uncovered in which the number of saber-tooth and wolf skulls together averaged twenty per cubic yard. Altogether, the disappearance of these great, ferocious beasts from the California forests need cause no keen regret.
Next to the large wolf the most common is the saber-tooth tiger, of which one complete skeleton and a large number of bones have been found. The skeleton shows the animal to have been of about the size of a large African lion, and its most remarkable characteristic was the extraordinary length of the upper canine teeth, which were like long, thin sabers, with finely serrated edges. These teeth were awkwardly placed for ordinary use, and it is thought by scientists that they were used for a downward stab through the thick necks of bulky creatures, such as the giant sloth. There is also an unusual development of the claws, possibly to make up for the loss of grasping power in the jaws, resulting from the interference of the long saber teeth. It appears from the state of many of the fossils that these teeth were peculiarly liable to fracture, and accidents of this sort may have led to the extinction of the species, the animal thus perishing through the over-development of one of its characteristics.
Fossils of the extinct horse and bison are common, and a smaller number are found of camels, deer, goats, and the mammoth. The bison were heavy-horned and somewhat larger than the existing species of buffalo. The camel, of which an almost complete specimen has very recently been taken out by Professor R. C. Stoner, of the University of California, was much larger than the present day species. Since the above was put in type, a human skeleton has been taken from the vicinity of the La Brea bed. Whether this skeleton belongs with the La Brea deposits, and what its comparative age in relation to other human remains may be, are matters now being investigated by scientists.
The preponderance of meat-eating animals in the La Brea beds has attracted the attention of scientists, who believe that these creatures were lured to the spot in large numbers by the struggles and cries of their unfortunate prey caught in the sticky mass of the tar. In this way, a single sloth, or other creature, may have been the means of bringing retribution upon a whole pack of wolves.—(Notes taken from an article in the Sunset Magazine of October, 1908, entitled The Death Trap of the Ages, by John C. Merriam, Professor of Paleontology in the University of California.)
The manner in which this great aggregation of animals came to a tragic end in that long-past age is exemplified in the way that birds and other small animals are still occasionally caught in the treacherous asphalt and there perish miserably, adding their bones to those of their unhappy predecessors.
The La Brea beds furnish one of the richest fields for paleontological research to be found anywhere in the world; and it may be said, that with her great Sequoias in the north, and her reservoir of pre-historic remains in the south, California stands as a link between a past age and the present.
The tarry deposit itself has its own place in history, for it appears that the first settlers of Los Ángeles were alive to the practical value of this supply of asphaltum lying ready to their hands, and used it in roofing their houses. Even the Indians, little as is the credit usually given them for skill in the arts and crafts, recognized the possibilities of this peculiar substance, and used it in calking their canoes.
Los Ojitos
The story of Los Ojitos (literally “little eyes”), but here used in the sense of “little springs,” situated about two leagues from Santa Ana, indicates that the pleasures of social intercourse were not altogether lacking among the California Indians. In the diary of Miguel Costansó, of the date of their arrival at this place, he writes: “We found no water for the animals, but there was sufficient for the people in some little springs or small pools, in a narrow canyon close to a native village. The Indians of this village were holding a feast and dance, to which they had invited their relatives of the Río de los Temblores (River of the Earthquakes, or Santa Ana).”—(Translation edited by Frederick J. Teggart.) During this time the travelers experienced a series of earthquakes lasting several days.
Ojo de agua was commonly used by the Spaniards to mean a spring, but during the eighteenth century it was frequently used in America in the sense of a small stream of water rather than a spring.
Santa Ana
On the day, Friday, July 28, 1769, of the arrival of the Portolá expedition at the stream now called the Santa Ana, which takes its rise in the San Bernardino Mountains, and empties into the ocean at a point southeast of Los Ángeles, four severe earthquakes occurred. Speaking of this circumstance in his diary, Father Crespi says: “To this spot was given El Dulce Nombre de Jesús de los Temblores (The Sweet Name of Jesus of the Earthquakes), because of having experienced here a frightful earthquake, which was repeated four times during the day. The first, which was the most violent, happened at one o’clock of the afternoon, and the last about four o’clock. One of the gentiles (unbaptized Indians), who happened to be in the camp, and who, without doubt, exercised among them the office of priest, no less terrified at the event than we, began, with horrible cries and great demonstrations, to entreat Heaven, turning to all points of the compass. This river is known to the soldiers as the Santa Ana.” This was one of the rare cases where the usual method of naming was reversed, and the soldiers chose the name of the saint. St. Anna was the mother of the Virgin and her name signifies “gracious.”
