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Signal Hill
Land area : approx. 2.2 square miles
 Signal
Hill is located in the southernmost region of Los Angeles County.
One of the few cities in the United States surrounded 360 degrees by one other city
(Long Beach),
it overlooks Long Beach harbor with the nation's busiest port, Long Beach
Airport and several freeway systems passing through Long Beach. Unlike
sections of Long Beach such as Belmont Shore with personal zip codes, Signal
Hill is a completely separate, incorporated city.
Comprised of residential, commercial
and industriall properties, Signal Hill was previously known
for its oil drills
and derricks that rose to the sky, and in fact, evidence of knowledge of oil and tar appear
in its earliest history. Crude that welled up naturally was used for a
variety of purposes.
In 1922 a gusher that took four days to cap
was greeted by the cheers of a crowd
that gathered to watch. Several years later in 1924 the City of Signal Hill was
incorporated. Ranches and mansions quickly disappeared from the area
and were replaced with a forest of oil towers on "Porcupine Hill".
Roads were paved, refineries sprang up, fires raged and were extinguished
and some people became wealthy almost overnight. Because of oil
production, land which normally would have been prime property for housing
was held at bay during the city's 75+ years of oil yields.
art -
public art
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Photo © Debbie Stock
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Photo © Debbie Stock
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Hilltop Park (pictured in photos on this page) offers
one of the best views in Los Angeles. The smoke signal (seen
above- right) alludes to the very long history of the use of a site
which inspired the naming of the city. Spanish immigrants called
it Loma Sental and wrote in their records that around 1500, Puvuvitam
Indians used the hill to signal their relations living 26 miles way on
Pimu (Santa Catalina Island). Creating smoke signals seen for miles,
the fires were observed by Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo when
he sailed into the region called it the "Bay of Smokes". Spanish Padres
continued the tradition of building fires on the hill and today, the fire
still burns symbolically at the Hilltop Park monument.
Photo © Debbie Stock
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Also on view at Hilltop Park are several shadow art frames
like the one pictured above. A placard tells exactly what you are
looking at through the frame. There are also photos and plaques with
historical data included on this web page. Picnic tables, public
restrooms and paved walking paths at the park make it an enjoyable spot
to visit.
Although Spain claimed all the Americas in 1492, including
Signal Hill by Right of Discovery, the actual Spanish settlement of Alta
California began in 1769 with the building of a mission in San Diego. As
a result, Signal Hill's first owner of record was Manuel Nieto, who received
a Spanish land grant from King Carlos III of Spain in 1784. Over
the years the land was used for breeding of horses, cattle and sheep farms,
and cultivation of large fields of flowers. The hill was viewed as the
perfect place for a water source, and in the early 1900's with profits
from their dairy business, the Deni family constructed a water tower and
mansion. A thin layer of earth separates guests from Signal Hill's
unseen water source -- a 1.2 million gallon reservoir of water below Hilltop
Park.
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