Historical Marker · No. 965
Point Dume
Malibu, Los Angeles County · California
Erected by California State Parks, the Malibu Historical Society, and Malibu Lagoon Museum, 1988
The Ventureno Chumash village of Sumo stood on this headland, and the point was a place for watching the sea, which is still the reason to climb it. Gray whales pass close in from December to mid-April on the run between Alaska and Baja. Cabrillo was steering by this promontory in 1542, two and a half centuries before Vancouver put a name on it for a Franciscan friend and the mapmakers dropped the last three letters. It is the only undeveloped stretch of coastal bluff left on this shore, and it is a state natural preserve now.
What the plaque says
On November 24, 1793, English explorer George Vancouver, commander of an expedition to determine the extent of settlement of the northwest coast of America, named this rocky promontory, Point Dume, after his Franciscan friend, Father Francisco Dumetz, at Mission San Buenaventura. Point Dume is the western terminus of Santa Monica Bay and has been an important landmark for navigators since Vancouver's voyage in 1793.
Where it stands
34.00160, -118.80633 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Santa Monica Pier — 18 miWhere the Mother Road runs out of continent, and where the End of the Trail sign gives the drive somewhere to finish.
More markers nearby
- Adamson House at Malibu Lagoon State Beach — 7.6 mi
- Old Santa Monica Forestry Station — 17 mi
- Serra Springs — 20 mi
- Harold Lloyd Estate (Greenacres) — 23 mi