Redondo Beach City Map Poster

About Redondo Beach

The Chowigna Indians used the site of today's Hopkins Wilderness Park, formerly Nike missile site LA-57 from 1956 to 1963, in Redondo Beach, California, as a lookout place. The wetlands located at the site of today's AES power plant in Redondo Beach were a source of foods including halibut, lobster and sea bass, and also of salt. In the 1700s they made their annual migration from sites near Rio Nido and Los Angeles to harvest camote (sweet potato) here on Santa Catalina Island for winter storage. The Chowigna were relocated after the Mexican–American War to reservations near San Pedro; they suffered devastating smallpox outbreaks there every decade until they were moved again in 1873–74 to Fort Yuma then finally sent back south after 1875 when that reservation was abandoned due its poor water supply. The first Europeans who came here landed in 1769: Juan Jose Dominguez was one sailor who visited this coast in 1769; he named it "Puerto de la Ballena" (whale port).