Stone Age Murder at White Point?

From the Evening News, April 10, 1919:

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LOS ANGELES, April 10 -- Evidence of a mysterious and cowardly murder of an unidentified man has been unearthed by curators at the Exposition Park museum.

While studying a skeleton brought to them they found death had been caused by an arrow embedded in the spinal column.

"This is a particularly cowardly case," declared Edward James, detective. "This man was shot in the back. But I see no clew [sic] leading to the guilty party nor can I determine the motive."

The skelton, it might be added, was that of a cliff dweller, dug from beneath a rock 100 feet underground at White Point, near San Pedro. He was murdered during the stone age.

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*above image shows the White Point area (near San Pedro), c. 1930

**To read more about  Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Southwestern United States, click here.

Harbor Area Reacts to Civil War's End and President Lincoln's Assassination

Although Los Angeles had been known as a "hot bed of secession," the harbor area was jubilant at the end of the Civil War and the prospect of peace. In April 1865, a correspondent from the San Francisco Bulletin reported that "On the receipt by telegraph of the occupation of Richmond, 100 guns were fired in Wilmington, and crowds of the right kind of people perambulated the streets with torches, while the town was as bright as day with bonfires."

Wilmington is near San Pedro and is part of the Los Angeles Harbor area.

As seen throughout the country, however, this jubilation quickly turned to grief after President Abraham Lincoln was shot and died shortly thereafter on April 15, 1865.  When the telegraph of Lincoln's assassination reached Wilmington, businesses and public houses were closed and hung with crape by grief-stricken residents. 

General Phineas Banning, a successful businessman known as the "father of Wilmington," ordered his employees to suspend work on the day of Lincoln's funeral. The "heavy blows usually resounding in Banning's huge blacksmithing establishment" were temporarily silenced, and other locals followed this example and suspended work.

The Bulletin's correspondent noted that on the sacred day of Lincoln's funeral "not even a team or pleasure wagon was to be seen leaving the little town" and "it was a strange sight to see billiard tables and card-tables utterly deserted among so fun-loving a population as Wilmington contains."

While General Banning and the whole of Wilmington's population was described as having "shown themselves the true stuff," the local establishment of Tomlinson & Co. was criticized for being "utterly indifferent to the great national calamity that had just taken place" by continuing work with all their men until dark after news of Lincoln's funeral arrived -- unlike A.W. Timms who instantly closed his store and trimmed his whole establishment with black.

Deadman's Island: British Whaling Captain Hanged by Mutineers

Deadman’s Island was a San Pedro landmark, a rocky isle about 800-feet long, 250-feet wide, and over 60-feet high that guarded the entrance to Los Angeles Harbor. It was removed in the late 1920s to make room for large ships in the growing harbor.

The following story is from the Evening News, June 1901:
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Hanged by Mutineers
Pieces of Rope Found Clinging to Captain's Crumbling Skeleton

San Pedro, Cal, June 7 -- Through the caving down of a bank and the discovery of a mass of crumbling human bones a clew has been bound [sic] to a mystery that has existed for over a century.

A hundred years ago the captain of a British whaling ship, lying off this port, was killed by his crew, which mutinied.

It was known that they buried him on Deadman's Island, but the manner in which they accomplished the killing was kept a secret and, although in later years the subject was one of much inquiry, the direct cause of death was never determined.

Gradually the sea has washed away the base of Deadman's Island, which stands near the entrance to the inner harbor, and the upper part has kept caving away.

A party of boys fishing near the place Wednesday discovered the contents of the grave, which had fallen by the caving away of the bank.

The bones had fallen only a short distance from their resting place, so that the arrangement was only partly destroyed.

Although solid, as if preserved by the dryness of the sandy soil, the bones were greatly yellowed, showing
that they had been resting there probably a hundred years.

Looking more closely the boys found an old rope, rotted with age, wound about the skeleton, between the head and ribs.

The rope was of the size used by hangmen.

The discovery is taken to indicate that the unfortunate skipper was hanged by his crew, and that they buried him without removing the rope, with which he had been hanged.

"Largest Earthquake in the World" Impacts Los Angeles Waterfront, May 1960

The recent deadly 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile caused a tsunami advisory for California's coastline, but fortunately no significant local damage.

It's worth a look back at another Chilean earthquake that generated tsunami wave surges that did cause some damage to California's coastline and the Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbor areas.

On May 22, 1960, a magnitude 9.5 earthquake struck south central Chile.  The United States Geological Survey calls this "the largest earthquake in the world."  In Chile, approximately 2,000 people were killed,  3000 injured, and another 2,000,000 were left homeless.

The Governor's Office of Emergency Services for California estimates that the waves generated by this massive earthquake caused about $500,000 to $1,000,000 worth of damage to the state, and notes that two people were killed.

