Rancho Los Alamitos: Ever Changing, Always the Same

Rancho Los Alamitos: Ever Changing, Always the Same by Lavender, David. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781597141482.

Rancho Los Alamitos is a place soaked through in time and history. Rooted in sacred ground and located under temperate skies, Rancho Los Alamitos is a microcosm of Southern California with a history reflecting every decade from the late-eighteenth-century Alta California of New Spain to the headlong American present of Long Beach, California. Filled with fascinating detail and intriguing characters, Rancho Los Alamitos begins over two thousand years ago, when the land was known as Povuungna, an important ancestral village of the Tongva people. By the early twentieth century, Rancho Los Alamitos had become the home and working ranch of Fred and Florence Bixby, whose idyllic way of life was supported by a newly discovered cache of crude oil buried deep within the ground. Letters, diaries, ledgers, and historic photos paired with lively text explore in detail the living dreams, triumphs, and travails of not only the owners and the workers but also the Tongva people who continue to revere this sacred ground today. The resilience of Rancho Los Alamitos comes from the depth of its cultural and natural diversity, a ready well of renewal, but its legacy echoes the enduring meaning of Povuungna. This is a place of new beginning, a place of value ever changing and always the same.