The Palos Verdes Landfill

Maureen Megowan, a Realtor with Remax Estate Properties in Malaga Cove, provides an article in her series "South Bay History Tid-bits"

During the early 1900's the Dicalite Company began mining diatomaceous earth ( also known as dicalite ) in the area now occupied by the South Coast Botanical Gardens off of Crenshaw Blvd, the former Palos Verdes Landfill site between Hawthorne and Crenshaw, and Ernie Howlett Park off of Hawthorne Blvd, , but at this time it was mostly surface mining. By 1929, open-pit mining was being pursued. In 1944 the mine operation was sold to the Great Lakes Carbon Company (“Great Lakes”)  and mining began in earnest.

By 1956, production of the mine declined and the site was sold to the County of Los Angeles, which then converted the site to a Sanitary Landfill in 1957 .  On Dec. 31, 1980, the Palos Verdes landfill officially closed after having accepted a total of 24 million tons of trash since its opening. Partial restoration of the 291 acre site began with the opening of the 83 acre South Coast Botanic Garden on the eastern end of the site in April 1961, and the construction of the 35 acre Ernie Howlett Park on the site's western side, a project fully completed in 1982.  The remaining 173 acre site between Hawthorne and Crenshaw , however, still remains unimproved except for some horse stables. Recently, the County had considered constructing a golf course, however local opposition killed the project.

The area known as Butcher Hill at the southwest corner of Hawthorne Blvd and Via Valmonte , beginning in 1944, before Hawthorne was extended past the current Via Valmonte in 1965, was part of the dicalite earth mine, and extended into the area now occupied by the Hillside Village shopping center. This is the last remnants of the dicalite open pit mining that had taken place on the north side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

This land had been leased by Great Lakes from the Vanderlip family, that still owned approx.6,800 acres of the original 16,000 acres retained by Frank Vanderlip, Sr. when he sold the land which made up the Palos Verdes Project in the early 1920’s, which later became the City of Palos Verdes Estates. Another rich dicalite deposit was known to exist on a 165-acre tract near the crest of the Peninsula. For two years, Great Lakes had been unsuccessfully attempting to purchase this property from the Vanderlip family. Finally, in July 1953, Great Lakes in a stock transaction purchased all 6,800 acres from the Palos Verdes Corporation, the Vanderlip family's corporation. The Great Lakes Carbon Corporation, subsequently realizing that this land would be more valuable if developed, then created a master plan for the acreage, which later became the cities of Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates, and the unincorporated area known as Palos Verdes Peninsula.

For more information about the history of the South Bay and the Palos Verdes Peninsula, visit my webpage at http://www.southbayhistory.com which is part of my website http://www.maureenmegowan.com .