Wilmington Boat Works

California Shipbuilding Corporation built 467 Liberty and Victory ships during World War II, including Haskell-class attack transports. California Shipbuilding Corporation was often referred to as Calship.

Naval Operating Base Terminal Island, (NOB Terminal Island) was United States Navy base founded on 25 September 1941 to support the World War II efforts in the Pacific War. Naval Operating Base Terminal Island was founded by combining Naval Facilities in cities of San Pedro, Long Beach and Wilmington, California under one command. Much of the base was on the man-made Terminal Island, and harbor in San Pedro Bay. The harbor was made through the construction of a large breakwater system.

Terminal Island, historically known as Isla Raza de Buena Gente, is a largely artificial island located in Los Angeles County, California, between the neighborhoods of Wilmington and San Pedro in the city of Los Angeles, and the city of Long Beach. Terminal Island is roughly split between the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. Land use on the island is entirely industrial and port-related except for Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island.

Naval Air Base San Pedro, NAS Terminal Island was a US Navy World War II 410-acre airfield on Terminal Island in San Pedro, California part of the City of Los Angeles. Before the Navy took control of the airfield, the airstrip was the civilian Allen Field. Allen Field was built in 1927 by filling with sand the Port of Los Angeles and enlarging Terminal Island. Terminal Island is located between San Pedro Harbor and Long Beach Harbor. Allen Field was serviced by the Pacific Electric and pedestrian ferries. The air terminal has three runways in a triangle shape, two short runways and one 4,200 foot runway. A large seaplane ramp was also built at the terminal. A Naval Air Reserve Training Facility was built next to Allen Field in 1927 and used the runway - ramp. Civilian use ended in 1935 and the site began an air base, later renamed Reeves Field San Pedro, after Rear Admiral Joseph M. Reeves. On on 25 September 1941 Naval Air Base San Pedro became part of Naval Operating Base Terminal Island. In 1942 many Reserve troops were trained at the Naval Air Base. In 1943 the Navy took over operations and the Reserve was moved to Naval Air Base Los Alamitos. The base was renamed Naval Air Station Terminal Island and continued as a training base until the end of the war in 1945. In 1942, NAB San Pedro, now NAS Terminal Island, was designated for equipping and performing flight-tests on the large number of military aircraft fabricated at nearby plants in Southern California: Lockheed, Douglas Aircraft Company and & Vultee Aircraft. To facilitate delivery of these aircraft, the U.S. Navy established the Naval Air Ferry Command (NAFC) (VRF-3) in 1943. During the war the base was commander was Captain Kneflar "Socko" McGinnis. The base was a 24/7 operation, testing and shipping out planes at a rate of approximately 200 a month. Due to a shortage to servicemen during the war, a unit of WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) was stationed at the base. The 200 strong WAVES served as mechanics, air traffic controllers, radio operators, trainers and air navigators. After the war the base was closed in 1947 and turned over to the Bureau of Yards and Docks. The nearby Naval Air Base Long Beach continued to use the air field until 1997 at which time the base was abandoned; there is no trace of the base today.

Granada Theater is a theater in Wilmington, Los Angeles. C.L. Post of the Post Cereal family built the Granada Theatre in 1926 as part of the West Coast Theatres chain. One year later, Fox Theatres purchased West Coast and changed the name to the Fox Granada. The architect was W.J. MacCormack. The Los Angeles City Council designated the theater as a historic cultural monument in 2021.The theatre is closed but the Wilmington Granada Friends is fundraising to reopen the theatre as a performing arts center and independent cinema.

Wilmington is a neighborhood in the South Bay and Harbor region of Los Angeles, California, covering 9.14 square miles (23.7 km2). Featuring a heavy concentration of industry and the third-largest oil field in the continental United States, this neighborhood has a high percentage of Latino and foreign-born residents. Nearly 20 percent of Wilmington’s total land area is taken up by oil refineries — roughly 3.5 times more area than is dedicated to open and accessible green spaces. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilmington had one of the highest death rates in all of Los Angeles County, exacerbated by elevated levels of industrial pollution. It is the site of Banning High School, and ten other primary and secondary schools. Wilmington has six parks. Wilmington dates its history back to a 1784 Spanish land grant. It became a separate city in 1863, and it joined the city of Los Angeles in 1909. Places of interest include the headquarters U.S. Army for Southern California and the Drum Barracks built to protect the nascent Los Angeles harbor during the American Civil War.

The Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge was a vertical-lift bridge in the Port of Los Angeles. Dedicated on January 10, 1948, the bridge allowed State Route 47 (the Terminal Island Freeway) to cross over the Cerritos Channel. Named after Schuyler F. Heim, who was in command of the Naval Air Station on Terminal Island in 1942, the bridge was one of the largest vertical-lift bridges on the West Coast. At the time of its opening, it was the highest in the country with the deck weighing about 820 short tons (740 metric tons). Its towers are 186 feet (57 m) tall above the roadway deck and about 236 feet (72 m) tall when measured from the water level at high water. The bridge was decommissioned on October 12, 2015 and replaced by a new, six-lane fixed-span bridge in order to meet current safety and earthquake standards. A replacement bridge, tentatively titled State Route 47 Schuyler Heim Bridge Replacement, was completed in September 2020.

