A brief history lesson....

While working today at Bouff Tower at Cabrillo Beach, I was approached by two men, older, one with a video camera. They introduced themselves as filmmakers that making a documentary of the Angels Gate Lighthouse in San Pedro. They asked me what the ruins at the base of the cliffs at Cabrillo Beach were, and I told them the story about the place. They were super stoked about all the shit I knew and asked me tons of questions.

I thought I knew a little more about the history of the neighborhoods, but these guys knew a ton of awesome stories about the history of San Pedro, Palos Verdes, Long Beach, etc.... After talking for about half an hour,(tells you how mellow my day was!) I found out that in the late 1800's, a ship carrying gold for Wells Fargo, and a few sketchy businessmen, sank shortly after leaving the docks. The thing basically blew up after catching fire, and all the gun powder was set off. Most the crew were killed, but many members of the crew survived and documented what happened. Ends up Wells Fargo lost only a few thousand dollars, but as these guys did their researh, they found out that supposedly a $100 million in gold was onboard that vessel. These guys even were able to get in touch with the historian for Wells Fargo, and several other family members of big name families (Banning, Huntington, etc...) and confirmed that nobody really treid to retrieve the gold because they didn't really have the technology to do it back then.

Ends up people forgot about the gold, and eventually, the United States Gov't made/built/created an island and the Port of Los Angeles right on top of the ruins. There is $100 M that nobody will ever see...

CRAZY!

Relating to a previous blog, today I got to see something pretty neat. Personally, I have been fortunate to have been on the set for a few tv shows, movies, and commercials. The people don't really affect me, but todays set was amazing. The funny thing is that I am not a huge fan of this series of movies, but ships amaze me! Pirates of the Carribean III is currently being shot in various places, but THE BLACK PEARL was directly right behind my tower and today had some awesome stuff going on. The Black Pearl is built on top of a barge and although it can move and is the water, th barge is tied to the docks. The ship was HUGE and looked so neat somewhat up close. As I glanced at it with my binoculars, I can see guys with cameras hanging from the rafters, filming inside the ship. The coolest part was that there were a dozen + boats with huge fog makers blowing their creation in copious amounts! Enough to make the ship almost disappear. Amazing. I have sailed several tallships in my life, but the faux Black Pearl is fucken ginormous.


Quick SoCal History notes!
* Did you know that Long Beach was a city created by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce?
*Did you know that Long Beach was once the richest city in the World?
* Did you know that 4 people were killed by bears in Palos Verdes during 1920-1922? 4 more by mountain lions!
*There is a tribe of native people, approx 2000 bc, that lived on the same land that I am currently typing from. Many folks thing they were aliens.
Hahaha! Seriously!