The Old Salt Lake was a historic site in coastal Southern California where

sea salt Sea salt is salt that is produced by the evaporation of seawater. It is used as a seasoning in foods, cooking, cosmetics and for preserving food. It is also called bay salt, solar salt, or simply salt. Like mined rock salt, production of sea sa ...

was harvested for barter or sale. Old Salt Lake was a large pond that was by , fed by a

natural spring A spring is a point of exit at which groundwater from an aquifer flows out on top of Earth's crust (pedosphere) and becomes surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere. Springs have long been important for humans as a source of fresh w ...

. The lake was from what is now the Redondo Beach seashore at an elevation of about .

History

The Old Salt Lake was used by the Chowigna band of

Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historically ...

who dug up

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

from the bottom. In the 1700s, the Chowigna bartered salt from the old Redondo Salt Lake with other tribes. Their village by the lake was called ''Onoova-nga'' or “Place of Salt.” Spanish Missionaries also dug up salt from the lake in the time of

Spanish missions in California The Spanish missions in California ( es, Misiones españolas en California) comprise a series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in what is now the U.S. state of California. Founded by Catholic priests o ...

. On December 15, 1854

Manuel Dominguez Don Manuel Domínguez (1803–1882) was a Californio ranchero, politician, and a signer of the Californian Constitution in 1849. He served as two terms as Alcalde of Los Angeles (mayor). He was one of the largest landowners in Southern Californi ...

sold of the

Rancho San Pedro Rancho San Pedro was one of the first California land grants and the first to win a patent from the United States. The Spanish Crown granted the of land to soldier Juan José Domínguez in 1784, with his descendants validating their legal claim ...

for $500 to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

businessmen Henry Allanson and William Johnson. The Chowigna who lived near the lake were relocated to missions after the land sale. Johnson and Allanson built an

evaporation pond Evaporation ponds are artificial ponds with very large surface areas that are designed to efficiently evaporate water by sunlight and expose water to the ambient temperatures. Evaporation ponds are inexpensive to design making it ideal for mult ...

and built a boiling house with 48 wood fired

kettle A kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a type of pot specialized for boiling water, commonly with a ''lid'', ''spout'', and ''handle'', or a small electric kitchen appliance of similar shape that functions in a self-contained ...

s to make salt faster than the evaporation pond. Johnson and Allanson exported much of the salt produced by transporting it overland to the Port of San Pedro. 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 The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline body of water in Riverside and Imperial counties at the southern end of the U.S. state of California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough that stretches to the Gulf o ...

, a rival company, purchased Pacific Salt Works and the closed. 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. The site of Old Salt Lake was designated a

California Historic Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

(No.373) on Sept. 6, 1941.

Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of app ...

built the south Bay power plant on the site in 1948. In 1955 a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

marker was put up at the site on Harbor Drive near the AES electricity power plant. In 1998 AES Corporation purchased the power plant.

Markers

*State Marker on the site reads:californiahistoricallandmarks.com Old Salt Lake, 373
/ref> ::''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 Native Daughters of the Golden West is an American non-profit organization for women born in California. The organization focuses on the care and preservation of California history. It is the sister organization to the Native Sons of the Golden We ...

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.''

References

{{Americana Poster, Redondo Beach California Historical Landmarks 1856 establishments in California Redondo Beach, California South Bay, Los Angeles Tongva populated places Wetlands and marshes of Los Angeles County, California

History

Markers

See also

References