History behind White Point

We had visited White Point park in San Pedro on Christmas Day.  I am always curious about places that we visit so I decided to read up on it.  Bobby's friend that recommended this place mentioned that not far from the beach was a Nike Missile site.  This is what the site looks like now:

I found this image for Nike Missiles in HydePark (Chicago, IL) which operated 1955-1959.  I hope I am getting this information correct!  Anyhow, this is what the missile would have looked like protruding out of the ground. Impressive!

And not far from this site are two large concrete batteries that were dug into the hillside during WWII.  Here is what the navy gun would have looked like then.  Just as impressive!

Here is White Point overview from Battery 127:

You can sort of see that rusted red cover towards the middle of the photo, which I had circled.  And the tide pool that we went to was more towards the bottom of the hill to the right.  We didn't get up far enough to see the White Point Nature Preserve so all this information was dug up on the internet. What would be do without the internet these days!

I'm not sure if you can see a roundabout by the arrow where I wrote "tide pool" but right at that roundabout is a water fountain.  Now there is another story about that.  The water fountain used to belong at the bottom of the hill - at the White Point Hot Springs Hotel.  This dated back to 1917 when it was built by the Tagami brothers of American-Japanese descent.  Prior to that, Jose Sepulveda (which I can now relate to because I have seen this name on a street sign!) owned this land and was using it as a cattle ranch called Rancho de los Palos Verdes.  Ding! Ding! Ding!  This is where are are at - Rancho Palos Verdes!  Although wait, I thought White Point Park is in San Pedro??? Ok, I just confused myself.  Oops!!!

Anyhow... check out this photo taken in August 1922 which shows the hotel, saltwater swimming pool, and an outdoor dance floor  Photo courtesy of Palos Verdes Library District:

What a place!  And here is what else I found out about the area:

1898 - Sepulveda built housing and leased the land to 12 Japanese-American fishermen from Los Angeles.  Abalone and other harvestable sea life was discovered in the area.
1906 - Abalone diminished and fishing village closed.
1920s - Discovered sulfur hot spring and developed roads to lead to resort
1928 - Storm battered the coast and damaged the concrete pool.
1933 - Long Beach earthquake cut off the flow of natural sulfur hot spring and the Depression also hurt the resort
Late 1930s - Resort closed as the Tagami brothers were never granted ownership of the land. Under the California law, ownership of land was prohibited by those not eligible to become citizens, which included Asian immigrants.
Feb 1942 - Federal agents raided surrounding community for security reasons
Apr 1942 - Residents moved to internment camps.
During WWII, the federal government took over and demolished the resort's buildings.  It was transformed into Nike Missile LA-43 Launch Battery Site, which sits abandoned on what is now White Point Nature Preserve.  The remnants of the resort were those that we saw during our little adventure at White Point during Christmas (where Graham was doing his yoga poses). Now I know the story behind all that concrete!
1960 - State of California bought the beach and it became Royal Palms State Beach.
1996 - Land was deeded to the county and became Royal Palms County Beach.
1997 - The beach underwent a $2 million renovation. Descendants of the original Tagami family were in attendance at the dedication.

What a story!!!  That's all folks on this history lesson.  Good night! :-)

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Photos courtesy of:
http://strayngerranger.com/the-shoreline-ruins-of-san-pedro/
http://www.hydepark.org/parks/jpac/Nike.htm
http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history/2010/06/02/white-point-hot-spring-hotel/
http://www.fortwiki.com/File:White_Point_MR_Battery_127_Overview.jpg