The entrance stone is inscribed with the kanji characters of Japanese Friendship garden’s name San-Kie-En (Three stones Garden: water, pastoral, mountain). The stone was donated by the San Diego Yokohama Sister city society.
This plaque describes how Cabrillo expedition for gold and new trade routes was a an ultimate failure. Though it says the information gained on his expedition was more valuable, the mention of his failures are very telling.
This statue, also sculpted by Donal Hord was dedicated on June 10, 1939 at the newly unveiled Civic Center. The statue is meant to represent San Diego's guardian status of the region's precious resource: water.
