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The Aguaje de Centinela, or Centinela Springs, was a valued source of local
spring water
A spring is a natural exit point at which groundwater emerges from an aquifer and flows across the ground surface as surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere, as well as a part of the water cycle. Springs have long been important f ...
for
Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela
Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela was a Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California given in 1837 to Ygnacio Machado. The name means "Sentinel of the Waters" in Spanish, and refers to the artesian water in the area exemplifi ...
and what is now southwest
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
and
Inglewood Inglewood may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Inglewood, Queensland
* Shire of Inglewood, Queensland, a former local government area
*Inglewood, South Australia
*Inglewood, Victoria
*Inglewood, Western Australia
Canada
* Inglewood, Ontario
*Inglewoo ...
in Southern California. The spring was known to prehistoric people and animals but the name ''
aguaje'', meaning watering place, comes from Spanish–Mexican era of California history.
Hydrology/history
The springs were “known to the Indians from ancient times,” and the Mexican land grant of 1837 that encompassed the land that is today Inglewood was named after the springs, the “sentinel of waters,” thus
Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela
Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela was a Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California given in 1837 to Ygnacio Machado. The name means "Sentinel of the Waters" in Spanish, and refers to the artesian water in the area exemplifi ...
. (''Aguaje'' here means “water hole.”)

The spring water was used for watering livestock and agriculture during most of the 19th century. In early days, “Water was once diverted from the runoff of Centinela Springs, from the big draw, along Grevillea Street, as far as Olive Street and thence to Oak Street. The canal was lined with
willows
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions.
Most species are known ...
, and the stream was used to water sheep.”
According to a history of groundwater management in the west basin region of Los Angeles, “In the late 1800s, ground water levels were very high, with heavy artesian flow from wells and swampy conditions in low-lying lands. Around 1870, the West Basin communities of Inglewood and
Long Beach
Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...
began to tap artesian wells and springs in the area of the
Newport-Inglewood Uplift.”
According to a latter-day Inglewood water engineer, “The largest Centinela spring was located near the present site of the swimming pool” at
Centinela Park
Edward Vincent Jr. Park is a municipal park in Inglewood, Los Angeles County, California. Originally Centinela Park, the historic location was renamed in 1997 to honor Edward Vincent Jr., the first African-American mayor of the city."Lawsuit F ...
.
Circa 1887, ”Colonel W.H. Hall, ex-state engineer, has discovered by experimenting than an extensive
artesian belt underlies the country between Los Angeles and Centinela Springs, and solves the problem that water can be obtained in this section by artesian wells.” The springs were described in an 1888 California state report on the “irrigation question”:
:“South and west of the main crest of the Centinela hills, at the head of an
arroyo which, cutting into their western slope, leads around three or four miles into
Ballona Creek
Ballona Creek (pronunciation: "Bah-yo-nuh" or "Buy-yo-nah"
) is an channelized stream in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was once a "year-round river lined with sycamores and willows". The urban watercourse be ...
, opposite the irrigation district just described, is an uprising of waters known as the Centinela Springs. This is probably an output of the same general
artesian source lying east of the ridge, caused by the overlapping of some of the permeable gravel strata through a low sag in the primary formation. Indeed, borings, which have been made, quite well establish this idea.
:“''Water-supply and use—''The springs naturally flowed twenty to thirty
miner’s inches, and have recently been developed to yield something over fifty inches, as explained elsewhere. The waters were, for a number of years, used in a comparatively rude fashion in the irrigation of a mixed orchard, containing about one hundred and forty acres [], near a mile [] away, and to which they were led in a little earthen ditch. Now they are piped into a reservoir and in part pumped to a higher reservoir for the service, under pressure, of the town of Inglewood.”
Also in 1888 an Inglewood booster wrote the ''Los Angeles Herald'' of a “tunnel near Centinela Springs…being dug to tap additional springs, which have been located by the engineers.”

An 1890 report to the
U.S. Congress
The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...
said the springs had been developed by “excavation and artesian wells.” Daily capacity at that time was 900,000
U.S. gallons?">U.S._gallon_per_day.html" ;"title="o units listed; U.S. gallon per day">U.S. gallons? A book about California produced for the World's Columbian Exposition">1893 World's Fair
The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ce ...
reported, “[The town of Inglewood] is well-supplied with water from the celebrated Centinela springs, which is distributed by gravity, all over the townsite through an elaborate system of pipes.” More wells were dug in 1895: “Mr.
D. Freeman has just completed two wells north of his ranch house, and is now developing more artesian water at Centinela springs. One hundred inches of water is now flowing, and as there is an abundance of water at a depth of 100 feet, several hundred more inches will he secured for irrigation in
Olive Branch colony, south of town.”
:WATER SUPPLY—Source, Inglewood springs and artesian wells; system pumping to reservoir, capacity 500,000 gals.; pump, dy. capacity 1,250,000 gals.; 3 hydrants; pipe 18 miles; 105 taps. Waterworks owned by company; ann. ex. $750.
