SANTA CATALINA ISLAND!

People have been exposed to Catalina Island for thousands of years to work, play, seek happiness and raise their families. The island has seen Indians, explorers, ranch and miners, sea otter hunters, soldiers and business people, sports fishermen and tourists, to name a few. They have all been touched by the charm and mystique that is Catalina.

Native Americans :

Archaeologists tell us that the island was inhabited as early as 7000 years. Very little is known about these people or groups that followed. We know that at the time the navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo claimed the island for Spain in 1542, a group that would become known as the Gabrielino was well established on the island around 500 years. They were linguistically related to the Uto-Azteca, which had moved from the Great Basin in Nevada, Utah and California in what is now Los Angeles and Orange counties, and southern California Channel Islands. Catalina Island Gabrielino had a distinct language and culture. Pimu called the island and even (Pimungan or Pimuvit's). He lived a lifestyle of hunters and gatherers, the use of the seas of the island and abundant plant resources. By large, well-made table called ti'at canoes, they maintain social networks and trade with China and the neighboring islands in the English Channel. They developed a soapstone industry, using stone tools to bowls and other objects of personal and professional use. Its main cities, where guns were positioned to meet the coast, now known as Avalon, Little Harbor, the landing of White and Empire Landing and on the isthmus of the island's two ports. The records of the ship to take the first written accounts of some of these places.

In 1602 Explorer Sebastian VIZCAÍNO, once made the island for the King of Spain. Have a vision for the future on the eve of Saint Catherine's feast day, he named the island Santa Catalina in his honor. The Portola expedition also claimed the island for Spain in the 1769th The Spanish began to intensify their efforts at colonization of California by establishing a chain of missions up and down California. Trade with foreigners was prohibited by law and Catalina Island proved to be a safe haven for smugglers. Sea otter pelts were in great demand of China's trade and otters were hunted to extinction in the waters of Catalina. In 1805, an American captain and trader named William Shales his ship aground on the island for repairs and wrote that the Indians were friendly and helped him.

Increased contact with foreigners brought new diseases to which Indians had little immunity. With the advent of the mission system was seriously disrupted trade patterns. Many of the mainland and the island Gabrielino were expelled from their country of origin to the Spanish missions, while others left voluntarily. In the 1820s there were probably no Pimungans back on the island. Partners in the Mission San Gabriel came to be known as Gabrielino. Today there is no liquid Gabrielino speakers of the language, and their descendants today are working to preserve their cultural heritage.

Rancho Days :

Mexico fought against Spanish rule and gained independence in 1821. Instead of banning trade with other countries that levy a tax on incoming goods. Catalina and California was now under the jurisdiction of Mexico and the remote island remains a popular place to hide from the authorities. The system was reduced, and the mission was secularized in 1834. The Mexican government gave large areas of land for people mission beneficiary. In 1839, named a naturalized Mexican citizen Thomas Robbins made his first petition to the Mexican Governor Pio Pico granted the island of Santa Catalina (no mission had been built on the island). Governor Pio Pico, finally given his wish, 4 July 1846, just days before Americans went to war with Mexico, the invasion of Monterey Bay in Northern California. In 1848, the Mexican-American War was over, and Catherine fell under U.S. domination. California became a state two years later. Robbins has established a small ranch in the isthmus of the island. He moved to Santa Barbara and later sold to the island. Catalina changed hands many times. Meanwhile, squatters installed, running sheep and cattle, cut and sell firewood to the mainland, and fishing. Some of the bays on the island still bear their names as Ben Weston Beach, Howland Landing and Gallagher Cove.

Miners and Union soldiers :

The discovery of gold in northern California in 1848 drew thousands of California. When it became harder to find gold asylum seekers in the south, and some of them went to Catalina in a brief flurry of mining operations. Instead of gold, found Galena, an ore of silver, lead and zinc. In 1864, the EU sent troops to the island to see if it would be appropriate for an Indian reservation in Humboldt County. All miners without major complaints were forced to leave the island. Within a year the idea was abandoned and the soldiers left. Barracks were built in the Isthmus continues. Santos, Morgana, miners, with the largest operation of its claim worked until 1876 and then withdrew, with his French girlfriend. He closed the entrances to the mines that were never found again.

The birth of Avalon :

From 1858 to 1867 a variety of people share ownership of the island. In 1867, the millionaire James Lick in San Francisco the freehold and evicted all squatters on the island. The peasants had to pay for the right to graze sheep and cattle on the island. When he died in 1876, its managers took over the farm, and in 1887 sold the island to George Shatto, a young man who had just arrived in Los Angeles from Michigan. Shatto decided to develop the island as a tourist center, the establishment of a town in a beautiful valley with the port width, crescent-shaped in the northeastern part of the island. It expanded the existing wharf to accommodate large steamers, and built the Hotel Metropole. He surveyed the city and sold the first lots. Shatto sister-in-law Etta Whitney Avalon chose the name for the city. Wine of the epic idylls of the king of Tennyson. In King Arthur was dying, he was Avalon, the island's beautiful valley, where he cured his serious wounds.

