Kenneth Hahn

https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=612 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Hahn_State_Recreation_Area Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, or Hahn Park, is a state park unit of California in the Baldwin Hills Mountains of Los Angeles. As one of the largest urban parks and regional open spaces in the Greater Los Angeles Area, many have called it "L.A.'s Central Park".

Our Mission Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook The mission of California State Parks is to provide for the health, inspiration and education of the people of California by helping to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological diversity, protecting its most valued natural and cultural resources, and creating opportunities for high-quality outdoor recreation. One of the last remaining undeveloped hillsides in the Los Angeles basin is returning to its natural state, California State Parks supports equal access. Prior to arrival, visitors with disabilities who need assistance should contact the park at (310) 558-5547. If you need this publication in an alternate format, contact interp@parks.ca.gov. CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS P.O. Box 942896 Sacramento, CA 94296-0001 For information call: (800) 777-0369 (916) 653-6995, outside the U.S. 711, TTY relay service www.parks.ca.gov Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook 6300 Hetzler Road Culver City, CA 90232 (310) 558-5547 www.parks.ca.gov/bhso © 2016 California State Parks with the help of visitors and volunteers. island of hope Developers planned to build a 241-home subdivision, Vista Pacifica, on this hill. Local residents and conservation advocates pushed a lengthy grassroots effort to save one of the few large islands of semi-wild land left in the Los Angeles basin. Although the hill had been graded and its top leveled for housing, park proponents envisioned an oasis in the urban stampede. After six years of fundraising and community activism, this open space became part of nearby Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area (formerly Baldwin Hills SRA) in 2002. Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook opened to the public in 2009. Volunteers and park staff are restoring native plants, hoping to attract once-abundant birds and wildlife back to the Overlook. community supporters Student volunteers from the Baldwin Hills Greenhouse Program plant prickly pear cactus, hoping to attract cactus wrens back to the park. Los Angeles Audubon supports the Baldwin Hills Greenhouse, Restoration, and Leadership programs for students from L.A.’s urban core. Alumni who develop their natural and research skills in these programs return from college to mentor others. V isitors find magnificent panoramic vistas at this 58-acre ecological island in the midst of urban Los Angeles. Earn the view after hiking up a steeply inclined trail or by completing a heart-pumping climb up 282 steps. An uplifting recreational opportunity away from concrete and urban sprawl, Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook’s restored coastal sage scrub habitat invites a closeness with nature. As the land is gradually brought back to its original habitat, animals and native plants are returning, allowing future generations to enjoy them. This park tells an unfolding story of restoration, community, and hope. Park history Native People Evidence shows that humans have lived in this area for about 10,000 years. Traditional Tongva territory encompasses portions of today’s Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties and the four southern Channel Islands. As expert hunters and gatherers with a complex social system, the Tongva were a prosperous, adaptable, and creative people — one of the most populous and wealthy of all California Indian groups. Technological innovations and specialized skills such as building canoes — known as ti’ats — were highly regarded. Rituals, healing, artwork, songs, and extensive oral traditions were central to Tongva culture. Many Tongva villages occupied the fertile basin that is now Los Angeles, including settlements along nearby Ballona Creek. The Tongva were renamed “Gabrieliño” by the Spanish after they recruited the Tongva to build Mission San Gabriel, founded in 1771. Today’s Gabrielino/Tongva people revere and pass along their cultural heritage to future generations. Rancho Period Mexico’s governor Vicente de Sola granted more than 3,000 acres, called Rancho Rincón de los Bueyes (Corner of the Oxen), to Bernardo Higuera and Cornelio Lopez in 1821. The rancho is now present-day Cheviot Hills, Rancho Park, northeast Culver City, and a portion of Baldwin Hills with Ballona Creek. To the west lies 14,000-acre Rancho La Ballona, granted by Governor Juan Alvarado to Ygnacio and Augustin Machado and Felipe and Tomas Talamantes in 1839. The Future site of Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, 1940 former boundary between these two ranchos runs through Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook at the top of the steps. Most of the E.J. “Lucky” Baldwin Baldwin Hills once lay in a third Mexican rancho, Cienega o Paso de la Tijera (Swamp or Pass of the Scissors) granted to Vicente Sanchez in 1843. By 1886, Elias J. “Lucky” Baldwin had acquired most of this rancho. A noted 19th-century pioneer who made his first fortune in gold mining stock, Baldwin owned land and businesses from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe. Earthquakes and Oil Wells The landform known today as Baldwin Hills was uplifted by earthquakes occurring on the Newport