A Quickie Historical Visit

We did something out of the ordinary today: stopped by one of the local historical sites to gain a little more knowledge about Long Beach. The Rancho Los Cerritos sits in the Bixby Knolls area of Long Beach -- a well-to-do area with multi-million dollar homes and adjacent to the Virginia Country Club. The original parcel of land -- about 27,000 acres -- was bought in the 1840s by John Temple, and in 1844, he built a two-story adobe house on a knoll overlooking all the valleys and meadows stretching toward the ocean. In 1856, Flint, Bixby and Company purchased the land from Temple and began a very prosperous sheep ranching operation. In 1866, Jotham Bixby purchased the land from the Flint brothers, and from then on, most of the Bixby family called Rancho Los Cerritos home. (This information can be found on the History section of the Rancho's website.)

Fun fact: this tree is actually two Australian Moreton Bay Fig trees, planted in the 1860s.

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