Year ban :

Shatto was able to make their mortgage payments. The island returned to the administration Lick. In 1892 he sold the island to the Banning brothers. Phineas Banning His father was a visionary who forged the transport and communication networks in southern California. He was instrumental in the development of Los Angeles Harbor and founder of Wilmington. His sons William, Joseph, and Hancock, took responsibility for many of the commercial interests of his father. He took charge of the Wilmington Transportation Company in 1884, giving more and more steamboats to carry passengers to Catalina. Two years after purchasing the island was established Santa Catalina Island Company and located on the land they had acquired in 1892 in the newly formed company. Prohibitions built roads in the interior of the island, and installed the first telephone systems and wireless telegraphy. They have also built several tourist attractions to ensure the continued success of Avalon as a resort, including two dance pavilions, a band stand, an aquarium, a Greek amphitheater, a train ready to take people from Avalon to Lover's Cove, and a golf course. They offered fishing excursions, tourist visits with care, and riding the glass bottom boat. Around the century, the island became world famous for sport fishing. Raising fish in a sport was a new idea, driven largely by a conservation effort by writer and naturalist Charles Frederick Holder, as the widespread use of candles in front. He founded the Tuna Club, which has strict rules for fishermen.

In 1913 Avalon was built in a city. In November 1915 a devastating fire out of control in three days, destroying about a third of the city, including the Metropole Hotel. Ban brothers built the elegant Hotel Santa Catalina to replace him, but failed to recoup their financial losses. In 1919 the island was sold to an enthusiastic entrepreneur named William Wrigley Jr., and began a new chapter in the history of the island.

William Wrigley Jr.

William Wrigley Jr. bought the island sight unseen, but as soon as he and his wife Ada so, fell in love with its beauty and Wrigley quickly bought out his partners. He was already a successful businessman who made a fortune with the Wrigley chewing gum. Now he is facing the same energy to improving the island. Fleet was expanded across the channel steamers, add Avalon SS and SS Catalina built specifically for implementation Catalina. He built a power plant, improvement of drainage system, and gave the island a source of drinking water by building dams in the interior of the island. In 1920 he built the Hotel Atwater and in 1928 built the Bird Park with thousands of exotic birds on display to the public. The largest aviary was built from steel structure in the dance pavilion Sugar Loaf, which was demolished to make room for the fabulous Casino, built to house a state of the art of theater and dance. Casino At that time the word is generally used to mean "a place of entertainment." At a cost of 2 million U.S. dollars, the casino took 14 months to build and opened in 1929.

Wrigley acknowledged the potential of the island to provide building materials and a source of employment for island residents. He established Catalina Clay Products to use local clay to cobbles and flagstones, which spreads to the end of the tiles, pottery and porcelain. He started a foundry and a furniture factory. The stone quarries on the island forever crushed rock for local use and shipping to the mainland. At the end of 1920 for mining in large scale was performed to extract silver, lead and zinc from various parts of the island.

He has also promoted the island through highly publicized events like the 1927 Wrigley Ocean Marathon swim and world class golf tournaments to 18 holes reformed. He owned the Chicago Cubs and brought to the island in spring training.

Philip K. Wrigley,

When William Wrigley Jr. died in 1932, his son Philip K. Wrigley, continued as chairman of the Santa Catalina Island Company, a role he assumed in 1925. He enlisted help of artists from Otis and Dorothy Shepard to give a feeling of old California to Avalon. Design features include extensive use of tiles, fountains, and wrought-iron towers, a Serpentine wall, soft lighting, palm and olive trees. Wandering minstrels' feast serenaded passengers on the boat. In 1931, the Philip an airport in Hamilton Cove amphibians. The 30s with the advent of the Big Band era. The Casino is open nightly for dancing. The island became a popular place for movies that were filmed, and the rich and famous came to play on the island. These golden years disappeared with the introduction of the Second World War. The island was closed to tourists and several branches of the military trained on the island shipping, the Army Signal Corp., OSS, and Coast Guard. Since the island was reopened after the war, the use of amphibians in the war, Grumman Goose marked a new era in travel to the island. Finally, steamers and boats gave way to flying helicopters and smaller, faster boats that are used today.

Catalina Island Conservancy

The Wrigley family clung to the idea that the island should be preserved instead evolved much. In 1975 he won 88% of the island of Catalina Island Conservation, a nonprofit corporation with the mission to "preserve and restore Catalina to its natural state in perpetuity so that future generations can continue to enjoy this unique part of California's heritage." Santa Catalina Island, the company still owns 11% of the island and 1% are independently owned. Most of the island will always be a natural beauty, surrounded by unspoilt nature of the oceans, beautiful treasures for us all.