Monday, October 3, 2022

Witness to History: The Eagle Tree of Rancho San Pedro

 

The Eagle Tree in 1952. 
Courtesy of the Gerth Archives and Special Collection, CSU Dominguez Hills

“Beginning at a Sycamore tree….”

Thus begins the legal description of the borders of the Rancho San Pedro as proclaimed by President Buchanan in 1858. In fact, the tree served as a literal landmark throughout the long, convoluted, and contentious ownership history of the Rancho, beginning with a Spanish survey of 1817. It stood at roughly the Northeast corner of the land claimed by the Dominguez family. Some have noted that, without the continued existence of the tree, the family would have had a much harder time proving ownership of their lands as California went from Spanish to Mexican to American rule.

In early California, land surveys depended on immovable landmarks from which measurements could be taken in lengths of rope or chain. The 1857 survey map attached to the American land patent notes the tree as “Stake 1: Place of beginning.” Other landmarks along the rancho boundary line include “pile of stones,” “three rocks,” San Pedro pond,” “four rocks,” “rocks in water,” “old wagon road,” “Sepulveda’s dwelling and salt works,” and more than one “witness post,” markers placed at sharp turns in the boundary line where no other landmark could be found. It is easy to understand that most, if not all, of these “immovable” landmarks have long since disappeared from the landscape. The Eagle Tree, perhaps 300 years old or more, was likely the last. Even the Los Angeles River, the eastern boundary of the Rancho, was not a permanent fixture, moving as much as half a mile during floods.

The tree through the years

The sycamore probably sprouted early in the 18th century, if not earlier, well before the rancho era. Tall trees were rare in the area until the mid-19th century and the tree must have stood out on the dusty plains. At some point after it had grown to a significant height it became known as the Eagle Tree due no doubt to the birds that perched in its branches. While the Eagle Tree outlived many landmarks, the metropolis grew up all around it. In recent decades it stood behind fencing between apartment buildings in a dusty right of way owned by Standard Oil Company, later Chevron, at East Poppy and North Short Avenues in Compton. A plaque recognizing the tree’s significance to the Rancho San Pedro was placed at the base of it in 1947 by the Native Daughters of the Golden West.

The 1857 survey that informed the American land grant notes that the tree measured 60 inches (five feet) in diameter; A century later historian Robert Gillingham reported the tree at six feet in diameter and 60 feet high.  A bit of high school math calculates the circumference at approximately nineteen feet.

On April 7 of this year the Eagle Tree collapsed into an adjacent parking lot. Without any perceived trigger for the event, we can assume it was rotten from the inside. It had likely been dead for some time. A few days later the carcass was lifted out by crane and taken to a nearby utility property for safekeeping. A number of citizens have advocated for a permanent home for the remnant trunk, but at this writing its fate is unknown.


The main trunk of the fallen Eagle Tree is moved to storage. Photo courtesy of Kim Cooper, Esotouric Tours. See more photos on their blog post: The Eagle Tree: Dead or Alive? 

What remains

While the Eagle Tree is gone, several small saplings remain, likely direct descendants of the mother tree. We can hope that one or more of these will be allowed to grow and thrive at the site while others, perhaps, may be transplanted to other locations. The much-defaced plaque remains, hidden behind the fencing.

A few years ago, artist Alvaro D. Marquez used bits of a fallen branch of the tree in an art installation titled “The Eagle Tree is a Witness” which he exhibited at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Others are now brainstorming ways to memorialize this witness to history.

Detail of 1859 land grant showing the northern border between Rancho San Antonio and Rancho San Pedro. The sycamore tree is indicated at the "Place of beginning."


A version of this story appeared in The Museum Review, Fall 2022, the newsletter of the Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum.


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