Locally, the Los Angeles Times reported that boats and piers were smashed along San Pedro's waterfront, where a series of tidal currents surged back and forth surged through the port's narrow Cerritos Channel. Some 300 yachts and small boats were ripped from their slips, and early estimates were that 15-20 boats had sunk. The surge was estimated at up to 8-9 feet high in places at times. A strong current caused the port's Terminal Island ferry Islander to be swept off course by 300 yards, while "monumental traffic jams" occurred in both the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbor areas.

A Port of Los Angeles report states that the "Chilean earthquake and tsunami of May 1960 was the maximum event recorded in recent history to impact the Ports."

For more on this devastating earthquake, click on this link:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/events/1960_05_22_articles.php

*Stay tuned for future blog entries on other tsunamis that impacted the Port of Los Angeles.

Fort MacArthur K-9 Command

Ft. MacArthur in San Pedro, California started training dogs and turning them into sentries and "soldiers" even before the well-known "Dogs for Defense" program was fully formed in the early years of World War II. 

The following story is from the Dallas Morning News, October 13, 1942:

Sentry Dog AWOL Over Attachment For Motorcycle

FORT MACARTHUR, Calif., Oct. 12 (AP).-- Every time a motorcycle went by it made King, a big black and tan shepherd sentry dog, homesick.

So the other day when one passed he jumped an eight-foot barbed wire-topped fence and went A.W.O.L. for the second time. A bewildered man later turned him over to San Pedro police with the explanation he had found King curled up contentedly beside his motorcycle.

Police checked King's licence tag and solved the puzzle. The dog has belonged to Motorcycle Officer Orville Clutterman of Van Nuys, who gave him to Fort MacArthur for sentry duty.

King is back at the fort, ordered confined to quarters for two days, but Sergt. Robert Pearce, trainer and handler of sentry dogs, is keeping a motorcycle around until King forms new affections.

California Fish Company and the Alpha

I have completed quite a bit of research on the California Fish Company and its fishing vessel named the Alpha. Here is a preview:

The California Fish Company opened in 1893 and was the first cannery in Los Angeles Harbor, the first successful Pacific Coast sardine cannery, and the world's pioneer albacore tuna cannery.

The Alpha, California’s first purse seine boat, was built in 1893 in Alameda, California. The sloop had a 60-foot mast and carried a large main sail, a “jib” (small triangular sail forward of the mast) and a “flying jib” (outermost jib). She was also most likely the first gasoline-powered fishing boat in Los Angeles Harbor.

The Alpha had a crew of about seven that consisted of a captain, engineer, cook and four fishermen, all of whom fished and helped keep the boat and gear in good working order. Members of the crew were paid wages, as well as a certain percentage of the value of their catch.  The crew spotted schools of sardines at the surface in nearby waters. The easiest way to spot a school of sardines was by spotting their fluorescent glow on a dark night.

USS LOS ANGELES Decommissioning Ceremony

From the Navy:

The Decommissioning Ceremony of the USS Los Angeles (SSN 688) submarine occurred on Janury 23, 2010 at the Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro, California.

The USS Los Angeles was the fourth naval ship to be named after the City of Los Angeles, and was the lead ship of her class. She was launched on April 6, 1974 at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock company in Newport News, Virginia.

On May 27, 1977, she hosted President Jimmy Carter and Admiral Hyman Rickover for an at-sea demonstration of the capabilities of the nation's newest fast attack submarine.

The USS Los Angeles commenced the first Engineered Refueling Overhaul of a Los Angeles class fast attack submarine in the early 1990s.  During this overhaul, she was outfitted with the latest state-of-the-art sonar and fire control systems, as well as the Navy's newest reactor controls equipment. These extensive upgrades made her one of the most advanced submarines in the world at the time.

Her many capabilities include wartime functions of undersea warfare, surface warfare, strike warfare, mining operations, special forces delivery, reconnaissance, carrier battle group support and escort and intelligence collection.

Excerpts from the Daily Breeze newspaper article (1/23/10):

The USS Los Angeles was commissioned in 1976 to spy on enemy Soviet ships during the Cold War, spawning 44 similar models that will eventually be replaced over the next several years by the larger, more technologically advanced Virginia class of submarines.

"The Los Angeles-class subs were designed for a 30-year lifespan and so, unfortunately, it's time to start taking them apart," said Lt. Cmdr. David Benham, a Navy spokesman.

Commander Steven M. Harrison was the last Commanding Officer of the USS Los Angeles (SSN 688).

**San Pedro played an early role in the development of the Navy's submarine force. For part of this history, please see this prior post:

 http://sanpedrohistory.blogspot.com/2009/10/submarine-disaster-in-san-pedro-harbor.html

Early History of the San Pedro Fishermen's Fiesta

In the decades after World War II, the San Pedro Fishermen's Fiesta was a colorful extravaganza that paid tribute to the Port of Los Angeles-based fishing industry, the largest in the nation for a good part of the twentieth century.

During its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s the Fiesta attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators and was acclaimed as the third most photographed special event in the nation (behind the Tournament of Roses and the Mardi Gras). Well-known celebrities and politicians such as Ronald Reagan, Pat Brown and Richard Nixon attended.

