Celebrating City of Carson 50th Year Anniversary
City officials and lovers of the City of Carson celebrated the cities 50th Anniversary at last weekends City of Carson 50th Anniversary Ball at the Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald Carson Community Center.
HISTORY OF CARSON, CALIFORNIA
Almost 200 years after the founding of Rancho San Pedro, 142 years after the Dominguez Adobe was built, and 58 years following the Great Air Meet of 1910, the citizens of the land "to the west of the Los Angeles River" finally took a long overdue step toward independence. After suffering decades of neglect as an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County, the citizens went to the polls on Tuesday, February 6, 1968 to vote on whether to officially incorporate their community as an independent city. Almost 10,000 of the 17,351 registered voters in Carson cast a vote on that February morning. When the ballots were counted, the vote was 6,301 to 3,834 in favor of incorporation.
It would be the 8th largest city in the County of Los Angeles. But there was one other issue for the voters to decide. What would be the name of their new city? Voters were offered two choices: Carson and Dominguez, the two leading family names in the history of Rancho San Pedro. By a narrow vote of just 318 votes, the citizens chose the name Carson. Voters also elected the first Carson City Council on that Tuesday in 1968: the first Mayor of Carson, John Marbut, along with four other Council members.
