History

HISTORY & CULTURE

Surfacing over the horizon from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, the coastal mountains of California's Channel Islands offer an extraordinary gateway to the past, spanning more than 12,000 years of human history.

The Channel Islands have attracted many explorers, scientists and historians during the past few centuries. Today, island visitors can explore the world of the native Chumash, walk the shores where European explorers landed, discover new tales from California's ranching history, and witness the remains of off-shore shipwrecks.

The northern Channel Islands were home to many native Chumash communities who are believed to have inhabited the islands for thousands of years. When Europeans first reached the islands in the 16th century, they discovered a rich culture dependent upon the resources of the land and the sea for sustenance and survival. By the nineteenth century, the islands were fulfilling different purposes: vast sheep and cattle ranches occupied Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel islands and the channel waters were aggressively harvested for fish and marine mammals. The remains of ancient Chumash villages are intermingled with historic ranch complexes and later military structures, testifying to the diverse heritage of human experience on these offshore islands.

Each of the five Channel Islands has a unique history. Channel Islands National Park invites you to learn more about the people, places, and stories associated with each of these islands and to experience the fascinating heritage of coastal southern California!

Collections

Channel Islands National Park maintains a museum and archival collection of more than 300,000 objects related to the park's cultural and natural history. While the park's historical archives and administrative records are housed at the park, most of the park's artifacts and specimens are located in nearby institutions. These collections have resulted from research and resource management activities undertaken by park personnel, researchers, and staff of partner institutions over a period of some 75 years. Much of the research and collecting occurred prior to the establishment of the National Park, when Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands were privately owned.

Two of the premier objects in the park's museum collection are the original third-order Fresnel lens from the Anacapa lighthouse and the nearly-complete pygmy mammoth skeleton from Santa Rosa Island. The Fresnel Lens is displayed in the Anacapa Island visitor center, while a plaster cast of the pygmy mammoth skeleton can be seen in the park's Ventura visitor center and at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

Where to find Channel Islands collections

The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden herbarium is the repository for a large collection of botanical specimens from the islands.

Archeological artifacts, paleontological specimens, and biological specimens are located primarily at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

Other institutions that maintain collections of objects and specimens from the Channel Islands include the Museum of Natural History of Los Angeles County (archeology and natural history collections) and the University of California at Santa Barbara (archeology).

The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the Ventura County Museum of History and Art and the Santa Cruz Island Foundation all maintain collections of historic photographs and primary documents related to the islands.

Pygmy Mammoth

Mammoths have always fascinated people. From the creators of the earliest known cave painting and carvings to 20th century practitioners of modern art and even to today's tourists, humans have tried to grasp the essence of this magnificent creature – its enormous size, strength and beauty and its coexistence with and importance to humans. In 1994, paleontologists made the remarkable discovery of a pygmy mammoth on Santa Rosa Island, the most complete collection of its kind in the world.

Found only on the California Channel Islands and nowhere else in the world, the pygmy mammoth was probably a small form of the Columbian mammoth found on the mainland. Pygmy mammoths varied from 4.5 to 7 feet high at the shoulders and may have weighed only about 2,000 pounds, compared to the 14-foot tall, 20,000 pound Columbian mammoth. In other respects, they were probably similar, with short fur, a typical mammoth body form, and a relatively large head.

The first remains of "elephants" on Santa Rosa Island were reported in 1873. Additional excavations over the years have given a basic understanding of a population of mammoths on the islands which became smaller in body size through time and which perished as the Pleistocene ended. Paleontological excavations on Santa Rosa Island in 1927 and 1928 resulted in the retrieval of a significant collection of a new species described as Mammuthus exilis. Philip Orr of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History recovered additional materials during archeological and geological work on Santa Rosa Island during the 1940s and 1950s.

Remains of mammoths are most common on Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands, with smaller numbers recovered from Santa Cruz Island and from San Nicolas Island, outside the park. The recovered specimens range in size from 4 to 8 feet at the shoulder, compared to the 12 to 14 foot height of mainland mammoths.