The city of Inglewood was incorporated in 1908 and as of the
1910 census
The 1910 United States census, conducted by the Census Bureau on April 15, 1910, determined the resident population of the United States to be 92,228,496, an increase of 21 percent over the 76,212,168 persons enumerated during the 1900 census. ...
had a population of 1,536. When the land from which the springs flowed was still owned by an independent water company (prior to acquisition by the City of Inglewood), likely in the early 1910s, “Once at an exposition at the
Shrine Auditorium
The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in Los Angeles, California. It is also the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the Shriners. It was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 139) in 1975, an ...
in Los Angeles the water company’s exhibit consisted of samples of Inglewood water, and it proved so popular with the thousands who sampled it, that
. WarrenLane conceived the idea of selling
bottled water
Bottled water is drinking water (e.g., Water well, well water, distilled water, Reverse osmosis, reverse osmosis water, mineral water, or Spring (hydrology), spring water) packaged in Plastic bottle, plastic or Glass bottle, glass water bott ...
from Centinela Springs, and the idea had advanced to the stage where it was proposed to put white tile and glass housing around the spring where the public could come and see under what clean and healthful condition the water was bottled.”
“Centinela Springs used to gush from the ground, as did wells elsewhere in
this Valley, at
Pomona and elsewhere, while now the water level is or farther beneath the surface,” reported the ''Los Angeles Times'' in 1936. There was concern that “the water level here and elsewhere in the Southland has sunk to such an extent that many of the finest old trees of original pioneer plantings are now dying from lack of moisture and plant food…Mr.
arren Arren may refer to:
* Arren Bar-Even (1980–2020), Israeli biochemist and biologist
* Arren, a major character in ''The Farthest Shore'' and ''The Other Wind'', fantasy novels by Ursula K. Le Guin
* Arrën
Arrën is a village and a former munic ...
Lane planted many of the old trees nearly half a century ago.”.
By the early 1930s, water extraction had “overdrawn” the bank of groundwater in the area: “The entire coastal area of West Basin from Ballona Escarpment to
Palos Verdes Hills was intruded by salt water
lowing inland underground from the Pacific Ocean”
In Roy Rosenberg's ''History of Inglewood: Narrative and Biographical'' (1938), two years after the first report of concern in the ''Los Angeles Times'', the water was already lower: “The water level has lowered from the time it gushed out as a veritable cascade from Centinela Springs until now it has to be pumped below the surface of the ground, and is lowering at a rate of per year.”
By the time of the
1940 census
The 1940 United States census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 132,164,569, an increase of 7.6 percent over the 1930 population of 122,775,046 people. The census date of record was A ...
, the population of Inglewood had increased to 30,114, and demand on municipal water was growing apace. In 1949, the city of Inglewood petitioned to join the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a regional wholesaler and the largest supplier of treated water in the United States. The name is usually shortened to "Met," "Metropolitan," or "MWD." It is a cooperative of fourteen cit ...
and joined the West Basin Water Association at the same time, effectively ending its era of groundwater extraction.
At the time of the placement of the California Historic Landmark recognition in 1970, Inglewood's chief water engineer reported that none of the existing wells were deep enough to reach whatever remained of the
aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...
below the park.
Monuments
California Historical Landmark
A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in the U.S. state of California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance.
Criteria
Historical significance is determined by meetin ...
marker 363 is located at the corner of Centinela Ave. and Florence Blvd. in the city of Inglewood, California, and is one of two monuments to the tapped-out Centinela Springs located in
Edward Vincent Jr. Park (formerly Centinela Park).
The older springs monument at the park dates to the Great Depression era and was designed by
Archibald Garner, who also created the “Centinela Springs” mahogany wood carving for the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
Section of Fine Arts
Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea
* Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents
** Section sig ...
at the Hillcrest Avenue post office building. The text of the first marker, which was originally designed to offer separate drinking fountains for man, horse and dog, reads:
:FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL GOD'S BLESSING OF SWEET WATER TO ALL HIS CREATURES
:MARKED BY CALIFORNIA HISTORY AND LANDMARKS CLUB MARCH 2, 1939
The newer marker was placed 30 years later and is part of the California Historic Landmarks system.
Text of California marker:
:AGUAJE DE LA CENTINELA (CENTINELA SPRINGS)
:ON THIS SITE BUBBLING SPRINGS ONCE FLOWED FROM THEIR SOURCE IN A DEEP WATER BASIN WHICH HAS EXISTED CONTINUOUSLY SINCE THE PLEISTOCENE ERA. PREHISTORIC ANIMALS, INDIANS, AND EARLY INGLEWOOD SETTLERS WERE ATTRACTED HERE BY THE PURE ARTESIAN WATER. THE SPRINGS AND VALLEY WERE NAMED AFTER SENTINELS GUARDING THE CATTLE IN THE AREA.
:CALIFORNIA REGISTERED HISTORICAL LANDMARK NO. 363
:PLAQUE PLACED BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION IN COOPERATION WITH THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF CENTINELA VALLEY, OCTOBER 9, 1976.
Gallery
External links
Public Art in Inglewood: Centinela Springs at post office
Huntington Library: 1880s promotional map of Inglewood including colorized photograph/lithograph of Centinela Springs
See also
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References
{{Inglewood, California
Springs of Los Angeles County, California
Inglewood, California
History of Los Angeles
19th century in Los Angeles
California Historical Landmarks