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Tag: Naval Weapons Station

  • October 19th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1949, Seal Beach residents woke to discover that during the night frigid fifty miles per hour winds and rough waves had torn the Super Express fishing boat from its moorings at Seal Beach pier and smashed the boat upon the Seal Beach Naval Ammunition Depot breakwater, leaving a gaping hole in the hull.

    As dramatic as this event was to the normally sedate Seal Beach, it was just one of many similar incidents spread across Southern California. Flights at LAX airport had been grounded. Boats had been beached at Santa Monica and Redondo Beach. The Monstad Pier in Redondo Beach had a section torn apart by waves. Several inches of sand had blown on to Pacific Coast Highway, stranding automobiles and buses. Trees were toppled, and some communities went without electricity for a few hours. Daylight brought calmer weather, and repairs and clean-up efforts began.

    In Seal Beach, the Super Express was beached, and the hole was repaired with a temporary canvas patch to make the vessel seaworthy enough to be towed to the San Pedro Boat Works. The canvas patch prove too temporary for the entire trip and peeled, and the boat sank in what must have been shallow water. It was re-floated, re-patched, and towed to safely to San Pedro for more substantial repairs.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • August 31st in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1972, the Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram reported that President Richard Millhouse Nixon signed legislation to set up a wildlife refuge inside the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.

    1200px-Nixon_edited_transcripts

    The refuge was described by the White House as “the last pristine salt water marsh on the Southern California coast.” The legislation allocated $522,000 through fiscal year 1977 for the Department of the Interior to develop the refuge to accommodate visitors.

    Nixon’s family used to visit the ocean at Seal Beach when he was a boy, and his Uncle Lyle once rented an odd and old-fashioned swimsuit that embarrassed young Nixon when other beachgoers laughed at the swimsuit, according Nixon’s book, “in the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat, and Renewal.” 

    RefugeHQ2013_512pix

    The Seal Beach Wildlife Refuge is still going strong forty-five years later. Click here to find out more.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • August 19th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1956, The Los Angeles Times reported on the recent expansion of Seal Beach’s borders.

    Seal Beach had increased from a one square mile beachside city to nine times that size by annexing some private property and what was then known as the Naval Ammunition and Net Depot. The annexation had been completed weeks earlier, and Seal Beach had a certificate from Secretary of State to prove it. This also meant that if the tri-city area of Midway City, Barber City, and Westminster incorporated as one city, Seal Beach’s extension three miles east would result in Bolsa Chica Road becoming the new border between the two cities.

    The expansion was not without opposition. According to City Engineer Hal Marron, “private property-owning interests” objected to the expansion and had won a writ of mandate in Superior Court. The city’s appeal against the writ was pending.

    And that’s where matters stood on August 19th, 1956. So much unsettled, and yet there was enough optimism to stage a photo op with models Bernice Hugn and Marilyn Brechtel installing a new city limits sign at Westminster Avenue and Bolsa Chica Road.

    Aug_19_1956_City_Limits_expansion_photoLater, Midway City decided to remain unincorporated, but Barber City folded into Westminster. And that court appeal? Sixty years later, Bolsa Chica Road is the eastern border of the city, so Seal Beach must have prevailed.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • August 10th in Seal Beach History

     On this date in 1944, a car crash fatality at Main Street and Bolsa Avenue in Seal Beach occurred, according to the Long Beach Independent. An unnamed reporter wrote the next day that “Claud Roland, 23, of the San Diego naval base, was killed at 7:27 last night.”

    12-17-1936 aerial shot of Main Street as it turns into Bolsa Avenue right after crossing PCH

    Roland had been turning on to Bolsa Avenue from Main Street when his tire blew. The car flipped over and skidded almost 30 feet, throwing passengers USMC Sergeant James Johnson of the Corona Navy Hospital and Mrs. June Blackman of Fullerton from the car. Blackman and Johnson suffered some bruises and lacerations, and pedestrians Edward Booker and Joe Jackman, both of the Naval Weapons Depot, couldn’t avoid being hit by the car, but were only slightly injured. The injured were taken to the Long Beach Naval Hospital, according to Seal Beach Police Sergeant Charles Irvine.

    Police Chief Lee Howard, Captain James Morousek, and Sergeant Jack Whittington rushed to the accident scene and struggled to remove Roland from the overturned car wreckage, only to discover his head had been crushed and young Claud Roland was dead.

    A 5/23/1931 aerial shot showing how Bolsa Avenue curved into Main Street at PCH and how Main Street continue up into the farmland on Landing Hill.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • August 5th in Seal Beach History

     On this date in 1978, the Alliance for Survival staged a protest outside the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. The protest was against the purported storage of nuclear weapons at the station, but the stockpiling of nuclear weapons in Seal Beach has never been confirmed by the Defense Department.

