From Chumash to Hard Cash

By: Ben Marcus | October 20, 2009 | Local

Myths, Legends, Rumors and Lies About the Malibu Chain of Title

The most desirable place to live in California was at one time one of the most desirable villages in Chumash territory: fresh water cutting through desert mountains, forming a lagoon to hide canoes, bathe, and hunt for birds, an ocean shore loaded with lobster and abalone stacked six high, with swordfish and other proteins an easy hunt in the channel between the mainland and the island. And all of it was domed by an almost perfect climate: benign, plentiful, warm in the winter, shady in the summer.

The dolce vita of the Chumash ended abruptly in October of 1542, when wooden ships appeared on the horizon, ending their free and easy life. There is debate over whether Cabrillo’s first landfall at “Pueblo de las Canoas” was at Malibu — or maybe Point Mugu or the Santa Clara river mouth. Spain’s interest in California was intense, at first, until one failed explorer after another found there was nothing north of New Spain but ragged heathens and desert. No cities of gold. No easy pickings. No pickings at all. Spain turned its attention to the Orient, to the Philippines and the Japanas, for more than 200 years. And then the Spanish turned their attention back to Alta California, sending padres, plowshares and platoons north from New Spain to colonize and conquer. From the beginning of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th, the land for miles on either side of Humaliwo village was molded and transformed by the Spanish, then the Mexicans, then Americans.

It is said that the Rancho Malibu was established in 1802 or 1804 — 30 years after Jose Bartoleme Tapia first saw the land on a detour from the Anza expedition.

It is said that Leon Victor Prudhomme was the luckiest man on the face of this earth when he took over the property from the Tapias — signing on the dotted line the very day in 1848 that gold was discovered and changed California (and Malibu) history forever. It is also said that Prudhomme was legally swindled out of the property during the transition from Mexican to United States control in 1850.

It is said that Matthew Keller took control of the Malibu from Prudhomme for the price of a few hundred dollars in groceries, and that Keller’s son Henry wasn’t interested in cattle or farming and sold 13,000 acres of prime coastal property to Frederick Rindge —for $130,000, it is said, or maybe it was $300,000.

Regardless, he got a bargain.

Much has been written and said about the Rindge dynasty and the Malibu, but not all of the stories have been told — like the hoards of gullible, desperate, Depression-propelled “squatters” who came to the Malibu with pitchforks and lanterns, demanding their free piece of paradise — because the Rindge claim to the Malibu was based on a faulty deed going back to the king of Spain.

And what about Carrie Lewis of Cleveland — Malibu’s forgotten mistress? Ever heard of her? She owned the Malibu for a brief time within the Keller dynasty.

Much has been written and said about the chain of title of the Malibu from Chumash to hard cash. Some of it is true, some of it is fantasy. Some of it might be true, but impossible to prove.

This is the first of a series of articles exploring the myths, legends, rumors and lies of how Malibu was passed along and formed and shaped by nature and politics, war and peace.

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