I was leafing through a book today and learned about this tree for the first time. The Eagle Tree, a sycamore, was used
as a landmark in surveying the boundary of Rancho San Pedro in 1857. Here is a 1952 photo of the Eagle Tree, which got
its name because eagles nested in it:
Cal State Dominguez Hills Digital Collections
In the mid-1940s oil pipelines threatened the tree, but due to its history, it was preserved and marked with a plaque
in 1947 (I looked at a 1943 map of Compton, and I didn't see an Electric Avenue, so I think that reference below is
an error):
April 17, 1947,
Los Angeles Times @ ProQuest via LAPL
In 1954, a local oldtimer recalled the tree from the days of his youth:
Here is Mr. Gaines, who lived until 1962, posing next to the 1947 plaque. There is a
Wesley Gaines Elementary School
in Paramount that may be named for him (his dad had the same name):
October 17, 1954,
Los Angeles Times @ ProQuest via LAPL
Since then, the Eagle Tree has not been entirely forgotten. It was the subject of a November 15, 1987,
Los Angeles Times
article, the Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum's website has a
page on the tree, and Nathan Masters
has mentioned it.
I wanted to see what the tree looked like now. This is the tree, at Poppy and Short in Compton, on the September 2014 GSV:
Here's the Bing Streetside view from February 15, 2015:
And, finally -- perhaps in more ways than one -- the Eagle Tree on the most current GSV, July 2015:
It's like
El Aliso all over again!