1542 (1769) (1800-1850) Table of Contents
Fred E. Basten Main St. to Malibu, Yesterday & Today, Graphics Press, Santa Monica, CA, 1980, 123pp., 1542 See Text
Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., 1935 See Text
Donald M. Cleland A History of the Santa Monica Schools 1876-1951, Santa Monica Unified School District, February 1952 (Copied for the Santa Monica Library, July 22, 1963). 140 pp., 1899, 1542 See Text
Ingersoll's Century History Santa Monica Bay Cities (Being Book Number Two of Ingersoll's Century Series of California Local History Annals), 1908, 1908a, 1542 See Text
Jack Smith The Big Orange Ward Ritchie Press: Pasadena, CA, 1976. See Text
Lawrence Weschler Vermeer in Bosnia, Pantheon Books: NY, 2004. (The chapter The Light of L.A. appeared as L.A. Glows in the 23 February 1998 The New Yorker.) 1998, 1542 See Text
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp. See Text
Documents
Fred E. Basten Main St. to Malibu, Yesterday & Today, Graphics Press, Santa Monica, CA, 1980, 123pp., 1542
"Marker commemorating the 400th anniversary of the founding of Santa Monica Bay by Juan Cabrillo on October 8, 1542, stands in Palisades Park at the foot of California Av." p. 78
Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., 1935
Chapter XVIII The East A-Calling
". . . [p. 221] I can remember San Pedro when it was little more than a mud slough with a few lateen fishing boats, manned by Portuguese fishermen . . .
"The first ship which ever came to anchor here was one of the ships of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542. He came over on a long track from Santa Catalina Island and probably came to anchor off San Pedro, to wait for the night breeze from the mountains to take him northeast on his way to the coast. It is not absolutely cetain whether he stopped at San Pedro or Santa Monica. Whichever it was, he called the place Los Humos y Fuegos (Smokes and Fires)"
" . . .
Chapter XXIII Los Angeles Is Somewhere Else
"[p. 308] Off Los Angeles are San Nicolas, San Clemente and Santa Catalina. In times past all have supported large populations of Indians. Only Santa Catalina is a summer resort.
"When Cabrillo discovered the island in 1542 it swarmed with natives; they had fine canoes and were expert watermen . . . intelligent and friendly. Cabrillo named it Victoria after his flag-ship but Vizcaino changed the name to Santa Catalina on account of the holy day upon which he dropped anchor.
"Relics dug up indicate that there must have been a people earlier than the natives Cabrillo found. Some of these relics are so strange that archaeologists made no attempt at interpretation . . ."
Donald M. Cleland A History of the Santa Monica Schools 1876-1951, Santa Monica Unified School District, February 1952 (Copied for the Santa Monica Library, July 22, 1963). 140 pp., 1899, 1542
. . . It was in 1542, thirty-six years after the death of the discoverer of America, that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator, sailing under the flag of the Spanish emperor, Charles V, entered the bay of San Pedro, later rounded Point Fermin, and dropped anchor in a beautifully clear, crescent-shaped bay. Indians who inhabited the nearby islands and mainland gazed for the first time on Caucasian faces. It was, perhaps, in honor of these godlike beings with their bird-winged conveyances, that the savages set fire to the dry grass of the plains along the shore; and the great clouds of smoke which overhung the land caused Cabrillo to give the place the name, Bahia de los Fumos (Bay of the Smokes). [2. Charles Dwight Willard, The Free Harbor Contest at Los Angeles Los Angeles: Kingsley, Barnes and Neuner Co., 1899, p. 25] p. 4
Ingersoll's Century History Santa Monica Bay Cities (Being Book Number Two of Ingersoll's Century Series of California Local History Annals), 1908, 1908a,, 1542
[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.
Jack Smith The Big Orange Ward Ritchie Press: Pasadena, CA, 1976.
Santa Monica, 1542
"Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and his crew were the first white men to see Santa Monica Bay, on their voyage of 1542."
Lawrence Weschler Vermeer in Bosnia, Pantheon Books: NY, 2004. (The chapter The Light of L.A. appeared as L.A. Glows in the 23 February 1998 The New Yorker.) 1998, 1542
"Nevertheless, the light seems more uncanny than ever-or, rather, it may simply be reverting to its original splendor. What with the thermal inversion, even as the smog has subsided a softer version of airlight phenomenon has persisted -one that Juan Cabrillo, the first European to venture into these parts, back in 1542 . . . noted, labeled the curve of shore "The Bay of Smokes."
Betty Lou Young and Randy Young Santa Monica Canyon: A Walk Through History Casa Vieja Press: Pacific Palisades, CA, 1997, 182pp.
1. Santa Monica Canyon: The Land and Its Peoples
" . . . the voyage of Juan Cabrillo up the coast from Baja in 1542, . . . sailed into Santa Monica Bay on October 5. . . ."