The Pacific Harbor Line (reporting mark PHL) was formed in 1998 to take over the Harbor Belt Line (HBL). In 1998, the Alameda Corridor was nearing completion, allowing for a massive amount of railroad traffic from the largest harbors in the Western hemisphere: Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach. The railroad has 18 route miles (29 km) with a web of 59 miles (95 km) of track.

Garbutt-Walsh Inc. was started in 1907 by Matt J. Walsh (1866 - 1960) and Frank Garbutt (financier) as a boatyard in San Pedro, California on Terminal Island at Berth No. 221. Garbutt-Walsh Inc. built and repaired boats and yachts for pleasure and commercial. President of Garbutt-Walsh Inc. was Matt J. Walsh and Vice President was David J. Walsh. For World War 2 Garbutt-Walsh Inc built powered and non-powered covered and open barges, a Type B ship. The open badge, YGN-44, with a length of 65 feet and a beam of 20 feet, and 300 hp was lost in the war in 1944. The site is now YTI Terminal's Intermodal container port.Matthew Joseph Walsh was born in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1866. He came to California in 1899. His first job in California was working for the Los Angeles Railway Company, In 1906 was hired by Frank A. Garbutt as crewmen of his schooner Skidbladnir. One of Walsh first boat building projects was Harry Pidgeon's Inlander, which sailed around the world. Other noted boats: 53-ffor cutter Otter in 1914, 45-ffot sloop Thorobred in 1928, 43-foot sloop Margaret, 27-foot Common Sense in 1933 (built 6 of this 27-footer) and his own 55-foot cruiser Mardo in 1930 for himself, 53-foot ferry M.J.W. for Matthew J. Walsh in 1918, which ferried from LA harbor to dan Pedro and the west end of Terminal Island. Th M.J.W. sank in 1946. Common Sense III 25-foot sailboat built by Garbutt-Walsh Inc. was the smallest bat to sail the Los Angeles to Honolulu, Transpacific Yacht Race. Common Sense III sail in the 1934 race with a Hawaii crew. Halfway in the race her mast was damaged, but she still finished the race. After the race rules were changed and 30-foot min. limit was placed on the boats. Walsh raced his own boats. Walsh's had two big wins: The San Francisco Perpetual Challenge Cup in 1923 with the R-boat California. and the Universal rule R-Class National Championship with Pirate in 1929 during the Larchmont Race Week. Walsh Walsh in 1960 at age 94 in his home at near the Point Fermin Lighthouse.Frank Alderman Garbutt (1869-1947) was born in Illinois, he is known for being a race-car driver, an entrepreneur, writing short stories and being an athlete. His business was a variety of activities in printing, oil drilling tools, California real estate, building and movie making. He was one of the founders of Union Oil Company. Worked in Hollywood and was Vice President of Famous Players Film Company, which he sold to Paramount Pictures. He was an investor in many new started-ups, having made his money in oil. He was an investor in Glenn Martin's aircraft business that later became Martin Marietta). He also help start the Automobile Club of Southern California Garbutt was a member of both the Los Angeles Athletic Club and the California Yacht Club in 1922). His passion for yachts connected him with Walsh. Garbutt owned the Skidbladnir a large yacht. Garbutt died of a heart attack at age 78.

The Drum Barracks, also known as Camp Drum and the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum, is the last remaining original American Civil War era military facility in the Los Angeles area. Located in the Wilmington, Los Angeles, California, United States, near the Port of Los Angeles, it has been designated as a California Historic Landmark, a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1987, it has been operated as a Civil War museum that is open to the public.

