Cabrillo’s Landing Marked

No one may ever know for sure where explorer Juan Cabrillo landed in Southern California 445 years ago to claim the land for Spain, but today residents in Malibu are staking their claim as the site of the visit.

Local historians are scheduled to dedicate a bronze plaque in honor of Cabrillo’s stop, making Malibu the second community in Southern California to claim itself as the site where the explorer first touched down and grabbed the territory for Spain. Although members of the Malibu Lagoon Museum admit that it’s an unofficial claim, they’ve decided to match plaques with Ventura County, which has prided itself on being Cabrillo’s chosen spot for years.

Historians in both locales say the only way to know for sure is to locate Cabrillo’s original logs, which have remained undiscovered for nearly 4 1/2 centuries. But until then, “we’re just going to have some fun with it,” said Ronald Rindge, the Malibu history buff who decided to immortalize Cabrillo in bronze.