In the account of Captain Pedro Fages, of the same expedition, the natives on this stream are described as having light complexions and hair, and a good appearance, differing in these particulars from the other inhabitants of that region, who were said to be dark, dirty, under-sized and slovenly. This is not the only occasion when the Spaniards reported finding Indians of light complexions and hair in California. One account speaks of a red-haired tribe not far north of San Francisco, and still another of “white Indians” at Monterey, but, judging by the light of our subsequent knowledge of these aborigines, the writers of these reports must have indulged in exaggeration.
On the southern bank of the Santa Ana, not far from the coast, is the town of the same name, and further inland its waters have made to bloom in the desert the famous orange orchards of Riverside.
Santa Mónica
Santa Mónica, situated at the innermost point of the great curve in the coast line just west of Los Ángeles, was named in honor of a saintly lady whose story is here quoted from Clara Erskine Clement’s Stories of the Saints: “She was the mother of St. Augustine, and was a Christian, while his father was a heathen. Mónica was sorely troubled at the dissipated life of her young son; she wept and prayed for him, and at last sought the advice and aid of the Bishop of Carthage, who dismissed her with these words. ‘Go in peace; the son of so many tears will not perish.’ At length she had the joy of beholding the baptism of St. Augustine by the Bishop of Milan.”
Santa Mónica is venerated as the great patroness of the Augustinian nuns, and might well be placed at the head of the world-wide order of “Anxious Mothers.”
Santa Catalina
Santa Catalina, the beautiful island off the coast of Southern California, was named by Vizcaíno in honor of St. Catherine, because its discovery occurred on the eve of her feast day, November 24, 1602. In the diary of the voyage we get an interesting description of the island and its aboriginal inhabitants: “We continued our journey along the coast until November 24, when, on the eve of the glorious Santa Catalina, we discovered three large islands; we took the one in the middle, which is more than twenty-five leagues in circumference, on November 27, and before dropping anchor in a good cove which was found, a great number of Indians came out in canoes of cedar-wood and pine, made of planking well-joined and calked, and with eight oars each, and fourteen or fifteen Indians, who looked like galley-slaves. They drew near and came on board our vessels without any fear whatever. We dropped anchor and went on shore. There were on the beach a great number of Indians, and the women received us with roasted sardines and a fruit cooked in the manner of sweet potatoes.”
Mass was celebrated there in the presence of 150 Indians. The people were very friendly and the women led the white men by the hand into their houses. The diary continues: “These people go dressed in the skins of seals; the women are modest but thievish. The Indians received us with embraces and brought water in some very well-made jars, and in others like flasks, that were highly varnished on the outside. They have acorns and some very large skins, with long wool, apparently of bears, which serve them for blankets.”
The travelers found here an idol, “in the manner of the devil, without a head, but with two horns, a dog at the feet, and many children painted around it.” The Indians readily gave up this idol and accepted the cross in its stead.
St. Catherine, patroness of this island, was one of the most notable female martyrs of the Roman Catholic church. We are told that she was of royal blood, being the daughter of a half-brother of Constantine the Great. She was converted to Christianity, and became noted for her unusual sanctity. She was both beautiful and intellectual, and possessed the gift of eloquence in such a high degree that she was able to confound fifty of the most learned men appointed by Maximin to dispute matters of religion with her. The same Maximin, enraged by her refusal of his offers of love, ordered that she be tortured “by wheels flying in different directions, to tear her to pieces. When they had bound her to these, an angel came and consumed the wheels in fire, and the fragments flew around and killed the executioners and 3000 people. Maximin finally caused her to be beheaded, when angels came and bore her body to the top of Mt. Sinai. In the eighth century a monastery was built over her burial place.”—(Stories of the Saints.) Santa Catalina is the patroness of education, science, philosophy, eloquence, and of all colleges, and her island has good reason to be satisfied with the name chosen by Vizcaíno.