The Journey to the Islands
Approximately 40,000 to 20,000 years ago, a small group of 14-foot tall, 20,000-pound Columbian mammoths embarked on a journey that would eventually end in the development of a new species—the Channel Islands pygmy mammoth. Leaving the heavily grazed mainland behind, these Columbian mammoths swam towards the scents of abundant vegetation from the huge, mountainous island of Santarosae.

Approximately 20,000 years ago when sea level was about 300 feet lower than it is today, the four northern islands joined together to form an Ice Age “superisland” known as Santarosae. This island was only 6 miles from the mainland at its closest distance. As the ice sheets and glaciers melted and the sea level rose, only the highest parts of Santarosae remained as modern islands.

But how did they reach the island? With their snorkel-like trunk and buoyant mass, elephants, living relatives of mammoths, are considered excellent distance swimmers, among the best of all land mammals, and skilled at crossing watergaps. Documented accounts demonstrate that Asian elephant swim to islands they cannot even see – some up to 23 miles away—guided by the odor of ripening fruit and vegetation. There is no reason that Pleistocene mammoths were not just as seaworthy, and just as good at swimming.

Evolving into a New Species
Once on the island, the population of mammoths increased and, eventually, the food supply became scarce as the island decreased in size due to climatic changes – glaciers and ice sheets melting, and sea levels rising. Those mammoths that were smaller and could survive with less food and water were at an advantage, especially in times of seasonal shortages. Over time, smaller animals that required fewer resources became the norm. In addition, the absence of predators on the islands also may have contributed to this downsizing: large size was no longer needed for predator avoidance and defense.

Within less than 20,000 years, natural selection favored smaller-sized mammoths that stood less than 6.5 feet tall at the shoulder, less than half the height of their mainland ancestor. Thus, the small mammoths became a new species, the Channel Islands pygmy mammoth.

The pygmy mammoth is an extinct member of an ancient and unique group of mammals collectively known as probiscideans. This name comes from the Greek word probiscis and refers to the large or extended noses. While the fossil history of this group spans over 55 million years and more than 160 different species, today’s elephants are the last survivors of this widespread group of animals.

Extinction
After 200,000 years as one of Earth's most dominant species, mammoths, which once thrived across Europe, Asia and North American, became extinct nearly 10,000 years ago. The extinction of the mammoths was also part of the much wider phenomenon of disappearance of the world's larger mammals, which started about 40,000 years ago and reached its peak between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago. Just what caused the demise of this Pleistocene megafauna is still unknown: nearly 30 years of research and testing has not yet provided an answer that is universally convincing.

Special Islands
Mammoth finds are by no means rare. Complete skeletons to cave paintings have been discovered on four continents in a wide variety of locations: an engraving of a mammoth on mammoth ivory found in a rock shelter southwestern France; a preserved frozen carcass of a baby male mammoth in the permafrost of Siberia; a sinkhole with more than 100 mammoth remains in Hot Springs, South Dakota; and, of course, our own mammoth find right here in our backyard, within Channel Islands National Park – the discovery of the world's first virtually complete pygmy mammoth skeleton in 1994.

Studying the pygmy mammoth reveals how important the Channel Islands are in illuminating the mysteries of evolution. The isolation of the islands have made them natural laboratories of evolutionary extravagance, as seen not only in the pygmy mammoth, but also in the extinct giant mouse, the diminutive island fox, the munchkin dudleya, and the giant, bright blue Island Jay. Isolated from their mainland relations and exposed to unique environmental conditions, the ancestors of these plants and animals, along with over 70 others, responded by becoming new species unique to the island – found nowhere else on earth.

Fresnel Lens

Constructed in 1932, the Anacapa Island Light Station featured a third-order Fresnel lens, the most advanced example of lens technology at the time.

In 1822 the Frenchman Augustin Fresnel (fray-nel) improved the dioptric, or refractive, lens used in many lighthouse beacons. Resembling a giant beehive surrounding a single lamp, the glass prisms at the top and bottom refracted the light, sending it out in a narrow sheet. The dioptric section is a round bull's-eye panel that produces the bright flash of the light. The light appeared brighter and more concentrated, giving it a much more effective and farther range. In the United States Fresnel lenses were made in seven sizes, or orders, the first-order being the largest.