The Mojave Road Los Angeles was designated a California Historic Landmark (No. 963) on March 19, 1985. It runs from Drum Barracks in Los Angeles County to the Colorado River in San Bernardino County, California. The Drum Barracks, also known as Camp Drum and the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum, is the last remaining original American Civil War era military facility in the Los Angeles area. Located in the Wilmington section of Los Angeles, near the Port of Los Angeles, it has been designated as a California Historical Landmark, a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1987, it has been operated as a Civil War museum that is open to the public. With the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861, there were concerns on the Union side about the loyalty and security of the Los Angeles area. Many of the area's residents were recent arrivals from the Southern states, and southerner John C. Breckinridge received twice as many local votes as Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 Presidential election. A company of secessionists was also holding public drills in El Monte, California, displaying California's Bear flag instead of the Stars and Stripes. The Mojave Road also known as Old Government Road (formerly the Mohave Trail), is a historic route and present day dirt road across what is now the Mojave National Preserve in the Mojave Desert in the United States. This rough road stretched 147 miles (237 km) from Beale's Crossing (the river crossing site on the west bank of the Colorado River, opposite old Fort Mohave, roughly 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Bullhead City, Arizona), to Fork of the Road location along the north bank of the Mojave River where the old Mojave Road split off from the route of the Old Spanish Trail/Mormon Road. A traditional thoroughfare of desert-dwelling Native Americans, the Mohave Trail much later served Spanish missionaries, explorers, and foreign colonizers and settlers from the 18th to 19th centuries who called it the Mojave Trail, and ran between watering holes across the Mojave Desert between the Colorado River and Mojave River then following it to the Cajon Pass, the gap between the San Bernardino Mountains and San Gabriel Mountains, into Southern California ending at Drum Barracks. The watering holes recur at intervals of about 60 miles (97 km) to 70 miles (110 km).Francisco Garcés, the Spanish Franciscan missionary, traveled the trail with Mohave guides, after leaving the expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza in 1776. José María de Zalvidea, the zealous Franciscan administrator of Mission San Gabriel also crossed the trail in 1806, reportedly converting five indigenous Mohaves near present-day Hesperia. Today a four-wheel drive vehicle is required for all but a few short stretches of this desert road, which is unmaintained. The old road from Fork of the Road eastward along the Mojave River is interrupted after 10.9 acres (4.4 ha) by private property, below the site of the old Camp Cady (on the north bank of the Mojave River, roughly 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Newberry Springs, California). The road is resumed at an access point from the north in Manix Wash. Under optimal conditions, its full length of 133 miles (214 km) from Beale's Crossing to Manix Wash can be travelled in 2 to 3 days. In early 1858 the Mohave Trail became the Mojave Road, a wagon road connected to the newly pioneered Beale's Wagon Road across northern New Mexico Territory from Fort Defiance to Beale's Crossing on the Colorado River where it linked up with the Mojave Road. Wagon trains of settlers coming west on the Santa Fe Trail soon followed Beale's Wagon Road and the Mojave Road into Southern California. Beale's road was shorter than the route via the more southern Southern Emigrant Trail and it was cooler in summer, snow-free in winter, had better forage, and was better watered. Soon hostilities began between the Mohave's and the settlers, triggering the Mohave War. From the time of the Mohave War the Mohave Road came under the purview of the U.S. government. Army posts were established at Fort Mojave, at Beale's Crossing in 1859, and, after the Bitter Spring Expedition at Camp Cady, 10.9 miles (17.5 km) east of Fork of the Road at its junction with the Mormon Road, in 1860. Smaller outposts were established later in the 1860s east of Camp Cady along the trail and regular patrols instituted. The army protected the settlers and travelers from the attacks of the resident Paiute, Mojave, and Chemehuevi Native Americans until 1871. This also opened the way for large mining development in the Mojave Desert region of San Bernardino County and agricultural development in the Victor Valley area. In 1826, American trapper Jedediah Smith used the Mojave Road to come to California. In doing so became the first non-Indian to come to California's Pacific Ocean by land from mid-America. Smith and his party of 15 other men left the Bear River on August 7, 1826, and after retrieving the cache he had left earlier headed south through present-day Utah and Nevada to the Colorado River, finding increasingly harsh conditions and difficult travel. Finding shelter in a friendly Mojave village near present-day Needles, California, the men and horses recuperated and Smith hired two runaways from the Spanish missions in California to guide them west. After leaving the river and heading into the Mojave Desert, the guides led them through the desert via the Mohave Trail that would become the western portion of the Old Spanish Trail. Upon reaching the San Bernardino Valley of California, Smith and Abraham LaPlant (who spoke some Spanish) borrowed horses from a rancher and rode to the San Gabriel Mission on November 27, 1826, to present themselves to its director, Father José Bernardo Sánchez, who received them warmly. Camp Cady (1860–1861, 1866–1871) was a U.S. Army Camp, on the Mojave River, located about 20 miles east of modern-day Barstow, California in San Bernardino County, at an elevation of 1690 feet. Camp Cady was named after Major Albemarle Cady, 6th Infantry Regiment, who was a friend of Carleton and commander at Fort Yuma in 1860. Camp Cady is on the Mojave Road. Camp Cady is California Historical Landmark 963-1 designated on March 19, 1985. To note this Historic road, the State of California placed a Historic Marker at the end of the road, at Drum Barracks. The marker is at 1053 Cary Street, Wilmington, California, this is at the corner of Cary Ave and Opp street. The Drum Barracks parking lot entrance is at 1052 N. Banning Boulevard, Wilmington, California.

Dominguez Channel (Spanish: Canal de Domínguez) is a 15.7-mile-long (25.3 km) river in southern Los Angeles County, California, in the center of the Dominguez Watershed of 133 square miles (340 km2). The watershed area is 96% developed and largely residential. Subsurface storm drain tributaries and open flood control channels flow into the channel. The channel originally was named after a racial slur but was changed in 1938.