    Aug 6_1978_Nuke_Protest
    Photo Credit: AP Laserphoto

    Out of town protesters, some from as far away as Santa Barbara, were bussed in from Cal State Long Beach to join local activists at J.H. McGaugh Intermediate School. Police closed off Seal Beach Boulevard for about two hours to allow an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 marchers and picketers to peacefully demonstrate along the perimeter of the Naval Weapons Station. After the march, a picnic was held at McGaugh with anti-nuke speakers and a rock band.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • July 29th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1921, the following advertisement ran in the Santa Ana Register trumpeting the merits of waterfront lots at Anaheim Landing where you can bathe and fish in your backyard and tie your boat to your front porch. And, unknown to tract agent R. D. Richards, the Navy would be taking over in twenty-three years.

    July_29_1921_Anaheim_Landing_RE_adAn aerial shot of the real bay frontage a few months after this ad ran:

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • June 16th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1954, five civilian employees of the Seal Beach Naval Ammunition and Net Depot escaped serious injury or worse when a five-inch shell exploded in a defusing shop on the installation.

    Four of the men were defusing ordnance using a system of mirrors to watch the work from behind a concrete blast wall. J. L. Turner and L. McKellom were working a levered remote defusing machine at one end of the shop when the shell E. E. Haury and W. F. Nevis were working on with a similar machine at the other end exploded.

    The blast shattered the viewing mirrors and all the windows, and damaged the defusing machine. One corrugated asbestos walls was almost completely ripped while the other three had sections of siding torn from the steel framework of the 75 by 40 foot building.

    But the workers and T. C. Martin, lead ordnance man in charge of the shop were okay. Commander Richard Jewell, base commander attributed this to safety regulations and training set into place by his predecessor, Admiral J. R. McKinney shortly before he retired. He also gave credit to equipment and buildings specially designed for the dangerous work done on the base.

    Nevis and Haury, both former Navy gunnery chiefs, echoed Jewell’s sentiments while examining the two chunks of shrapnel that were all that was left of the exploded shell.

    “Good thing we were following safety regulations,” said Haury.

    “Thank god for that concrete bulkhead. All I got out of it was a plugged up ear,” Nevis observed.

    The damage was estimated at $10,000.

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • June 4th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1937, the City of Seal Beach accepted the new municipally owned water tower. The estimated cost was $48,576 and stood for decades on the land that is now occupied by the Naval Weapons Station.

    June_4_1937_New_Beach_Water_Plant

    – Michael Dobkins

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  • May 20th in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1939, Andy’s Fish Pond ran the following ad in the Santa Ana Register.

    May_20_1939_Andy__039_s_Fish_Pond_adWe know some of our readers have firsthand memories of Anaheim Landing before the Navy took over in 1944. Can any of them pinpoint which building in this 1939 aerial photograph was 2000 Coast Highway? (Click on any of these images for a larger view.)

    1939 Seal Beach
    1939 Seal Beach

    Here’s a closer view of Anaheim Landing.

    1939 Anaheim Landing Close Up
    1939 Anaheim Landing Close Up

    Our guess is that Andy’s Fish Pond was in one of these two buildings.

    1939-Anaheim Bay-Aerial close up circle– Michael Dobkins

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  • March 21st in Seal Beach History

    On this date in 1944, The U.S. Navy formally established an ordnance depot at Anaheim Landing.

    The Orange County war housing commission chairman, Philip Norton (who also had a real estate office at 710 Ocean Ave), announced the seizure of thirty-five thousand acres of beach and tidelands in January of 1944 for the construction of the twenty million dollar ordnance depot. Real estate would be purchased, bridges would be demolished, Anaheim Bay would be dredged to a depth of fifteen feet, and the Pacific Electric line that crossed Anaheim Bay into Surfside would be rerouted.

    The decision meant approximately 2,000 people living in Anaheim Landing would need to vacate by March 21st. The housing commission helped residents relocate, and many Anaheim Landing homes were moved to lots in Westminster and Seal Beach. The popular Glide ‘Er Inn would move a few blocks east to 14th Street. The Seal Beach Airport would be permanently abandoned.

    The speed and urgency applied to the project is understandable considering that the United States military was engaged in a worldwide conflict. Today the outcome of World War II seems inevitable, but in 1944 the future was uncertain, and wartime efforts required full commitment. For most of 1944, the Navy would be transforming what had been a casual small boat harbor into an efficient first class naval installation.

    And Anaheim Landing’s time as a civilian port and recreational attraction came to an ended. The seventy-five year history of what is now known as the Seal Beach Weapons Station was just beginning.

    – Michael Dobkins

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