Las Ánimas Benditas
Of Las Ánimas (the souls), which lay between San Gabriel and the country of the Amajaba (Mojave) Indians, we find the story in Fray Joaquín Pasqual Nuez’s diary of the expedition made in 1819 by Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga, to punish the marauding Amajabas, who had murdered a number of Christian natives. This name was also used as the title of a land grant just south of Gilroy.
The Moraga party arrived at a point “about a league and a half from Our Lady of Guadalupe of Guapiabit. We found the place where the Amajabas killed four Christians of this mission (San Gabriel), three from San Fernando, and some gentiles (unbaptized Indians). We found the skeletons and skulls roasted, and, at about a gun-shot from there we pitched camp. The next day, after mass, we caused the bones to be carried in procession, the cross in front, Padre Nuez chanting funeral services, to the spot where they had been burned. There we erected a cross, at the foot of which we caused the bones to be buried in a deep hole, and then we blessed the sepulchre. We named the spot Las Ánimas Benditas (The Blessed Souls).” May they rest in peace!
San Gabriel
San Gabriel, the quaint little town lying nine miles east of Los Ángeles, is the site of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel (St. Gabriel Archangel), founded September 8, 1771, by Padres Cambón and Somera. This mission was placed in a fertile, well-wooded spot, in the midst of a large Indian population, who, under the instruction of the padres, became experts in many arts, such as sewing, weaving, soap-making, cobbling, etc. Their flocks and herds increased to such an extent that they covered the country for many miles around.
The patron saint, San Gabriel, was the second in rank of the archangels who stand before the Lord. Whenever he is mentioned in the Bible, it is as a messenger bearing important tidings, and he is especially venerated as having carried to the Virgin the message that she was to become the mother of Christ.
San Fernando
It was in the valley of San Fernando (St. Ferdinand), a short distance northwest of Los Ángeles, that the mission pertaining to the latter place was established, September 8, 1797, by Padres Lasuén and Dumetz. The Camulos Rancho, the home of Ramona, the heroine of Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson’s romance, was once included in the lands of this mission.
St. Ferdinand, King of Spain, in whose honor this place was named, was a notable warrior, as well as a saint, and he succeeded in expelling the Moors from Toledo, Córdova and Seville. He is said also to have been a patron of the arts, and to have been the founder of the cathedral at Burgos, celebrated for the beauty of its architecture. But more than for such attainments, he is remembered for his tenderness toward the poor and lowly of his people. When urged to put a tax upon them in order to recruit his army, he replied: “God, in whose cause I fight, will supply my need. I fear more the curse of one poor old woman than a whole army of Moors.”—(Stories of the Saints.)
Temescal
Temescal (sweathouse), in Riverside County, although a place of no great importance in itself, is interesting in that its name recalls one of the curious customs widely prevalent among the natives of the Southwest. The word itself is of Aztec origin, and was brought to California by the Franciscans.
The temescal is thus described by Dr. A. L. Kroeber, in the University of California Publications in Archaeology and Ethnology: “At the Banning Reservation a sweathouse is still in use. From the outside its appearance is that of a small mound. The ground has been excavated to the depth of a foot or a foot and a half, over a space of about twelve by seven or eight feet. In the center of this area two heavy posts are set up three or four feet apart. These are connected at the top by a log laid in their forks. Upon this log, and in the two forks, are laid some fifty or more logs and sticks of various dimensions, their ends sloping down to the edge of the excavation. It is probable that brush covers these timbers. The whole is thoroughly covered with earth. There is no smoke hole. The entrance is on one of the long sides, directly facing the space between the two center posts, and only a few feet from them. The fireplace is between the entrance and the posts. It is just possible to stand upright in the center of the house. In Northern California, the so-called sweathouse is of larger dimensions, and was preëminently a ceremonial or assembly chamber.”
