Why is it endangered?
The lagoon before you, Agua Hedionda, is one of the few remaining coastal wetlands along the Southern California coastline. All of the lagoons are threatened by the pressures of development, agriculture, and industry.
Timeline
Imprints of the past
8,000 BC Traces of the earliest people inhabiting the area are left behind.
1769 AD The Spanish expedition of Don Gaspar de Portola arrives along the shores of Agua Hedionda Lagoon.
1798 The Mission San Luis Rey de Francia is built.
1821 Mexico gains independence from Spain.
1833 Land controlled by the Mission San Luis Rey become the Rancho Aqua Hedionda. Between 1833 and 1860 the Rancho is a Mexican Land Grant owned by a family of Californios by the name of Marron.
Manifest Destiny continues the transformation of Aqua Hedionda in the 1850s with the takeover of Mexican California by the United States.
1863 Rancho Aqua Hedionda is taken over, with much dispute, by a man going by the name of Francis J. Hinton.
1870 Cattle on the Rancho are run for Hinton by Robert Kelly until Hinton's death in 1870. Kelly eventually inherited the Rancho, but not without much debate in the courts.
1875 Kelly quits cattle ranching and starts leasing the land out for sheep grazing.
1890 Robert Kelly dies of cancer, leaving the Rancho to his sister-in-law. Eventually, part of the Rancho becames (sic) the new town of Carlsbad.
1990 Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation is established.
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