Port Ballona

Port Ballona is the past name for current day Marina del Rey, California in Santa Monica Bay and the land now called Playa Del Rey from 1839 to 1903. Port Ballona also included the current Ballona lagoon called the Ballona Wetlands marsh. The current Ballona Creek that flows in to the marsh.

The name Port Ballona comes from the La Ballona land grant. In 1839 the Mexican government granted the Machados and Talamantes title to Rancho La Ballona In 1857 Benjamin D. Wilson, the first mayor of Los Angeles, through foreclosure received title to 1/4 of Rancho La Ballona. later in 1859 Wilson, for $5000, sold 3,480 acres (1,410 ha) of Rancho La Ballona to George A. Sanford and John D. Young. During the civil war General George Wright ordered troops to secure Port Ballona against any Confederacy invasion, by 1862 a large force of 6,000 Union troops were at and near Port Ballona. The troop camp was called Camp Latham after Milton Latham.

The Great Flood of 1862 turned the Port and the land around it into a swamp for six months.