Point Mugu (,

Chumash Chumash may refer to: *Chumash (Judaism), a Hebrew word for the Pentateuch, used in Judaism *Chumash people, a Native American people of southern California *Chumashan languages, indigenous languages of California See also *Chumash traditional n ...

: ''Muwu'') is a cape or

promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the ...

within Point Mugu State Park on the

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

Ventura County Ventura County () is a County (United States), county in Southern California, the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, California ...

, near the city of Port Hueneme and the city of Oxnard. The name is believed to be derived from the

Indian term "Muwu", meaning "beach", which was first mentioned by Cabrillo in his journals in 1542. Mugu Lagoon is a

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is domin ...

just upcoast from the promontory within the Naval Base Ventura County formerly called the

Naval Air Station Point Mugu Naval Air Station Point Mugu was a United States naval air station near Oxnard, California, which operated as an independent base from 1941 to 2000, when it merged with nearby Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme to form Naval Base ...

History

The name derives from Muwu ( Ventureño: "Beach"), which was the name of a Chumash village at Point Mugu during pre-colonial times. The village of Muwu (CA-VEN-11) had the highest population of any coastal

settlements along the

Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in ...

. Muwu was a ceremonial center and the ancient capital of Lulapin, a major political unit of Chumash territory which stretched from modern day

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

to Santa Barbara in the north. The territory stretched for along the coast, and at least half as far inland. Mission records indicate that 191 inhabitants were baptized in Muwu, more than any other Chumash village by the Santa Monica Mountains. The last chief of Muwu, Mariano Wataitset, son of Halashu (Big Chief of Muwu), was baptized at Mission San Buenaventura in 1802. On January 31, 2000, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed off of point Mugu, killing all 88 people on board the

McDonnell Douglas MD-83 The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of five-abreast single-aisle airliners developed by McDonnell Douglas. It was produced by the developer company until August 1997 and then by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The MD-80 was the second gene ...

operating the flight.

Mugu Rock

Mugu Rock is a distinctive feature of the coastal

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, J ...

that has been featured in many film shoots and television commercials. This igneous dike marks the western end of the

, and the

Rancho Guadalasca Rancho Guadalasca was a Mexican land grant in present-day Ventura County, California given in 1836 by Governor Mariano Chico to Ysabel Yorba. The grant was in the southern part of the county, bordering on Los Angeles County. The grant extended ...

boundary. The rock was formed when the roadway was cut through the near-vertical ridge of resistant volcanic rock in 1937. A route had been blasted out around the promontory in 1923–24 to complete Pacific Coast Highway between Malibu and the

Oxnard Plain The Oxnard Plain is a large coastal plain in southwest Ventura County, California, United States surrounded by the mountains of the Transverse ranges. The cities of Oxnard, Camarillo, Port Hueneme and much of Ventura as well as the unincorpo ...

. This replaced a narrow path around the rock and much of that roadway has since eroded away. The site is a popular but dangerous place for fishing, sightseeing, cliff diving, and rock climbing up the sheer sides of the rock. On Thanksgiving Day 2008, three young men from Oxnard were swept to sea and killed by a rogue wave while surf watching from Mugu Rock. Directly east of Mugu Rock is Point Mugu State Beach Campsite. The park has of shoreline and more than of hiking trails."Point Mugu State Park"
''

California Department of Parks and Recreation The California Department of Parks and Recreation, more commonly known as California State Parks, manages the California state parks system. The system administers 279 separate park units on 1.4 million acres (570,000 hectares), with over 28 ...

References

{{California Central Coast Geography of Oxnard, California Mugu Mugu Rock formations of California Santa Monica Mountains Chumash populated places