Where can I get me a cop car dummy? My very own? One with sunglasses?
The state of California has about 1,000 historical landmarks. Two are in Malibu. Can you guess where they are? They are noted below. But first: Another landmark is in Pacific Palisades along the PCH and it was once a very impressive site. Located next to the large lifeguard headquarters on Will Rogers Beach, one half mile east of Temescal, is a large boulder and plaque, marked No. 881, commemorating Los Angeles Long Wharf. It was a wooden pier that stretched nearly a mile out to sea. It was the longest wooden pier in the world, at 4,720 feet. It was constructed in 1893 by Southern Pacific Railroad to serve as Los Angeles’ primary port. A few years later, San Pedro was selected as the official port of L.A. The long wharf lost business and was torn down. Now, there is no trace of it, but the marker.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Malibu, according to www.weather.com, was 104 degrees on Sept. 26, 1963. The lowest temp ever was on March 21, 1952, at 33 degrees. It has never been freezing here. One only one other date did it ever reach 100 degrees. That was on Nov. 1, of all dates, in 1966. On average, the warmest month is September; the coolest is January. If you add in the mountains and look for records in the area that covers the 90265 ZIP code, there was a 116-degree temp recorded on Aug. 24, 1985, and an 18-degree reading on Feb. 6, 1989.
You can add your contact info on the Malibu city Web site to be updated on emergencies. Might be a good idea. See the bottom of city Web site at www.malibucity.org and click on the emergency notifications tab.
Still waiting to see the very first person ever to be sitting, relaxing and reading on a Legacy Park bench that faces PCH.
The first jail ever in Malibu was in 1933 at the La Costa courthouse. Moonshadows’ original name was Canfield’s Big Rock Cafe. The first traffic light ever in Malibu, besides at Topanga in 1951, was at Webb Way in 1955. The original phone prefix in Malibu was 456. Malibu’s first newspaper was called the Malibu Bugle, in 1942. For most of the coastline, the depth of the water is only about 50 feet for the first half-mile out. When you enter the McClure Tunnel in Santa Monica heading toward Malibu, you face more south than north.
Have you been to the top of the mountain? Did you know you could get to the top of the mountain with just a 1.5-mile hike? The highest point in all the Santa Monica Mountains is Sandstone Point, at 3,111 feet elevation. It is located just inside the Ventura County Line. You can hike to it just a mile and a half off the road. Look it up, along with Boney Mountain, on the Internet. You will find there is a place to park along Yerba Buena Road, about a mile east of the Circle X Ranch. At the top, the views are amazing. Be warned the ascent is steep, but don’t stop until you find a monument marker and there is no higher place to go.
Now that environmentalists control everyone and everything, let’s review the big stories of the past three years: 2009 – Environmentalists not happy with Trancas Park; 2010 – Environmentalists sue to stop Legacy Park; 2011 – Environmentalists against the improvement of Lagoon park.
At least in the lagoon fight, it is environmentalist extremists versus environmentalist zealots. So they all get to see what it is like.
I wish the statue of the little girl that has been reading by herself for the past 20 years in the Colony Plaza outside Starbucks could meet the statue of the little boy who has been playing in the sand by himself the past 10 months on the north end of Legacy Park.
It may be true that Ronald McDonald, Jack-in-the-Box and Colonel Sanders all do business here in Malibu, but only one of them actually lives here, among the dozens of other huge celebrities: Jack.
If you have good Malibu trivia to share for future columns, I am open to ideas. Email me at rickmalibu@aol.com.
The two historical landmarks in Malibu? One is the Adamson House, site No. 966, the Spanish Revival Colonial home at Surfrider Beach, built in 1929 and featuring the decorative ceramic tiles produced by the Malibu Potteries Company, in existence from 1926-1932. And site No. 965 is the Headlands of Point Dume, named by explorer George Vancouver in 1793 after his friend, Father Francisco Dumetz of the Mission San Buenaventura up north. It is the western terminus of the Santa Monica Bay.
Sometimes it is worth remembering the reason we chose to live in Malibu. Besides the proximity to Los Angeles and Hollywood, and besides its beauty, ultimately it is the shoreline that draws us here. With a hundred places to access it, that thin strip of sand represents the most spiritual place on earth. It is at the beach that we walk and almost surely find serenity, whether alone or with others, in good times and in bad. After all, there is no other place where the land, sea and air converge at such an apex … The land mass stretches 3,000 miles in one direction all the way to Nova Scotia. The sea stretches 8,000 miles to the Philippines. The coastline virtually runs the entire width of the globe. And the air stretches to the heavens. No wonder a person can feel a spiritual unity with all existence at such a place. We have it here in Malibu.