Hancock Park—La Brea

Los Angeles County · Fairfax and Wilshire, Los Angeles · location approximate

On this site were exhumed hundreds of thousands of bones of prehistoric animals which had been entrapped during the ice age in pools of tar that bubbled from beneath the ground. First historic reference to the pools recorded by Gaspar de Portolá, 1769, as part of old Rancho La Brea land grant in 1840; first scientific excavations made by the University of California, 1906. Presented to the County of Los Angeles, 1916, by Captain G. Allan Hancock to be developed as a scientific monument.

1971 register text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people; the state's landmark listings still carry most of this wording, and the California Office of Historic Preservation maintains the program's current texts.

Many of these plaques have since been recast or their texts revised. The California Historical Landmarks program and its current texts are maintained by the California Office of Historic Preservation. California Office of Historic Preservation ↗

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Marker data: State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, California Historical Landmarks (1971)

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