History
For geologic epochs the river ran freely across arid grasslands and through riparian zones and extensive marshes to the Pacific Ocean, flooding in the winter and spring then running nearly dry in the summer and fall. Once out of the mountains, the river's course would change frequently with every heavy inundation. Sometimes, the river would change course to run into the Los Angeles River in the west, and sometimes the Santa Ana River's floodwaters would travel westwards into the San Gabriel from Santa Ana Canyon.
The San Gabriel River basin was historically part of the homeland, for over 8,000 years, of the Tongva—Gabrieleño Native American people. Together with the Los Angeles and Santa Ana Rivers, the San Gabriel River provided sustenance for thousands of members of this powerful coastal tribe whose territory extended across the entire Los Angeles basin, San Fernando Valley, and Channel Islands. The Tongva had permanent settlements and temporary hunting and foraging camps in their territory.
In 1771, the Spanish invaded and founded Mission San Gabriel Arcángel which was originally built on the banks of the Rio Hondo, a tributary of the San Gabriel River in the Whittier Narrows, in 1771. After being flooded in 1776 it was relocated to the location, now in the present day City of San Gabriel. The river's Spanish name is from the mission's. The Spanish colonizers also renamed the Tongva people, as the Gabrieleño Mission Indians after they were relocated to the mission.
After California was admitted to the United States in 1850, the Pueblo de Los Angeles founded in 1781, grew into the City of Los Angeles. In this period, agriculture and ranching, on the lands of the former Spanish and Mexican land grant Ranchos, were the primary economy of the San Gabriel River basin. When the railroads arrived, and especially after the Los Angeles Aqueduct began service in 1913, the development booms in the basin expanded greatly, creating many of the towns and cities that now line the San Gabriel River. Some were named after their founders and others, such as Azusa, derived from the location's Tongva language settlement placename, although the contemporary motto of that city is "everything from 'A' to 'Z' in the 'USA'."
Read more about this topic: San Gabriel River (California)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“It may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration recorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews—Micah, Isaiah, and the rest—who took no count whatever of what might not happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point should not by and by be reached by the Gentiles.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)