White Point, California

Last updated

White Point/Royal Palms Beach
06 Both Sides Of White Point Have Shore Accesses.jpg
White Point Cove
Location1801 W Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro, CA
Nearest city San Pedro, Los Angeles
Governing body Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors
White Point Hot Springs
White Point, California
Coordinates 33°42′50″N118°19′01″W / 33.714°N 118.317°W / 33.714; -118.317
Typegeothermal
Temperature46 °C (115 °F) [1]

White Point is a minor headland or promontory of the California coast in the United States. White Point / Royal Palms Beach is a county-operated public beach in San Pedro, Los Angeles. White Point Hot Springs are naturally occurring sulphured hot springs along the shoreline at White Point/Royal Palms Beach. A resort centered on the springs existed in the early 20th century. White Point is a popular surfing and underwater-diving spot, and the tide pools remain an attraction. White Point Nature Preserve is adjacent to the beach.

Contents

Geology and ecology

The heated sulphured water at White Point likely emerges from a fracture in a geologically complex zone where a fan-shaped anticline and a southward-overturned syncline overlap. [2] The hot water that emerges from the springs is about 82 °F (28 °C). [3] There are a number of springs scattered across the cove and out in the sea until the water reaches a depth of about 45 feet (14 m). [3]

The beach is quite rocky, and the cove contains a rocky underwater reef that hosts a kelp forest. The kelp forest provides habitat for fauna such as California sheephead fish, chestnut cowries, garibaldi, giant keyhole limpets, moray eels, nudibranchs, painted greenling fish, rock scallops, sea cucumbers, sea stars, sea fans, and sheep crabs. [4] [5]

White Point tide pools Photo Girl (190043341).jpeg
White Point tide pools

California gray whales were being hunted by whalers off White Point in 1912 and 1913. [6] [7] There was a seal colony at White Point in 1922. [8] [9] In 1930 a sport fishing outfit that liked alliteration promised bonita, bass, and barracuda off White Point. [10] Circa 1987 there was a marked underwater nature trail for divers. [4] The White Point tide pools are home to California mussels, hermit crabs, starfish, sea urchins, and turban snails. [11] [12] Circa 2017, the beach and associated park facilities were host to a colony of feral cats. [13]

History

The origin and spelling of the place name is somewhat disputed. A 1918 article in the San Pedro News-Pilot firmly stated "White Point is not 'White's Point' and...it is named not for an individual but by reason of its own complexion". [14]

1894 map of San Pedro and Palos Verdes Peninsula; White Point is the headland just to the left (west) of Point Fermin 1894 USGS San Pedro.jpg
1894 map of San Pedro and Palos Verdes Peninsula; White Point is the headland just to the left (west) of Point Fermin
Japanese abalone camp at White Point, California (Popular Science magazine photo published 1913) PSM V82 D551 Japanese abalone camp at white point california.png
Japanese abalone camp at White Point, California (Popular Science magazine photo published 1913)
Illustrations of resort at White Point by cartoonist Robert Day (Los Angeles Times, August 26, 1923) Artist Day s Impression of the Jap Village.jpg
Illustrations of resort at White Point by cartoonist Robert Day (Los Angeles Times, August 26, 1923)

In the last years of the 19th century, White Point was developed as an abalone fishery off Rancho de Los Palos Verdes; the fishermen were mostly immigrants from Japan. [15] [3] The land was legally owned by Ramon Sepulveda, who allocated an area for housing the fishermen. [16] The abalone were dried for shipment and sale; the shells were sold for $4 a ton. [17] The abalone fishery was shut down in 1905, in part to due to declining take but mostly due to the work of anti-Japanese activists in California. [12]

Racist California state laws prevented Japanese land ownership but the sulphur springs apparently earned the White Point resort a partial "sanatorium" exception. [18] In 1917, Tamiji Tagami and Tojuro Tagami, with backing from investors, leased the property from Sepulveda and constructed a "hotel, a ballroom, a bathhouse, two restaurants, a children's swimming pool, bird and monkey cages, and a few slot machines and card tables." [3] A small pumping plant was constructed and water from the natural hydrothermal features was piped into sulphur-water soaking pools. [17] [3] Shuttles brought visitors from Point Fermin and Los Angeles, and an automobile road was carved out of the cliffs around 1923, [18] and improved in 1926. [19] White Point resort was sometimes marketed as Radium Springs, which was part of a widespread early-20th-century radium fad (now known to be a form of radioactive quackery). [20] A 1923 Los Angeles Times profile of the resort described Sunday morning as church (at either Buddhist or Christian services) and Sunday evening as a party night: "Somewhere about our wicked city they have learned to undulate to jazz music and an American orchestra from San Pedro is always on hand Sunday evenings to play for one steps and fox trots!" [18] There was a restaurant, with American and American Chinese food served on the ground floor, and Japanese food served on the second ("The upper room caters strictly to Japanese.") [18]

