Note from the authors:
This book contains historic facts long captive to the darkness of unused books, documents, reports and photographs. Laced throughout is much previously unpublished Malibu history. Though the focus is on the maritime history of Point Dume, the accounts presented reveal the factors which have shaped the Malibu of today. Illustrations, photographs and documents abound to complement the stories. Footnotes, a bibliography and an extensive index complete this work, the result of decades of experiences and research by the authors.
The Earliest Years
The majesty of Point Dume as a vista out to sea is equaled by its imposing aspect as seen by navigators at sea. For thousands of years the Chumash used it as a point of reference as they guided their canoes among the Channel Islands and the villages of the Malibu and Ventura coast. Their finest technological achievement was the splendid tomol (planked canoe), unique in the New World.
Tomols enabled the Chumash to travel and fish offshore and to carry trade goods along the coast and to the Channel Islands and Catalina.
The southernmost village of the Chumash was Humaliwo, [the Surf Sounds Loudly], located at the mouth of Malibu Creek. On October l0, 1542, the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo named this village el Pueblo de las Canoas [the Town of the Canoes] because so many canoes came from shore to greet his ships. Three days later Cabrillo left Canoas, sailing up the California coast. He passed Point Dume that day. His log noted:
Always there were many canoes because all the coast is heavily inhabited, and there came many Indians to the ships.
Vancouver name Point Dumetz
In 1793, the explorer George Vancouver conducted a survey of California’s Spanish settlements for King George III of England. He sailed southward along the coast in his sloop Discovery, accompanied by the armed tender Chatham. On November 18,1793, he left Santa Barbara for the Mission at San Buenaventura. Vancouver’s diary recorded:
On our entering the mission we were received by Father Francisco Dumetz and entertained in a manner that proved the great respectability of the Franciscan order.
On Saturday, November 23rd, Vancouver left Ventura and continued sailing down the coast. Because the winds were calm, it was not until noon on Sunday, November 24, 1793, that he rounded Point Dume, and his diary recorded:
… by noon on Sunday the 24th, we had only reached the latitude of 33¡54′, on longitude 241¡42′. In this situation, Point Conversion [modern-day Point Mugu] was still in sight … Here the coast took a direction of S.67E., sixteen miles to the north point of a deep bay, off of which lie two or three small rocks. This point I called “Point Dume”.
Francisco Dumetz was born in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, in 1734 and came to New Spain in 1770. He is credited with bringing the first sheep to Alta California. He died on January 14, 1811 at Mission San Gabriel where he is interred. At the time of his death he was the oldest missionary in the territory and the last surviving companion of Fr. Jun”pero Serra, the Spanish missionary under whose leadership the California missions were founded. Since November 24, 1793, Point Dume has carried the name of Fr. Dumetz, though the spelling and pronunciation of this Malibu landmark have been debated for decades.
Further excerpts will be published in the following weeks. “Maritimes Stories of Point Dume and Malibu” is on sale at the Malibu Lagoon Museum Gift Shop.