Old Salt Lake

Old Salt Lake
Old Salt Lake Historical Marker
Location	E corner Harbor Dr and Yacht Club Way in Redondo Beach, Ca
Coordinates	33°51′07″N 118°23′49″W / 33.8519222222222°N 118.396919444444°W / 33.8519222222222; -118.396919444444Coordinates: 33°51′07″N 118°23′49″W / 33.8519222222222°N 118.396919444444°W / 33.8519222222222; -118.396919444444
Built	1856
California Historical Landmark
Designated	Sept. 6, 1941
Reference no.	373
Location of Old Salt Lake in the Los Angeles metropolitan area

Old Salt Lake works in 1898

The Old Salt Lake was used by the Chowigna Indians who dug up salt from the bottom. Old Salt Lake was in what is now Redondo Beach, California. In 1856 Henry Johnson and lawyer William Allanson purchased the Old Salt Lake land and built a salt evaporation pond to make and sell salt. The site of Old Salt Lake was designated a California Historic Landmark (No.373) on Sept. 6, 1941. On December 15, 1854 Manuel Dominguez sold 215 acres of the Rancho San Pedro for $500 to Los Angeles businessmen Henry Allanson and William Johnson. Johnson and Allanson also built a boiling house with 48 wood fired kettles to make salt faster than the evaporation pond. Johnson and Allanson exported much of the salt produced by transporting it 10 miles overland to the Port of San Pedro. Spanish Missionaries also dug up salt from the lake in the time of Spanish missions in California. The Salt lake was a large pond that was 600 by 1800 feet, it was fed by a natural spring. Johnson and Allanson shut down the salt works in 1862 and sold it to businessman, Frances Mellus. Frances Mellus ran the Pacific Salt Works at the site until 1881. In 1881 Liverpool Salt Works at the Salton Sea, a rival company, purchased Pacific Salt Works and the closed. The lake was 600 feet from the Redondo Beach sea shore at an elevation of about 10 feet. In 1955 a granite marker was put up at the site on Harbor Drive near the AES electricity power plant. In 1901 the fire boiler were removed and the buildings were abandoned for almost 20 years, in 1924 all structures at the site were removed. Southern California Edison built the south Bay power plant on the site in 1948. In 1998 AES Corporation purchased the power plant. ^{[1][2] [3]} In the 1700s, the Chowigna bartered salt from the old Redondo Salt Lake with other tribes.^[4] Their village by the lake was called "Onoova-nga", or "Place of Salt." The Chowigna were relocated to missions in 1854, when Manuel Dominguez sold the 215 acres of land.^{[4][5][6] [7]}

Markers[]

• State Marker on the site reads:^[8]

NO. 373 OLD SALT LAKE - The Indians of this area obtained salt from this lake. Sometime in the 1850s, Johnson and Allanson erected the necessary works to manufacture salt by artificial as well as solar evaporation. The salt yield for 1879 was 450 tons."

• Native Daughters of the Golden West marker put up in 1955 by Tierra del Rey Parlor reads:

This marker locates the site near which the Indians and early California settlers came to obtain their salt, which at many times was more valuable than gold.

See also[]

• California Historical Landmarks in Los Angeles County
• List of California Ranchos
• Ranchos of Los Angeles County, California

References[]

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Redondo Beach.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Redondo Beach, California.

Wikisource has the text of the 1920 Encyclopedia Americana article Redondo Beach.