The Tongva Sacred Springs are a group of springs located on the campus of University High School in Los Angeles, California. The springs, called Koruu'vanga by the native Gabrieleno Tongva people, were used as a source of natural fresh water by the Tongva people since at least the 5th century BC and continue to produce 22,000–25,000 US gallons (83,000–95,000 L) of water a day. The springs are also sometimes referred to as the Gabrieleno-Tongva Springs, the Tongva Holy Springs, and the Sacred Springs. (The deprecated toponym Serra Springs was for Catholic missionary Junípero Serra who supposedly said mass at the site in 1770.) The springs are found at two separate locations on the campus. The larger group of springs is closed off from the rest of the campus and is under the care of the Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation. For many years this area was referred to as the "horticultural" or "agricultural area" of the campus. This group includes an "80 sq ft (7.4 m2) lagoon". The other spring "feeds into a charming man-made waterfall" at the northeastern edge of the upper athletic field. A third spring was located farther north, near Texas Avenue, but it ceased to flow during the 1940s when a local water company began drawing from the aquifer. Water from all of the extant springs drains into the Santa Monica Bay.
History The name Kuruvungna, which means "a place where we are in the sun", comes from the name of a village that was located at the site of the springs. The Portolá Expedition of 1769, one of the two expeditions that led to the founding of Los Angeles, camped at that village, while traveling along the route that would become known as El Camino Real. The Tongva gave them watercress, pashí (chia) and fresh water from the spring. The Tongva were described in an unpublished diary of Juan Crespí, who traveled with the Portolá Expedition of 1769:
... as we arrived and set up camp, six very friendly, compliant tractable heathens came over, who had their little houses roofed with grass, the first we have been seeing of this sort. Three of them came wearing a great deal of paint; all of them, however, unarmed. They brought four or six bowls of usual seeds and good sage which they presented to our captain; on me they bestowed a good sized string of the sort of beads that they all have, made of white sea shells and red ones (though not very bright colored) that look to be coral, though of a very inferior sort. The name Serra comes from Junípero Serra, the founder of the Alta California mission chain, who is reported to have said mass there. Crespí renamed the springs "San Gregorio" while visiting the Tongva village at the springs with the Portola Expedition in 1769, but the expedition soldiers called them "El Berrendo" after wounding a deer there. Later, around the turn of the 19th century, the two springs began to be called "The Tears of Santa Monica" because they brought to mind the weeping eyes of the saint as she cried for her erring son. "Santa Monica", as an official place name, was first recorded in 1827 on a grazing permit, next in 1828 when the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica was granted to Marques and Reyes. Later, in 1839, the name was used again for Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica when it was granted to Sepulveda and Machado. Kuruvungna Springs was included in this rancho, the first time it had been "owned" by anyone other than the indigenous inhabitants. Jose Delores Sepulveda, one of the sons of the rancho's owner, lived in the Sepulveda adobe which once stood on the high ground near Bundy Ave and Wilshire Blvd overlooking the Kuruvungna village site and the springs. The city of Santa Monica, as well as the canyon, ranchos, bay, mountains, boulevard, airport, and freeway, therefore all take their name from this former turn-of-the-19th-century name for Kuruvungna Springs. In the 1800s, the spring served as the water supply for the city of Santa Monica.
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