Mugu Rock

Mugu Rock

by Liv | Published on May 19th, 2007, 11:37 pm | Travel

Mugu Rock is one of those legendary places on earth. You may not have realized it, but you've probably seen it a million times. Mugu Rock has been featured in countless television shows, movies, and most importantly those winding road car commercials where the vehicle gently glides up the rocky coastline, and passes by this huge rock. That rock, is Mugu.

Mugu Rock is an interesting place. At one time the road, the infamous PCH or Pacific Coast Highway hugged the rocky Pacific Coast and actually separated the ocean from the mountains. Today, due to erosion and global warming, the original PCH road has been washed away and only small remnant's remain such as these:

Today PCH cuts through the mountain. The hill separated by a huge "cut-through" excavation leave a giant rock that people come to feed birds from, have a moment of zen, or base jump, or whale watch. Mugu is a peaceful, and serene place unlike the busy cities minutes away.

The Mugu Rock often called Point Mugu, or just The Rock and is an Indian phrase meaning "Resting Place on the Beach". The area once apart of a naval base was also the main artery of transportation from the Los Angeles area to Ventura before the Conejo pass and the adjacent 101 Freeway was built. Mugu Rock's history is limited, however very much apart of local culture and legend. The Rock is located approximately in the city of Port Hueneme, and legend tells us the city and the rock are intertwined between fairy tale and fantasy.

The legend of Mugu Rock

Princess Hueneme (pronounced wy-NEE-mee) was a beautiful Indian girl with bad taste in men. As legend has it, her newlywed husband left her for an evil woman who cast a spell over him.

So broken-hearted was Princess Hueneme that she threw herself into the sea and turned into stone. She became Mugu Rock. Her now-repentant and distraught husband followed her into the sea. The seaweed encircling Mugu Rock is said to be the hair of the grief-stricken husband, destined to float around his beloved princess for eternity.

"Due to erosion and Global Warming" give me a break, It was just erosion, how can you tie that to Global Warming.

If California was more frozen... it would be harder to erode.

Erosion? global warming? Give me a break! Its slowly falling into the ocean. When PCH was first built you could drive around it. Actually, The big rock is not MUGU rock. The actual MUGU rock in one of the smaller ones next to the big rock.

What a bunch of crap. First of all Globle warming! Give me a break the PCH was 25 feet above the mean water level and still is. So it never was washed away it is just the section on the seaward side no longer used. By the way all the Indian legend stuff as you have presented it is Bull! "Mugu Rock" was never a "Rock" in Chumash times. It was formed when California cut the PCH through to make it safer. Prior to that happening Mugu was a rocky point. The large rock was man made from this century. As to Chumash legend there was no "Princess Hueneme" First of all "Hueneme" Is a late 20th century Bastardisation of "Wynama" when means both "place in the middle" and "Resting Place" Hueneme came in to use after WW2. There is a Mugu is a Chumash holy place but it was so before the "rock" we know exsisted. In the legend a princess did jump off the rocky point but she did not become "the rock" which once again did not exsist then! She became (or rather her hair became) the seaweed that gathers around the Mugu Point, The legend is that in her dispair she drowneds those who become tanged in her hair. Get to know our local history before you open your myopic ignorant PC trap!

desertpro wrote:What a bunch of crap. First of all Globle warming! Give me a break the PCH was 25 feet above the mean water level and still is. So it never was washed away it is just the section on the seaward side no longer used.

Not sure when you were last out there, but the "seaward side no longer [being] used"? That's falling into the ocean due to rising tides, and hill-side erosion as a result of increased tidal activity and higher water levels which is a result of global warming. The tub doesn't get fuller unless you put water in it.

First of all I live here and I was out there yesterday. The seaward side has not been used for many years that is what the whole project was for 70 years ago when the "rock was created by the new PCH. As to it aroding of course it is aroding that is what coastlines do and the danger posed by that arosion is why the cut was made way back in the 30s. To asribe Global warming to every natural event is just nuts. Where the heck do you get off telling US about our local legends! You go to some site like the Wierdcalifornia.com and repeat a "legend" thats contents are totally out of whack with actual history. Once again while MUGU point was a chumash holy place it was not a "Rock" until the 1930s. The Chumash actually did not even feel the "rock" portion of Mugu peak to be the holy place. The beach to the south of the point and the trail that leads to the top of Mugu peak. Known as the Trail of the Eleven Shadows. Was what they would travel to. The word Mugu does not even mean rock or point it means beach!

You are obviously one of those flighty Hippy types who is sure they are "in Tune" with Native culture and the people but in fact all you do is not bother to learn the actual history. You pick and chose "facts" from light wieght sources and present them scewed to your own agenda. By the way I am Native American My Mother was half Haudenosaunee. What you would call Iroquois. My Grandmother was Progenitor of the Turtle Clan Oneida Nation. I grew up in a household were some Haundenaunee was spoken and I was taught the legends of the Six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. I just hate people twisting native culture to the way they want it and you young ladie do just that. Do some real research and you will find these things like anything in life are more complicated and I think interesting when you do. You can start by checking out the legend of the blue Dolphine. Theres a facinating Chumash legend! Since it is more recent the "true" facts are availible and that enhances the tale!

To asribe Global warming to every natural event is just nuts. Where the heck do you get off telling US about our local legends!

Because I gots me a internet?

Seriously. Simply Google, and you find numerous studies on shoreline erosion from the military, and government which use words such as "dire":

...developing a variety of sea level rise scenarios addressing global warming with the most conservative scenario predicting 1.5 meters of sea level by the year 2100. This dire prediction would translate into an average beach erosion rate of 3 feed per year. or approximately 295 feet of shoreline retreat in the next century. -US military 1998 erosion study.

I particularly like the headlines like "Pacific Ocean threatens to gobble up city."

Oh and for the record, I'm the head chieftess of all North American tribes with a PH.D. in running around camp fires making loud sounds while beating my hand over my mouth. I think everyone would agree, you're out-ranked here.

I was born in Oxnard in 1961. The beaches back then (all of them) had more sand. Natural erosion (not arosion) just happens from the waves hitting the coast constantly. NOTHING stays the same forever. Global warming would have happened whether or not people were here. Things change all the time. The road originally was dangerous and too close to the waves. Doesn't anyone have common sense anymore? All these petty arguments over silly topics. Worry more about flossing your teeth and getting a colonoscopy than beach erosion.