Historic City Sites Go Back--Way Back

In 1965, paleontologists for the Los Angeles County Museum made a significant fossil find in Costeau Park: 50,000-year-old bones, many belonging to creatures such as camels, mammoths and saber-tooth cats, all long extinct.

Tonight, the City Council will consider recognizing Costeau Park and two other sites as historically significant places in Laguna Hills.

Costeau Park, Fossil Reef Park and the recently discovered adobe site that once belonged to South County pioneer Juan Avila would be marked by plaques explaining their significance.

“It’s important to know where we came from,” said Kim Mahoney, who manages the city’s recreation department. “It’s also a good educational tool that would be wonderful for teachers.”

The area where the fossils were found is now covered by grass, trees, sidewalks and playground equipment in Costeau Park at Costeau Street and Alicia Parkway.

“More than 2,000 bones were found there,” said Marilyn Morgan, owner of RMW Paleo Associates of Mission Viejo, an archeological consulting firm.

“There were a lot of streams coming down into the area, and the animals were probably washed down in the streams. The dig was primarily the first evidence in South County of the Pleistocene age about 50,000 years ago, when herds of animals roamed in Southern California.”

Fossil Reef Park, on Via Lomas near Alicia Parkway, has a deposit of fossils from an era when most of the region was under water. Many of the fossils have been removed, but the rocky outlines of shells and tiny shrimp-like creatures can still be seen.

The Avila adobe site, near a creek bed beneath Interstate 5 and Alicia Parkway, is nothing more than brush now. But it was once the home of Juan Avila, a rich rancher who owned huge stretches of property in South County.

Mahoney said she is proposing a hiking and biking map of the three sites, which are all about a mile apart.

One of the reasons for recognizing the sites is to make residents aware of Laguna Hills’ heritage, Councilwoman Melody Carruth said.

“These are resources that are vastly underused in the city,” she said. “I think it’s important to make sure that citizens are aware of our city’s past.”