Malibu Lagoon is an estuary formed by a spit on the north shore of Santa Monica Bay that partially encloses the mouth of Malibu Creek, about 26 miles (42 km) west of downtown Los Angeles and in the community of Malibu, California. The name ‘malibu’ is derived from a historical Chumash village situated on the lagoon called ‘Humaliwu’, meaning ‘the surf sounds loudly’ in the Hokan language. Santa Monica Bay is a bight situated between Point Dume to the west and the Palos Verdes Peninsula to the southeast. The tributaries of Malibu Creek start at elevations near 3,000 feet (910 m) in the Santa Monica Mountains and the mainstem flows generally south-southeast for 14 miles (23 km), draining a watershed of 69,760 acres (28,231 ha). The spit is formed by the eastward alongshore transport of beach sands. The southern flank of the Santa Monica Mountains, including the watershed of Malibu Creek, is formed by rocks of the Topanga Formation which includes the Fernwood and Cold Creek Members of the Topanga Canyon Formation, the Conejo Volcanics, and the Calabasas Formation which are severely deformed by a regional fault system that extends for about 128 miles (206 km) along the coast from the city of Los Angeles to the east, along the south flank of the Santa Monica Mountains and through the northern Channel Islands.
Malibu Creek represents the boundary between the Chumash tribes who lived to the west and northwest, and the Tongva people who inhabited the territory to the east and south. The principal village of this region was Humaliwu. In 1797, the Spanish established Mission San Fernando in the north-central San Fernando Valley, and the mission conscripted many of the Chumash people from Humaliwu. In 1804, a land grant of 13,316 acres (5,389 ha) called Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit in the Santa Monica Mountains and adjacent coast was given by Spanish Governor José Joaquín de Arrillaga to José Bartolomé Tapia. In 1848, Tapia’s widow, Maria Francisca Mauricia Villalobo, sold the rancho to her grandson-in-law, Leon Victor Prudhomme who was also granted Rancho Cucamonga. In 1857, the land was sold to Irishman Matthew Keller and eleven years after Keller’s death, the rancho was sold to Boston and Los Angeles businessman and philanthropist Frederick Hastings Rindge in 1891. He and his wife, Rhoda May Knight Rindge, developed the property with a wharf and railroad and a 50-room mansion overlooking the lagoon. In 1926, the property was opened to development and the Malibu Colony was one of the first areas with private homes and is now a private enclave for wealthy celebrities with multimillion-dollar homes on small lots.
Development surrounding the lagoon over the years has greatly modified the basin and introduced contaminants. In 1983, a restoration effort was initiated when the California Department of Parks and Recreation purchased the property, removed a historical dump site and eventually converted the land back into a lagoon. But the original lagoon hydrology and configuration were not replicated, and the basin quickly accumulated sediments that compromised benthic invertebrates and fishes. In 2012, the California State Coastal Conservancy, in partnership with the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, Heal the Bay, and California State Department of Parks and Recreation, developed the Malibu Lagoon Restoration and Enhancement Project to enhance water quality and restore habitat conditions at Malibu Lagoon. The project involved the excavation of 12 acres (5 ha) in the western half of the lagoon to improve tidal flushing. Today, Malibu Creek and lagoon connects to the Pacific Ocean at a world renowned surfing and recreational destination called Malibu Surfrider Beach, which receives approximately 1.5 million visitors every year. Read more here and here. Explore more of Malibu Lagoon and Santa Monica Bay here:
