| From the Guidebook: |
The bones of thousands of
prehistoric animals that had been entrapped during the
Ice Age in pools of tar that bubbled from beneath the
ground were exhumed from this site. First historic reference
to the pools, part of the 1840 Rancho La Brea land grant,
was recorded by Gaspar de Portolá in 1769 - first
scientific excavations were made by the University of
California in 1906. The site was presented to the County
of Los Angeles in 1916 by Captain G. Allan Hancock to
be developed as a scientific monument.
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