Without the handwritten caption reading "Part of Los Angeles," it might be difficult to place the above drawing -- generally considered to be the oldest extant drawing of the city. The Los Angeles that William Rich Hutton saw when he first arrived on July 7, 1847, is virtually unrecognizable today.
Hutton came to Los Angeles as a clerk to his uncle and eponym William Rich, a paymaster in the United States Army. Together they had sailed to the rudimentary harbor at San Pedro on the USS Lexington. When they landed, their cargo -- pay for the U.S. troops occupying the Mexican city -- required an escort of eleven armed cavalrymen.
The horseback ride from San Pedro to the ciudad took eight hours. Hutton recorded in his diary: "Saw a large grey wolf near the sheep farms."