Dr. L. H. Bunnell, in his history of the discovery of the Yosemite valley, gives us some interesting details of the use of the sweathouse among the Indians of that region: “The remains of these structures were sometimes mistaken for tumuli, being constructed of bark, reeds or grass, covered with mud. It (the sweathouse), was used as a curative for disease, and as a convenience for cleansing the skin, when necessity demands it, although the Indian race is not noted for cleanliness. I have seen a half-dozen or more enter one of these rudely constructed sweathouses through the small aperture left for the purpose. Hot stones are taken in, the aperture is closed until suffocation would seem impending, when they would crawl out, reeking with perspiration, and with a shout, spring like acrobats into the cold waters of the stream. As a remedial agent for disease, the same course is pursued, though varied at times by the burning and inhalation of resinous boughs and herbs. In the process of cleansing the skin from impurities, hot air alone is generally used. If an Indian had passed the usual period of mourning for a relative, and the adhesive pitch too tenaciously clung to his no longer sorrowful countenance, he would enter and re-enter the heated house until the cleansing had become complete. The mourning pitch is composed of the charred bones and ashes of the dead relative or friend. These remains of the funeral pyre, with the charcoal, are pulverized and mixed with the resin of the pine; this hideous mixture is usually retained upon the face of the mourner until it wears off. If it has been well-compounded, it may last nearly a year; although the young, either from a super-abundance of vitality, excessive reparative powers of the skin, or from powers of will, seldom mourn so long. When the bare surface exceeds that covered by the pitch, it is not a scandalous disrespect in the young to remove it entirely, but a mother will seldom remove pitch or garment until both are nearly worn out.”
This heroic treatment, while possibly efficacious in the simple ailments by which the Indians were most often afflicted, usually resulted in a great increase of mortality in the epidemics of smallpox following upon the footsteps of the white man. One traveler speaks of a severe sort of intermittent fever, to which the natives were subject, and of which so many died that hundreds of bodies were found strewn about the country. Having observed that the whites, even when attacked by this fever, rarely died of it, he was inclined to ascribe the mortality among the natives to their great cure-all, the temescal.
A number of places in the state bore this name, among them a small town lying between the sites now occupied by the flourishing cities of Oakland and Berkeley. Its citizens became discontented with the undignified character of the name, and changed it to Alden.
San Bernardino
San Bernardino is the name of a county in the southeastern part of California, whose broad expanse is mainly made up of volcanic mountains, desert plains, and valleys without timber or water.
The name was first given to the snow-capped peak, 11,600 feet high, lying about twenty miles east of the city of San Bernardino, which is situated sixty miles east of Los Ángeles, in the fruit and alfalfa region. The name of this town is one of the most regrettable examples of corruption that have occurred in the state, having passed from its original sweetly flowing syllables through the successive stages of San Berdino, Berdino, until finally reaching the acme of vulgarity as Berdoo, by which appellation it is known to its immediate neighbors. If ideas of romance, of pleasant-sounding words, and of fidelity to history make no appeal to our fellow-Californians, let them read again the quotation from Stevenson given above, and learn that a romantic nomenclature may sometimes be a valuable financial asset.
San Bernardino (St. Bernardinus), the patron saint of the places bearing his name, is particularly remembered as the founder of the charitable institution known in Spanish as Monte de Piedad (hill of pity), and in French as Mont de Piété, municipal pawnshops where money was loaned on pledges to the poor. These pawnshops are still conducted in many Spanish towns, in America as well as in Europe.
Supplementary List
Abalone Point, some miles to the southeast of San Pedro bay, was no doubt so-named from the abundance of the great sea snails called abalone, whose iridescent shells, the abandoned dwellings of the dead animals, almost comparable in beauty to the mother-of-pearl, once covered the beaches of the California coast with a glittering carpet. The word “once” is used advisedly, for, with our usual easy-going American negligence we have permitted these creatures of the sea, valuable for their edible meat as well as for their exquisitely colored shells, to be nearly destroyed by Chinese and Japanese fisheries. That the flesh of the abalone formed a useful part of the food supply of the Indians is evidenced by the large number of shells to be found in the mounds along the shore. In the living state the abalone clings to the rocks on the shore, and its grip is so tenacious that more than one unfortunate person, caught by the foot or hand between the shell and the rock, has been held there while death crept slowly upon him in the shape of the rising tide. There is another Abalone Point on the northern coast.
Agua Caliente (literally “hot water”), generally used in reference to hot springs. Of these there are many in the state, one on the Indian Reservation southeast of Riverside. Agua Caliente was originally a land grant.
Alamitos (little cottonwoods), from álamo, a tree of the poplar family indigenous to California. There are several places bearing this name in the state, one a short distance northeast of Santa Ana.
Aliso (alder tree), is the name of a place on the Santa Fé Railroad, south of Los Ángeles, near the shore, and was probably named for the Rancho Cañada de los Alisos. It is probably modern.
