Village site is eligible

After a 17-year fight, a Huntington Beach site beloved to Native Americans has been named eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

The Cogged Stone Site at Bolsa Chica held an early Holocene-era village and an associated cemetery. It has yielded tens of thousands of artifacts and human remains.

The site joins just four other Orange County locales on the list, and is the only county site listed as an archaeological district on the Register.

“I think this represents a significant turnaround; a new direction,” said Flossie Horgan of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. “We are ecstatic.”

The Land Trust was formed in 1992 to prevent the influx of thousands of homes on the site. Since then, it has preserved more than 1,200 acres, with only 56 acres left to fight for.

“To the Native American community, it’s a huge plus for us,” said Paul Moreno, an organizer who has worked to link Native Americans with the Bolsa Chica Land Trust in keeping the site undeveloped.

Activists next hope to buy and preserve a 6.2-acre undeveloped property on the site, as well as to prevent developer Hearthside Homes from adding 22 new homes to a five-acre area at Brightwater, its housing community on the site. The activists will meet with the city this week.

According to city records, Hearthside now seeks to turn five acres on the site that were originally designated as open space near Bolsa Chica Street and Los Patos Avenue into a 22-home, low-density residential subdivision.

Ironically, the five acres were used most recently to house trailers containing thousands of artifacts and Native American remains found while grading the development.

Moreno’s community and the Land Trust are planning to start a fundraising campaign to purchase the other 6.2-acre property, he said. Activists hope the National Register nod will help build their case.

“It took us 17 years to get this, and we hope that it will further help us find the funding to purchase the property,” Horgan said.

More than 100,000 artifacts have been discovered at the site, including more than 500 cogged stones, which were believed to have been used for ceremonial purposes.

“In spiritual terms, it’s a big site where we go back to pray and to get in touch with our ancestors,” Moreno said. Horgan said she hoped the National Register accolade will make agencies more accountable for their actions, and be more fully conscious of the impact of any further development in the area.

“We have to draw a line in the sand somewhere,” Moreno said. “It just seems like when it comes to Native American burial sites, we’re treated like second class.”