Visitors came from Japanese communities as far away as San Francisco, Sacramento, and Fresno, because Japanese-Americans could enjoy this resort (whereas they were prohibited from entering others due to discriminatory practices), and the baths were referred to as onsen. [17] Japanese Olympians in town for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics visited the resort. [3] This was a high point, as the following year the 1933 Long Beach earthquake disrupted the hydrology and plumbing that fed the resort pools. [3] The resort closed in 1933 or shortly thereafter. [15] A few years later, during World War II, the resort's operators and patrons were rounded up and interned by the U.S. government. [3] The White Point area was annexed to Fort MacArthur during World War II. [15]

Royal Palms State Beach (Security Pacific photo collection, undated) LAPL security pacific photos - 00071537 - Royal Palms State Beach.jpg
Royal Palms State Beach (Security Pacific photo collection, undated)
Fishing the Pacific Ocean from the rocks off Royal Palms State Beach, San Pedro, California; the Sky Tower at Marineland of the Pacific on the Palos Verdes Peninsula is visible in far distance (1976) Fishing at San Pedro, California - USA.jpg
Fishing the Pacific Ocean from the rocks off Royal Palms State Beach, San Pedro, California; the Sky Tower at Marineland of the Pacific on the Palos Verdes Peninsula is visible in far distance (1976)
Thank you for visiting White Point/Royal Palms Beach, please have a wonderful day 15 A Crab Hiding Between Reef Gaps.jpg
Thank you for visiting White Point/Royal Palms Beach, please have a wonderful day

The neighboring Royal Palms resort was also developed by Sepulveda. [21] The Royal Palms Hotel was built in 1915 and destroyed in the early 1930s by a combination of sea storms and the earthquake. [4] Royal Palms Golf and Country Club building opened in 1927, [22] but the golf course closed in 1933, while the clubhouse survived until a 1955 fire. [3] A conflicting account published in one of the American Guides claimed that the 18 holes of the Royal Palms course were open to public as of 1941, at a cost of 35¢ a day on weekdays, and 50¢ on Sunday." [23] The state of California bought the beach in 1960 and in 1995 deeded it to Los Angeles County. [15]

The Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors currently administers White Point/Royal Palms. [21] The beach is a popular surfing spot. [4]

Incidents

Five sightseers were killed at White Point in 1914 when their car accidentally went over the cliff. [24] [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Pedro, Los Angeles</span> Neighborhood of Los Angeles in California, United States

San Pedro is a neighborhood located within the South Bay and Harbor region of the City of Los Angeles, California, United States. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909. The Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located within San Pedro. The district has grown from being dominated by the fishing industry, to a working-class community within the city of Los Angeles, to an increasingly dense and diverse community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interstate 405 (California)</span> Interstate Highway in California

Interstate 405 is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. The entire route is known as the northern segment of the San Diego Freeway. I-405 is a bypass auxiliary route of I-5, running along the southern and western parts of the Greater Los Angeles urban area from Irvine in the south to Sylmar in the north.

Radium Springs may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harbin Hot Springs</span> Retreat in California, United States

Harbin Hot Springs is a non-profit hot spring retreat and workshop center situated at Harbin Springs in Lake County, Northern California. It is named after Matthew Harbin, a pioneer who settled in the Lake County area. Located approximately two hours north of the San Francisco Bay Area, in the United States, the facility suffered partial destruction in the Valley Fire in September 2015, resulting in its temporary closure. However, in January 2019, it partially reopened, including the main pools and sauna, along with a limited cafeteria service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuel Dominguez</span> Mexican Californio rancher and politician

Don Manuel Domínguez e Ybáñez (1803–1882) was a Californio ranchero, politician, and a signer of the California Constitution in 1849. He served as two terms as Alcalde of Los Angeles (mayor). He was one of the largest landowners in Southern California, having inherited Rancho San Pedro in 1825, one of the largest ranchos in California. He was one of the founders of the cities of Carson and Compton and of the fishing village of San Pedro. Today, California State University, Dominguez Hills and the communities of Rancho Dominguez, East Rancho Dominguez, and West Rancho Dominguez bear his family's name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walteria, Torrance</span> Neighborhood in Southern California, United States

Walteria is a neighborhood in south Torrance in southern California, United States. It is bounded by Hawthorne Boulevard on the east, Pacific Coast Highway on the south, Lomita Boulevard to the north, and Calle Mayor to the west. The local zip code is 90505.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Encinos State Historic Park</span> State park in Los Angeles County

Los Encinos State Historic Park is a state park unit of California, preserving buildings of Rancho Los Encinos. The park is located near the corner of Balboa and Ventura Boulevards in Encino, California, in the San Fernando Valley. The rancho includes the original nine-room de la Ossa Adobe, the two-story limestone Garnier building, a blacksmith shop, a natural spring, and a pond. The 4.7-acre (1.9 ha) site was established as a California state park in 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilman Hot Springs</span> Thermal springs in California

Gilman Hot Springs, also known as San Jacinto Hot Springs or the Relief Springs, is a hot spring system in the Inland Empire area of Southern California. Located near Potrero Creek, the San Jacinto River, and California State Route 79, the springs system consists of "about half a dozen" springs named for the Mexican land grant Rancho San Jacinto Viejo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Falling Springs, California</span> Archaic placename, Angeles National Forest