In 1932 a rotating, catadioptric, third-order Fresnel lens with a 1000-watt incandescent bulb assembly was installed in the Anacapa Lighthouse. Manufactured between 1900 and 1903 by the Chance Brothers Company in England, it was transported to the United States and stored with other lenses to be used in west coast lighthouses. As each lighthouse was built, a lens was taken out of storage and installed in the lighthouse tower. Powered by diesel generator, its 600,000 candlepower had a visibility of 24 miles!

Until the 1960s the light station required a crew of 15 to 25 people to care for the lens and tower. The lighthouse was automated to run for several months at a time in the 1960s. An automatic lamp changer halved the number of times a tender would have to change a burned-out bulb. The brass structure of the lens was painted black because it was no longer regularly polished.

in 1989 the Coast Gurad replaced the original Fresnel lens with a solar-powered unit now used in the lighthouse. You can see the original Fresnel lens on display at the Anacapa Island visitor center.

Places

An Ancient String of Pearls

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and his Spanish fleet first came upon San Miguel Island in 1542. In the waters of the Santa Barbara Channel they found an island chain with a long and rich history. The Chumash, who lived on the northern islands and along the coastline, had inhabited those lands for millenia, living off of the rich resources of the land and the sea. Cabrillo's fleet explored the California mainland and the offshore islands, producing the first accounts of Chumash culture and securing these ancient lands for the Spanish crown. In time, the four northern Channel Islands of Tuqan, Wi’ma, Limuw, and Anyapakh, as they were known by the Chumash, were given their present names (San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa).

Over the centuries, the islands saw several economic transformations. The Chumash food sources and trading patterns with the mainland were disrupted by European newcomers’ otter and seal hunting, fishing, shellfish harvesting, and kelp production which were some of the earliest European industries to develop among the Channel Islands. By the first quarter of the 19^th century, the Chumash had vacated the islands to take up residence on the mainland, primarily in the Catholic missions established by the Spanish along the California coastline.

Mexican independence from Spain and California statehood saw a shift towards livestock ranching. Each of the five park islands supported sheep grazing during the early 20^th century. Santa Rosa Island and Santa Cruz Island both had large cattle operations. World War II coastal defenses and the Cold War build-up both left remnants of their presence of the islands. The remains of numerous shipwrecks testify to the hazards the islands posed to California’s busy mariners as they navigated the narrow channel. In 1932, the U.S. Coast Guard constructed a light station on Anacapa Island, whose lighthouse and fog signal are still in operation today.

On April 26, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established Anacapa and Santa Barbara islands as the Channel Islands National Monument. The Monument was later enlarged to include the one-mile area around the islands which brought the offshore kelp beds and marine life under park protection.

The present Channel Islands National Park, which was created in 1980, includes the five islands of Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara, and San Miguel.

Light Station

The thick fog and strong currents of the Santa Barbara Channel have proved treacherous to maritime traders and other vessels for centuries. Sea captains traveling to San Francisco along the west coast of Central and South America avoided the narrow passage for much of the nineteenth century, for fear of colliding with one of the islands in darkness, fog or stormy conditions. Since its completion in 1932, the Anacapa Island Lighthouse has helped guide sailors through the precarious Channel waters. Still, the fractured remains of shipwrecks are chilling reminders of nature's enormous power.

An estimated nine-tenths of all vessels trading up and down the Pacific Coast were passing through the Santa Barbara Channel by 1920. Members of the American Association of Masters, Mates and Pilots demanded a fog signal as well as a light. A permanent lighthouse, however, required authorization by Congress. When the tank steamer Liebre grounded on the east end of Anacapa Island on February 28, 1921, directly under the light tower, local inspectors blamed the inadequate station.

In 1928, the Bureau of Lighthouses allotted funds for fog signal and radio apparatus for Anacapa, as well as boats and miscellaneous improvements for water supply, sanitation, and grounds improvement. The new lighthouse's keeper, Frederick Cobb, lit the first light on March 25, 1932. In 1939 the U.S. Coast Guard replaced the Lighthouse Service.

From 1931 through the 1960s, the light station housed a crew of between 15 and 25 people who maintained the lens, fog signal and tower, hourly weather and radar monitoring and reports, and a radio tower. When the US Coast Guard automated the station in the 1960s, the the need for a fully manned station ended and the light station was able to be operated from the mainland.

