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Although Spain claimed all of the Americas including Signal Hill by "Right of Discovery"
in 1492, the actual Spanish settlement of Alta California began in 1769 with the building
of a Mission in San Diego. As a result, Signal Hill's first "owner of record" was Manuel
Nieto who received a Spanish land grant from King Carlos III of Spain in 1784. Over the
years the land was used for the breeding of horses, the raising of cattle and sheep, and
with irrigation, all kinds of farming prospered, including the cultivation of large fields
of flowers. The hill was viewed as the perfect place for a water source and in the early
1900's with profits from their dairy business, the Deni family constructed a water tower
and mansion which once stood nearby. At this moment, you are standing upon a thin layer
of earth above the City of Signal Hill's unseen water source - a 1.2 million gallon
reservoir of water buried below this park.
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