Where you can see forever

At first glance it looks like a simple, grassy knoll in the micro-city of Signal Hill, tranquil and quiet like any city garden. But petite Hilltop Park offers more. History. Inspiration. Most of all, a panorama that sweeps along the Pacific, from Huntington Beach, past Long Beach’s high-rises and the harbor’s otherworldly cranes, past Santa Catalina Island and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The view stretches to downtown Los Angeles, seemingly so close on a clear day.

Also within sight: reminders that change is the only constant. Every half-hour, a towering sculpture issues billowy steam symbolizing the smoke signals sent by 16th century Puvuvitam Indians to tribal members on Catalina. The plumes also recall the black gold that gushed forth here in 1921, marking one of the world’s richest oil fields. Stately old mansions were razed, historical plaques explain, to make way for oil wells. Production has dwindled, but hundreds of working derricks still populate the landscape, including one still bobbing at park’s edge. Just beyond it: a row of pricey modern homes -- an echo of the past, and a symbol of the new gold on this hill.

-- Zan Dubin Scott