Azusa is the name of a place in Los Ángeles County, twenty miles east of Los Ángeles, and was originally applied to the land grant there. It is an Indian place name of a lodge, or ranchería, the original form being Asuksa-gna, the gna an ending which indicates place.
Bandini (a surname), is the name of a place a short distance southeast of Los Ángeles, on the Santa Fé Railroad. The founder of this family was José Bandini, a mariner of Spanish birth, who came to California with war supplies, and finally settled at San Diego. His son, Juan Bandini, was a notable character in the history of the state. He held several public offices, took part in revolutions and colonization schemes, and finally espoused the cause of the United States. Bancroft gives the following resumé of his character: “Juan Bandini must be regarded as one of the most prominent men of his time in California. He was a man of fair abilities and education, of generous impulses, of jovial temperament, a most interesting man socially, famous for his gentlemanly manners, of good courage in the midst of personal misfortunes, and always well-liked and respected; indeed his record as a citizen was an excellent one. In his struggles against fate and the stupidity of his compatriots he became absurdly diplomatic and tricky as a politician. He was an eloquent speaker and fluent writer.” Members of the Bandini family still occupy positions of respect and influence in the state and have made some important additions to its historical literature.
Bolsa (pocket), a term much in use with the Spaniards to signify a shut-in place. Bolsa is in Orange County, twelve miles north by west of Tres Pinos, and was probably named from the land grant, Rancho de las Bolsas.
Cabezón (big head), is the name of a place southeast of Colton. It was probably named for a large-headed Indian chief who lived there at one time and who received this name in pursuance of an Indian custom of fitting names to physical peculiarities. This name is improperly spelled on some maps as Cabazon.
Cahuilla, the name of an Indian tribe, probably “Spanishized” in its spelling from Ka-we-a. The valley and village of this name are situated in the San Jacinto Forest Reserve, southeast of Riverside, and received their name from a tribe who lived, in 1776, on the northern slopes of the San Jacinto Mountains. The word Cahuilla is of uncertain derivation.
Calabazas (pumpkins), is northwest of Los Ángeles. This is possibly a corruption of an Indian word, Calahuasa, the name of a former Chumash village near the mission of Santa Inez. There is another possibility that this name may have been given to the place by the Spaniards in reference to the wild gourd which grows abundantly there and whose fruit may have been considered by them to bear some resemblance to pumpkins, but this is of course mere conjecture.
Casa Blanca (white house), is a short distance west of Riverside, on the Santa Fé Railroad, so-called from a large white ranch house once in conspicuous view from the railroad station.
Casco (skull), shell or outside part of anything. El Casco is situated about twelve miles east of Riverside. Its application here has not been ascertained.
Conejo (rabbit), is the name of a number of places in the state, one of them in the Santa Mónica Mountains, another in the Central Valley, on the Santa Fé road.
Cucamonga, is an Indian name, derived from a village in San Bernardino County, forty-two miles by rail east of Los Ángeles. It was originally applied to the land grant at that place.
Duarte, a surname.
Las Flores (the flowers). At this place there was once a large Indian village, called in the native language ushmai, the place of roses, from ushla, rose.
Garvanza (chick-pea).
Hermosa (beautiful), is the name of a town in San Bernardino County, and of a beach in Los Ángeles County.
Indio, the Spanish word for “Indian,” is the name of a place in Riverside County, near Colton.
La Joya (the jewel).
Laguna (lagoon).
León (lion).
La Mirada (the view).
Los Molinos (the mills, or mill-stones), a name applied to a place east of San Gabriel by the Moraga party of 1819, who went out from the mission on a punitive expedition against the Amajaba (Mojave) Indians. Padre Nuez, who accompanied the party, says: “On the return we passed by a place where there was plenty of water, below a hill of red stone, very suitable for mill-stones.” The same name, probably for similar reasons, was applied to other places in the state, among them one in Sonoma County, and Mill Creek in Tehama County, originally called El Río de los Molinos (The River of the Mill-stones).
Montalvo (a surname), the name of a place in Ventura County, near Ventura. This name is interesting as being the same as that borne by the author of Las Sergas de Esplandián, in which the fabulous island of California plays a leading part.
