village
Tongva artifacts and ancient human remains were found during excavation of the
Playa Vista site. "To the 2,000 or so remaining Gabrieleños…the Ballona Wetlands are sacred. They made their homes near the wetlands. They ate the fish hatched in its estuaries and hunted the wild rabbits. They used the rare pickleweed and other plants to make medicine. They buried their dead there." Augustin Machado began to graze cattle on his land known as
Rancho La Ballona in the 1820s. The origin of the
placename Ballona is disputed and remains poorly understood. During the expansion of
Playa Del Rey in 1911, a California paper retold this history: :"The ocean frontage of La Ballona Rancho was known in early days as
Ballona Slough. It consisted of marshy fields broken by sand dunes and lagoons of salt water, which were considered worthless as home for [anything but] duck and other game birds. In 1870 a native of Switzerland with the historic name of William Tell built a shack on the site of the present Del Rey Hotel, and named it Tell's Lookout. He furnished boats, guns and fishing tackle for his patrons. In 1877 Michael Duffy opened what he called Hunter's Cottage in Tell's old location. He furnished board as well as hunting outfits." An "old-timer", who told stories about the area between 1876 and 1890, recalled, "There were but a few trees in the valley at that time and standing on the hills back of the
depot, one could see the breakers rolling over the sand dunes at
Playa Del Rey, about four miles south of Palms, which at that time was called William Tell's Lake." A history of Santa Monica recalled "Duck shooting on Ballona laguna and boating on the laguna were popular pastimes. The boats on the laguna known as the
Pollywog and the
Mud Hen. Spanish games took place in the spring, when a channel was cut from the laguna to allow the overflow water to escape into the ocean, at the point now known as Playa del Rey." The wetlands as they stood in 1887 were of interest because of the nascent plans for
Port Ballona: :"Four miles southwest of Santa Monica, and ten miles southeast of Los Angeles, lying in the shelter of a low range of hills rising from the valley toward the sea, is a small narrow lake at the point where La Ballona creek debonches into the ocean. It is a true lake, for, although it lies close down upon the sand of the beach, a well-defined earth formation encloses it, and proves conclusively that it's water is not drawn by seepage from the sea. As has been said, the lake is exceedingly narrow. Its length along the shore is about two miles, and it varies in width from two hundred to six hundred feet. The water in it varies in depth, in ordinary times, from six inches to twenty feet. :Back of the lake there is a drift of sand-hills so common along the seacoast of Southern California, and behind these hills there stretch away for miles the low marsh lands of the Centinela ranch. La Ballona creek comes down through this marsh—which is, after all, only a wash of sediment from the hills and higher plains toward Los Angeles—and in the rainy season, the creek breaks through the sand-hills, and the waters overflow the lake and find an outlet to the ocean." Also in 1887, "the great marsh of Ballona" was viewed as a resource for "persons living at Santa Monica." :"The delicate seaweeds that come ashore are collected and pressed in designs, and vast quantities are sold to tourists and visitors. The various birds that stop here on the way north, especially the egrets, herons and ibises, are mounted as screens and fans, and many are shipped East for the trade there…the great marsh abounds in a remarkable variety of game, including some of the finest wild ducks. A good horse, that will allow shooting from the saddle, is a desideratum, as certain parts of the swamp are fordable, while others are extremely dangerous." There were multiple recreational hunting operations on the site through at least 1910. Duck hunters were particularly keen on the marsh's
green-winged teals. As of 1921, Ballona Creek "came to a dead end about a mile from the ocean" (the wetlands absorbed much of the water flow and access to the open ocean was presumably blocked by sand dunes). In 1940, Howard Hughes bought the land below the Westchester bluffs for his airport. In January 1976, four months prior to the death of Howard Hughes, which would kick off the current era of Ballona's long history, the wetland was described by a resident of Playa Del Rey. :"The land, now owned by Howard Hughes' Summa corporation, is posted with 'No trespassing' signs. But field mice roam at will, as do jackrabbits, dogs, cats, horseback riders, bird watchers, geography-ornithology-botany classes, neighborhood children and all sorts of winged creatures." She observed seven great blue herons foraging for food in the marsh at dusk, and wrote: :"No matter that this same scene had been repeated over a span of many winters—I would always be amazed and delighted that birds could find a patch of wilderness amid the concrete and stucco sprawl of Los Angeles. It is our dumb luck that, what nature has wrought, man cannot so easily tear asunder." Circa 1979: "The salt marshes on Howard Hughes Summa Corp. lands are the object of a bitter tug-of-war between developers and environmentalists. There, schoolgirls canter horses from a nearby stable in the late afternoons, and children and youngsters go with their classes to learn about ecology." In 1995, as the development process for Playa Vista was underway, the
L.A. Times nutshell history of Ballona's 20th century was this: "The Ballona Wetlands, near Marina Del Rey, are about all that remains of 1800 acres of marsh that once stretched from Venice south to the bluffs of Playa Del Rey, providing natural flood control and sustaining hundreds of plant and animal species. Construction of Ballona Creek in the 1930s began the process of wetland degradation; construction of the Marina in the 1960s just about completed it."
topographical map of "Venice Quadrangle" ==Restoration==