Dana Point is a prominent headland situated between Dana Point Harbor to the south and Strand Beach to the north, about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Los Angeles and 4 miles (6 km) southwest of San Juan Capistrano, California. The headland is protected from further development by the Dana Point Headlands Conservation Area. The adjacent community of Dana Point is bordered by San Juan Capistrano to the northeast, San Clemente to the southeast, Laguna Beach to the northwest, and Laguna Niguel to the north. The area is named after Richard Henry Dana Jr., a Massachusetts lawyer and politician best known for his memoir Two Years Before the Mast. Geologically, the headland forms part of a coastal plain underlain by sedimentary rocks deposited intermittently from the Late Cretaceous through the Pleistocene in paralic environments such as river deltas, estuaries, and nearshore shelves. These sediments, derived from the Peninsular Ranges, overlie Jurassic and Early Cretaceous igneous and metavolcanic rocks. The Peninsular Ranges stretch for 930 miles (1,500 km) from the Transverse Ranges in southern California to the tip of Baja California and form part of the larger Pacific Coast Ranges extending from Alaska to Mexico. Dana Point’s coastal plain features a sequence of 21 stair-stepped marine terraces, younger from east to west. The local sediments are poorly sorted, moderately permeable, reddish-brown deposits comprising siltstone, sandstone, and conglomerate. They represent strandline, beach, estuarine, and colluvial environments and rest atop emergent wave-cut platforms formed by regional uplift.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Acjachemen people lived in the area for over 10,000 years. Prior to European contact, about 550 Acjachemen resided in permanent villages and seasonal camps. Villages ranged in size from 35 to 300 inhabitants, typically comprising extended families or dominant clans. They built cone-shaped huts from willow branches, covered with brush or tule mats. In 1542, Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo documented coastal villages along southern California and noted the massive headland now known as Dana Point. In 1769, Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, part of the Spanish Portolà expedition, recorded the first European interaction with the Acjachemen—called Juaneño by the Spanish—when the group camped along San Juan Creek. In 1775, Don Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, Viceroy of New Spain, authorized the founding of Mission San Juan Capistrano, named after the 15th-century Franciscan friar John of Capistrano. By the early 1800s, the headland served as grazing land and a stop for ships trading hides with the mission. After Mexico gained independence in 1821, the mission system was gradually dismantled. Although Governor José Figueroa tried to preserve it, the 1833 secularization decree mandated the sale of mission lands to private interests to fund colonization. In 1834, Harvard student Richard Henry Dana, suffering from ophthalmia after contracting measles, joined the merchant brig Pilgrim bound for Alta California. In 1835, the brig visited San Juan Capistrano to collect hides and tallow for shipment to Boston in exchange for merchandise needed by the mission and surrounding ranchos. Five years later, Dana described the high promontory with its natural harbor and tossing cowhides from the cliffs to the small beach below. They were then loaded onto small boats and rowed through the surf to the anchored brig. Dana provided one of the few existing narratives describing the life of mostly illiterate ordinary sailors in the 19th century since most of what we know today comes from the perspective of ship officers. The Franciscans eventually abandoned the mission and in 1844, the property was auctioned off to John Forster who was Governor Pío Pico‘s brother-in-law, and his partner James McKinley.

In 1923, Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler, Pacific Electric Railway director Moses H. Sherman, and homebuilder Sidney H. Woodruff formed the Dana Point Syndicate. They joined other investors, including business executives and film producers, to purchase 1,388 acres (562 ha) encompassing the present-day headland. The group promised paved, tree-lined streets, electricity, phones, sidewalks, water mains, sewers, and storm drains. They built 35 homes and several commercial buildings before the Great Depression halted construction. The project was abandoned in 1939. Construction of Dana Point Harbor began in the late 1960s with breakwater jetties; the marina opened in 1971. In 2005, under pressure from real estate developers, the Center for Natural Lands Management acquired 29.4 acres (12 ha) of headland, aided by a donation from the Harry and Grace Steele Foundation. Today, the Dana Point Headlands Conservation Area encompasses about 60 acres (24 ha). It includes Harbor Point Conservation Park, which offers trails overlooking the harbor and the Nature Interpretive Center; Hilltop Conservation Park, with panoramic city views; South Strand Conservation Park, featuring a trail down to Strand Beach and the Pacific Ocean; and the Dana Point Preserve, managed to protect rare and endangered species. These include the Pacific pocket mouse and the coastal California gnatcatcher. The preserve’s plant communities represent southern California’s native wilderness. Coastal sage scrub—also known as soft chaparral—is dominated by low-growing, pliant plants such as coastal sagebrush and flat-topped buckwheat. Adapted to wet winters, dry summers, and marine fog, this habitat supports diverse wildlife. A second community, coastal bluff scrub, grows along the unstable cliffs, with cliff spurge and California boxthorn as its dominant plants. Read more here and here. Explore more of Dana Point Headlands and San Juan Capistrano here: