Luckily for residents, Surf City bombs not away

JERRY PERSON

A past generation of Huntington Beach citizens would certainly relate

to the feelings that some Americans today are feeling about the

possibility of a bomb going off, given that at the start of World War

II we were one of the most important oil producers in America and a

perfect target for an enemy bomb.

So, I got to thinking if there was ever a time in the city’s 100

years that bombs were used to terrorize our folks. The answer is,

well, sort of.

From the movies, we have an image of a bomber dressed in black and

planting a bomb to scare our people. But that picture is anything but

true. It could be the clean-cut kids next door who could be induced

to plant a weapon here in Huntington Beach.

It was on a Friday night, Sept. 21, 1956, that three 18-year-old

boys approached the vacant municipal lifeguard tower no. 5 located on

the strand at the foot of First Street. There, three El Monte

Residents, Robert Mitchell, George Pollett and Jerry Wilmot crept

toward the tower and in one of their hands held a stick of dynamite.

The boys had stolen the dynamite from one of the boy’s fathers,

who operated a gold mining equipment business.

The boys placed the dynamite against the tower and lighted the

10-minute, slow-burning fuse. The three ran and hid behind a fence

belonging to Huntington Beach Mayor Warren Ebert’s Seabreeze Village

to watch the explosion. While they were hiding there, the boys were

spotted by Huntington Beach police officers Elvan Biddle and Eddie

Groom.

After questioning the boys and taking their names, the officers

started to drive away when they heard an explosion. The officers

thought the explosion came from somewhere in the downtown area and

headed there to investigate. They searched for over an hour but were

unable to find any sign of an explosion.

While seated in their patrol car at the foot of the pier at Main

and the Pacific Coast Highway, the trio approached the officers and

volunteered to surrender. They led the officers to the ruined

lifeguard tower.

There they found that the tower’s three windows were blown out,

the floor and walls damaged and the tower twisted around.

The three boys were taken into custody and charged with violating

a state health and safety law. They appeared before Judge Celia Young

Baker, and since it was their first offense, the charge was reduced

from a felony to a misdemeanor and ordered to pay restitution for

their bombing.

Our next bombing incident happened many years earlier on Saturday

morning, Dec. 23, 1923.

The residents of Huntington Beach were sound asleep in their beds

when a big explosion rocked the sleepy inhabitants of our beach town

at 6:20 a.m.

The explosion shook the entire city and police and the public

began

searching for the cause, but were unable to locate its source.

Some residents thought it sounded as if it came from a battleship’s

gun.

Others said they heard not one but three explosions. Nothing could

be found until resident A.C. Almond, an engineer at Standard Oil’s

camp, contacted our newspaper to say that he saw a cloud of smoke and

dust arise at about the same time as the explosion near the camp’s

location out on 23rd Street (Goldenwest) very near the company’s tank

farm.

Almond, his wife and a reporter went out to the spot where Almond

had seen the cloud, and there they found two large holes in the

ground charred.

One of these holes measured two feet in diameter and a foot deep.

Six feet away the second hole was discovered, about half the size of

the first.

The larger showed signs that it was burnt to a white crispness,

and it appeared that whatever caused it bounced or rolled to create a

second hole.

The second hole was burnt to a gray ash. The three looked around

and found a third hole 25 feet away. It measured 8 inches wide, 3

feet long and 3 inches deep.

This depression was also charred, and in this mass of ashes was

found particles of melted metal.

These pieces of metal were very small and appeared to have been in

the heat of a terrific explosion.

A mystery quickly developed in town as to the cause of the

explosion. Some thought it was a shell from a battleship gone astray,

but Uncle Sam is very careful about where they aim those big guns.

Because there were no large fragments of iron or copper, police

didn’t believe it was a terrorist bomb. It appeared to have come in

from the ocean. But if it had it would have made a much larger and

deeper hole since it shook the whole city.

The explosion still remains a mystery. But one thing certain is

that our residents are ready for any emergency, and will protect Surf

City from any lunatic terrorist with a bomb.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.