The origin of the San Pedro Fishermen's Fiesta dates to the years preceeding the Second World War. Near the end of summer, San Pedro fishermen would take their families to nearby Catalina Island  for a "big picnic" before the start of school. Frank Canetti, a former Fiesta director, said in an interview in 1982 that as a young boy he remembered a fleet of 50 to 60 decorated boats being blessed and then sailing with crew and families for a weekend at the Island.

Although it wasn't called the "Fishermen's Fiesta," on March 26, 1938 about 100 decorated, flag-bedecked purse seiners (fishing vessels) paraded through Los Angeles Harbor. This was a celebration by the Fishermen's Co-operative Association to dedicate its new terminals and clubhouse at the Southern Pacific slip.

On Sunday, October 21, 1945 what can be called the first "formal" Fishermen's Fiesta took place in the harbor. Thousands of dockside spectators watched more than 100 brightly decorated fishing boats sail a 20-mile course past anchored warships and Cabrillo Beach, into the main channel at Wilmington, and around Rainbow Pier at Long Beach.

Occurring shortly after the end of World War II, this salute to the local fishing fleet was billed as a Victory Parade. The winner of first prize was the boat City of Naples II that carried a living replica of the famous Flag raising on Iwo Jima.  Fishing industry spokesmen proclaimed that the fishing industry at the Port of Los Angeles was an important wartime supplier of food, supplying more than 12,000,000 gallons of sardine oil to strategic war industries for example.

On October 6, 1946, the Second Annual Fishermen's Fiesta was held from 10:00 A.M. to midnight at the "World's No. 1 Fishing Port." There were no Fiestas in Los Angeles Harbor the following two years, but the nautical parade returned with a vengeance in 1949 (with four days of festivities from September 8-11).

The 1949 Fiesta featured a coronation of a “King Fisherman” and dedication of a newly built $1,500,000 fishermen’s dock christened by Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron with a splash of waters brought from the Seven Seas.

*Above image shows a photo of the fishing vessel San Antonio participating in the 1949 Fiesta.
**Stay tuned for further history of the San Pedro Fishermen's Fiesta.

San Pedro and Palos Verdes Shore Whaling History, Part 1

For several years I have been researching the history of the whaling industry at and near Los Angeles Harbor and Portuguese Bend, Palos Verdes Peninsula. Here is a preview:

Two sites near San Pedro were active in shore whaling in the years after 1860: (the former) Deadman’s Island and the Portuguese Bend area. California shore whaling, long obsolete, was a method of whaling whereby small boats rowed out by men armed with throwing harpoons, Greener harpoon guns, and “bomb lance” guns intercepted migrating whales. The boats were between twenty-six and thirty feet long, had one sail, and operated within a radius of about ten miles from shore.*

Shore whaling occurred off the coast of California from 1854 to about 1900.

In a 1925 interview, Captain John Anderson of Wilmington, described as an “old-timer in the Pacific whaling business,” recalled the old days of local shore whaling in the 1870s when as many as forty whales at one time spouted off White Point, and when three or four whales at one time were cut up for oil at the Deadman’s Island or Portuguese Bend whaling stations.

As he recounted: “Whaling ain’t what it used to be. We used to take the blubber and try it out, let the birds have the carcass and Davy Jones’s locker the bones. Now they cut the whale up for fertilizer, body and bones. They use everything but the spout.”

*The above recent image of the Portuguese Bend area in Palos Verdes southern California, near San Pedro, shows the area near where a shore whaling station operated in the early 1860s, and which was active off and on through at least 1885. 

Fort MacArthur K-9 Command, Part 2

Private Accepts War Dog Assignment with Fort MacArthur K-9 Command

In early 1942, one of the sergeants at Fort MacArthur asked for volunteers to work with the fort's new Canine Command and warned that it's "not going to be easy work and we don't want sissies."

Initially there were no takers for the difficult job that consisted of helping to train dogs for sentry duty at the sprawling base.

After the sergeant reframed his pitch stressing that the soldier who did this job would be doing a great service, Private Raymond J. Diekman stepped forward and said "I'll take the job" -- even though he had acquired a fear of dogs while driving on a truck route in Illinois before the war. As recounted in a local Illinois newspaper at the time, Diekman thought this would help him get rid of his dislike of dogs.

Shortly thereafter Diekman's Fort MacArthur service consisted of wearing padded suits, acting as a bad guy in the K-9 training program. His job was to let the dogs attack him.

Not only did Diekman overcome his fear of dogs, but he also had his fifteen minutes of fame. His photograph was seen in newspapers, magazines, and even thousands of theaters in the Warner Brothers 10-minute movie "Sniffer Soldiers" -- in which he demonstrated the training program for Army dogs at Fort MacArthur as "sentries, messengers, pack dogs, airplane spotters and other duties."

*above image credit: Cy La Tour, likely taken at Fort MacArthur in 1942 or early 1943, unknown if this shows Diekman