Centinela Springs, or Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela, was a significant source of water for early settlers, and attractive for their farm needs and livestock.

As the City developed, a monument to mark the spring was devised. Artist Archibald Garner was commissioned to design and build three water basins from irregular granite boulders to quench human, horse, and canine thirsts. Garner’s working fountain holds three inscriptions:

“FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL GOD’S BLESSING OF SWEET WATER TO ALL HIS CREATURES” 
MARKED BY CALIFORNIA HISTORY AND LANDMARKS CLUB 
MARCH 2, 1939.”

“AGUAJE DE LA CENTINELA (CENTINELA SPRINGS) ON THIS SITE BUBBLING SPRINGS ONCE FLOWED FROM THEIR SOURCE IN A DEEP WATER BASIN WHICH HAS EXISTED CONTINUOUSLY SINCE THE PLEISTOCENE ERA. PREHISTORIC ANIMALS, INDIANS, AND EARLY INGLEWOOD SETTLERS WERE ATTRACTED HERE BY THE PURE ARTESIAN WATER. THE SPRINGS AND VALLEY WERE NAMED AFTER SENTINELS GUARDING THE CATTLE IN THE AREA.”

“CALIFORNIA REGISTERED HISTORICAL LANDMARK NO. 363 
PLAQUE PLACED BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION IN COOPERATION WITH THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF CENTINELA VALLEY
 OCTOBER 9, 1976.”

Although the fountain is no longer operational, Centinela Springs still flow underground. A second monument was created in 1970 for the re-dedication of the Centinela Springs, a 1939 California Registered Historical Landmark.

Archibald Garner was born in South Dakota in 1904. After studying in San Francisco in the 1930s, he moved to Los Angeles to enroll at the Chouinard Art School. He was among the artists working on the Astronomer’s Monument at the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park in Los Angeles. In addition to public art commissions, Garner worked for 20th Century Fox, the film company, as a sculptor before his death in 1969.

Date: 1937
Collection: Cultural Landmarks
Preservation Organization: Historical Society of the Centinela Valley

Location
Edward Vincent Jr. Park
700 Warren Lane Inglewood, California 90302