Old Salt Lake

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]

Old Salt Lake
Old Salt Lake Historical Marker
LocationE corner Harbor Dr and Yacht Club Way in Redondo Beach, Ca
Coordinates33°51′07″N 118°23′49″W
Built1856
DesignatedSept. 6, 1941
Reference no.373
Location of Old Salt Lake in the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Old Salt Lake works in 1898

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."
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


References
  1. Los Angeles Star, Volume VI, Number 17, 6 September 1856
  2. Lacey, Marc (1992-04-17). "An Urban Oasis : Surrounded by condos sits a place the Chowigna Indians once used as a lookout spot. Today, people go there for an escape. - Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
  3. Brand, Bill. ""Heart Park" Restoring Redondo Beach" (PDF). The Foggy View, Supplement to the March 2005 Southern Sierran, Sierra Club Palos Verdes - South Bay Group / Angeles Chapter. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 16, 2014. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
  4. "SOUTH BAY HISTORY: Redondo Beach's salt lake". San Jose Mercury News. 2010-05-20. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
  5. "AES Power Plant Informational Brief" (PDF). Building a Better Redondo. 2011-07-06. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 26, 2013. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  6. "Welcome to the Redondo Beach Historical Museum: A self-guided tour". redondo.org. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
  7. oldsaltlake.org, Old Salt Lake, official website, a virtual museum
  8. californiahistoricallandmarks.com Old Salt Lake, 373
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