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February 25th in Seal Beach History

Written by

Michael Dobkins

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On this date in 1948, a Oregon newspaper, the Corvallis Gazette-Times, ran the following ad for Dow Chemical.

It doesn’t really grant much opportunity for nostalgia, but Dow Chemical had a plant along the San Gabriel River from 1940 well into the 1960s. There are no postcards or historical markers, but for about a fourth of the 20th Century, Seal Beach was known to some of the country only as one of the branches of the Great Western Division of The Dow Chemical Company.

feb_25_48_dow_chemical_ad– Michael Dobkins

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Comments

3 responses to “February 25th in Seal Beach History”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Hi Michael,
    I took interest in this post. My father, Miles Privett was the Maintenance supervisor at Dow, Seal Beach from 1946 until they closed the facility. The operation was mainly research and development. many chemist and research of future products for Dow. They harvested iodine and it was used for some product. The weed killer mentioned in your post was marketed as “Dowpon” but was not manufactured at the Seal Beach facility.

    There was a iodine brine pit on the property and who knows where the contents of that mess is today.

    Anyway, I am a 76 year resident of Seal Beach and really enjoy your history posts. keep up the good work.

    David Privett

    Reply
    1. Michael Dobkins Avatar
      Michael Dobkins

      Thanks for the kind and informative comment — especially the correction! Other than one or two references to the river smelling a little… odd, Dow is all but forgotten in Seal Beach today. You wouldn’t happen to have any photos from that era, would you?

      Reply
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