Falling Springs is an archaic placename in Los Angeles County, California. Falling Springs was the site of rustic resorts located along the north fork of the San Gabriel River in the San Gabriel Mountains along Soldier Creek, 12 miles (19 km) north-northeast of Azusa, in close proximity to Crystal Lake Recreation Area in the Angeles National Forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seminole Hot Springs, California</span> Unincorporated community in California, United States

Seminole Hot Springs is an unincorporated community in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Seminole Hot Springs is located in the Santa Monica Mountains near Cornell, 3.6 miles (5.8 km) south-southeast of Agoura Hills at an elevation of 932 feet (284 m).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bimini Baths</span> Los Angeles natatorium (1903–1951)

Bimini Baths was a geothermal mineral water public bathhouse and plunge in what is now Koreatown, Los Angeles, California, US. It was situated just west of downtown, near Third Street and Vermont Avenue. Bimini Baths contained a natatorium, swimming pools, swimming plunge, Turkish baths, a medical treatment department, and bottling works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Sulphur Springs (California)</span> Thermal springs

White Sulphur Springs was considered the oldest warm mineral springs resort facility in Northern California. It was founded in 1852 in the town of St. Helena in the Napa Valley. Most of the structures at the site were destroyed in 2020 in the Glass Fire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radium Sulphur Springs</span> Los Angeles, California geothermal spa

Radium Sulphur Springs, located on the north side of Melrose Avenue between Larchmont and Gower Street in Los Angeles, California, U.S., was an early-20th-century hot spring that resulted from an unsuccessful attempt to drill 1,500 feet (460 m) for oil. "Discovered" in 1905 and opened as a spa by G. P. Gehring in 1908, the owners claimed that the water was radioactive, germicidal, and blood purifying. The supposed radioactivity of water was advertised as "liquid sunshine" and was part of the larger radium fad of the early 20th century. The spa was located in Colegrove, an electric-railway stop and associated community just south of Hollywood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alvarado Hot Springs</span> Defunct water source in California

Alvarado Hot Springs was a 20th-century geothermal well in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A bathhouse was built next to the water and a therapeutic spa was operated on the site for several decades.

References

  1. ↑ Higgins, Chris T.; Therberge, Albert E. Jr.; Ikelman, Joy A. (1980). Geothermal Resources of California (PDF) (Map). NOAA National Geophysical Center. Sacramento: California Department of Mines and Geology.
  2. ↑ Woodring, Wendell Phillips; Bramlette, Milton Nunn; Kew, William Stephen Webster (1946). Geology and Paleontology of Palos Verdes Hills, California. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 112.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Rasmussen, Cecilia (November 30, 1992). "It was a flourishing health spa and..." Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Commission, California Coastal (1987). California Coastal Resource Guide. University of California Press. ISBN   978-0-520-06186-6.
  5. ↑ "Natural Wonders at White Point". California Diving News. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  6. ↑ "Gray Whale, First of Season, Taken Off Long Beach". Los Angeles Evening Express. January 11, 1913. p. 21. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  7. ↑ "Whaling Capt. J. D. Loop and the Camiguin". Press-Telegram. January 20, 1912. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  8. ↑ Porter, George (February 15, 1922). "White Point Near Here Wonderfully Beautiful; School of Seals There". News-Pilot. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  9. 1 2 "The Los Angeles Times 12 Jun 1921, page 132". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  10. ↑ "Fishin' is Good on the Sierra". News-Pilot. June 6, 1930. p. 15. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  11. ↑ Sahagún, Louis (September 17, 2020). "45 charged with poaching marine life from fragile San Pedro tide pools". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  12. 1 2 Bonadonna, Mia (July 22, 2011). "A Park a Day: White Point Beach, San Pedro". LAist. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  13. ↑ Beebe, Lisa (January 9, 2017). "This is the Best Time of Year to Go Tidepooling in L.A." LAmag - Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  14. ↑ "Bidding Dull Care Be Gone for a While". News-Pilot. July 8, 1918. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Gnerre, Sam. "White Point Hot Spring Hotel | South Bay History". Daily Breeze. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  16. ↑ Morrison, Patt (December 28, 2021). "From sacred to profane: A brief history of Southern California's hot springs". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  17. 1 2 3 Preservation, California Office of Historic (1988). Five Views. State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, Office of Historic Preservation. p. 193.
  18. 1 2 3 4 "With Japanese Beau, Belles". The Los Angeles Times. August 26, 1923. p. 54. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  19. ↑ "New Road First Step in White Point Improving". News-Pilot. August 3, 1926. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  20. ↑ Starr, Helen (August 26, 1923). "Japanese Village San Pedro 1923". The Los Angeles Times. p. 53. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  21. 1 2 "White Point / Royal Palms Beach – Beaches & Harbors" . Retrieved 2023-11-01.
  22. ↑ "History of the harbor district of Los Angeles dating from its earliest history. Containing also short, well-written personal sketches of many men and women, ..." HathiTrust. pp. 312 (golf course). Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  23. ↑ "Los Angeles; a guide to the city and its environs". HathiTrust. p. 243. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  24. ↑ "No blame for auto tragedy". The Los Angeles Times. June 27, 1914. p. 24. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.