Presently, said Ms. Marlis, nearly fifty boys and girls already utilize the paved area each day for a skateboard track.
The young people feel the present layout is too small, and they want it to be enlarged.
The park which extends all the way up a winding road to Bill Botts
Field, where two baseball fields and a breathtaking view of the entire Los Angeles Basin are available, has an interesting history.
Oldtimers Paul Pitti and Ray Mosel claim that the park is situated on a former trash dump. According to
Mr. Pitti, the area was originally a canyon where sand was dumped from the nearby oil fields. The sand would then be washed into Ballona Creek and used in construction.
Mr. Pitti said that Hal Roach built a desert fort on the site back in 1931 for a Laurel and Hardy comedy titled "Beau Hunks," featuring a very young Jean Harlow.
He remembered playing at the fort in the early 1930s. Later, the area was used for a key scene in "Gone With the Wind." Rhett and Scarlett are fleeing Atlanta with Melanee and her baby, and they witness a ragtag band of soldiers also leaving
Mr. Mosel recalled that the canyon was filled in and used as a trash dump after World War II.
It was Human Services Director Syd Kronenthal who fought to create a park out of the area instead of building houses there.
