Warring Park

The register names this landmark for the park, but the bronze is about the people: the Tataviam village the Portolá expedition found near here in August 1769, whose men came out with their bowstrings loosened, a sign of peace, and traded necklaces of stones for beads. The plaque calls them Piru Indians, after the village. It is one of a set of bronzes the Native Daughters and Native Sons of Ventura County placed along the expedition's route; the dedication plate beneath it, listing the sponsoring parlors, has been scratched almost illegible.

What the plaque says

On August 11, 1769 The explorers and priests accompanying Portola found a populous village of Piru Indians near this point. Carrying their bow strings loose, they offered necklaces of stones in exchange for which the governor presented the Indians with beads.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mentryville and Pico Canyon — 11 mi
  A company town in a canyon, and a mile and a half further up the road, the well that started the California oil industry.
• Pioneer Oil Refinery — 16 mi
  The first commercially successful refinery in the West, built in 1876 to take the crude coming down the pipeline from Pico Canyon.
• St. Francis Dam Disaster Site — 17 mi
  The dam failed just before midnight on March 12, 1928, and the flood ran fifty miles down the canyon to the sea.
• The Cascades — 18 mi
  The concrete chute where the Los Angeles Aqueduct arrives, and where forty thousand people watched the Owens Valley come south in 1913.

More markers nearby

• Rancho Camulos — 2.1 mi
• Well, CSO 4 (Pico 4) — 9.8 mi
• Rancho Simi — 9.8 mi
• Mentryville — 11 mi