Murietta (a surname), the same as that of the noted bandit, Joaquín Murietta, who once terrorized California with his depredations. The town of Murietta, however, was not named in honor of this gentleman of unsavory memory, but for Mr. J. Murietta, who is still living in Southern California.
Los Nietos (literally “the grandchildren”), but in this case a surname, that of the Nieto family. Los Nietos was a land grant taken up by Manuel Nieto and José María Verdugo in 1784.
Pasadena, said to be derived from the Chippewa Indian language. The full name is said to be Weoquan Pasadena, and the meaning to be “Crown of the Valley.” Let no man believe in the absurd story that it means “Pass of Eden.”
Prado (meadow). “The Prado” is also the name of a famous promenade in the city of Madrid.
Puente (bridge), in Los Ángeles County, was taken from the name of the land grant, Rancho de la Puente.
Pulgas Creek (fleas creek).
Redondo Beach (round beach), a well-known seaside resort near Los Ángeles, is usually supposed to have received its name from the curved line of the shore there, but the fact that a land grant occupying that identical spot was called Sausal Redondo (round willow-grove), from a clump of willows growing there accounts for its name.
Rivera (river, stream). Rivera was also the name of a pioneer family.
Rodéo de las Aguas (gathering of the waters), a name once given to the present site of La Brea Rancho, near Los Ángeles, perhaps because there is at that point a natural amphitheatre which receives the greater portion of the waters flowing from the neighboring mountains and the Cahuenga Pass.
San Clemente (St. Clement), the name of the island fifteen miles south of Santa Catalina. The saint for whom this island was named “was condemned to be cast into the sea bound to an anchor. But when the Christians prayed, the waters were driven back for three miles, and they saw a ruined temple which the sea had covered, and in it was found the body of the saint, with the anchor round his neck. For many years, at the anniversary of his death, the sea retreated for seven days, and pilgrimages were made to this submarine tomb.”—(Stories of the Saints.)
San Jacinto (St. Hyacinth), was a Silesian nobleman who became a monk, and was noted for his intellectual superiority, as well as for his piety. San Jacinto is the name of a town in Riverside County, thirty miles southeast of Riverside, in the fruit region, and of the range of mountains in the same county.
San Juan Point (St. John Point).
San Matéo Point (St. Matthew Point).
San Onofre (St. Onophrius), was a hermit saint whose chief claim to sanctity seems to have been that he deprived himself of all the comforts of life and lived for sixty years in the desert, “during which time he never uttered a word except in prayer, nor saw a human face.”
San Pedro (St. Peter), is on San Pedro bay, twenty-six miles south of Los Ángeles. St. Peter, the fisherman apostle and companion of St. Paul, is usually represented as the custodian of the keys of Heaven and Hell, one key being of gold and the other of iron. “There is a legend that the Gentiles shaved his head in mockery, and that from this originated the tonsure of the priests.” Peter suffered martyrdom by crucifixion, “but traditions disagree in regard to the place where he suffered.” The name Peter is said to signify “a rock.” “Thou art Peter, on this rock have I founded My church.”—(Matthew, 16, 18.)
Saticoy was the name of a former Chumash Indian village on the lower part of Santa Paula River, in Ventura County, about eight miles from the sea. The present town of Saticoy is on the Santa Clara River, in Ventura County, near Ventura.
Serra (a surname), probably given in honor of the celebrated founder of the California missions.
El Toro (the bull).
Trabuco Canyon (literally blunderbuss canyon), from trabuco, a short, wide-mouthed gun formerly used by the Spaniards, although this may not be the true derivation of the name in this case. One writer has translated this name as “land much tumbled about,” but where he obtained such a meaning remains an impenetrable mystery. Trabuco may be a surname here.
Valle Verde (green valley), incorrectly spelled on the map as Val Verde.
Valle Vista (valley view), is in Riverside County, five miles northwest of San Jacinto. This name is modern and incorrect in construction.
Verdugo was named for the Verdugo family, the owners of the Rancho San Rafael, northeast of Los Ángeles and near the base of the Verdugo mountains. José María Verdugo was one of the grantees of the Nietos grant in 1784.
Vicente Point (Point Vincent). This point was named in 1793 by George Vancouver, the English explorer, in honor of Friar Vicente Santa María, “one of the reverend fathers of the mission of Buena Ventura.”