For 57 years the light station aided ships traveling through the Santa Barbara Channel. In 1989, the Coast Guard replaced the historic Fresnel lens with a solar-powered acrylic lens. These modern lenses are small versions of Augustin Fresnel's invention, using the same technology employed by the nineteenth-century physicist.

You can visit the original Fresnel lens at the Anacapa Island visitor center. Click here for more information and photos.

In spite of the island's remoteness, those who worked and lived on Anacapa were self-sufficient. Most of the Spanish Revival-style structures were constructed in 1932. Fuel was stored in the oil house in three 2000-gallon tanks. Solar panels have been added to its roof for modern usage. The power house contained the generator as well as the radio room, which was converted into an apartment in the 1980s. With no fresh water, the Coast Guard constructed a tank house to protect two large redwood water tanks. The high, one-story building has tall arched windows, an arched doorway, and a circular window in a protruding gable, giving it the look of a church. The Coast Guard hoped that this "disguise" would shield the water from vandalism although it really acts to preserve the water quality and protect the tanks from rodents and weather. In addition, a 30,000-square foot cement catchment behind the tank house was built to funnel rainwater down to the water tanks. The flat surface, however, was popular with gulls and seabirds and, because of the amount of guano, the rainshed was only used occasionally.

The white stuccoed Spanish Revival-style residences typically housed six men with some families. Island residents occupied their time working, fishing, hunting rabbits, and combing the island's nooks and crevices. Painted white stones and neat fences made the four houses and various service buildings resemble a small neighborhood. By 1951, television had come to Anacapa. Although light keepers no longer live on the island, the houses and buildings are occupied and managed by National Park staff.

In 1961 the Coast Guard modernized the light station by replacing the fog signal system and installing electrical appliances. The following year, however, a new plan was outlined to automate the Anacapa Island Light Station and to establish a rescue facility at Point Hueneme Light Station.

By 1970 the National Park Service and the U.S. Coast Guard reached an agreement that awarded joint custody and use of the unimproved land areas of East Anacapa, the wharf, hoist house, and hoist. NPS park rangers now occupy the residence quarters and operate the other buildings. While the park service manages the island, the Coast Guard operates the lighthouse and fog signal building.

For safety reasons, visitors to Anacapa Island are not permitted to tour the lighthouse, but the Park Service welcomes you to explore the area surrounding this historic structure and to experience the unparalleled views from Anacapa's rocky shores.

Stories

As you explore Channel Islands National Park, imagine what it was like to live on an island or cross the channel in a boat fifty years ago, one hundred years ago, and even ten thousand years ago. Archeologists believe that humans may have inhabited the Channel Islands for up to 13,000 years, millennia before Europeans set foot on their shores in the 16th century. Through their long histories, the Channel Islands have been host to Chumash and Tongva peoples, explorers and traders, prisoners and smugglers, ranchers and vaqueros, shipwreck victims and Coast Guard personnel.

Shipwrecks: The Winfield Scott

In 1847 two steamship companies connecting New York with San Francisco and the Oregon Territory and charged primarily with the important task of delivering mail were subsidized by the federal government. The United States Mail Steamship Company and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company acquired many steamships to travel the Panama route. Independent steamship companies competed with the mail steamships by promising shorter voyages. To reach their destinations more quickly, ships often risked navigating the narrow Santa Barbara Channel rather than traveling around the Channel Islands. Between 1850 and 1900, at least 33 ships were wrecked in the Channel. One of these ships, the Winfield Scott, still lies beneath the clear waters of Channel Islands National Park. The large steamship sank off the shores of Anacapa Island in 1853.

The Winfield Scott was owned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Loaded with over 300 passengers and crew, bags of mail, and $1 million in gold, the steamship departed San Francisco for Panama on December 1, 1853. The next evening Captain Simon F. Blunt chose to pass through the Santa Barbara Channel to save time. The fog was dense, but he knew his course. Believing he had passed the islands, Blunt turned southeast, an unfortunate and tragic miscalculation. At 11:00 pm, the Winfield Scott crashed into a large rock off Middle Anacapa at full speed, striking two holes in the bow. The stern then struck, knocking away the rudder, and the ship began to sink.

Captain Blunt sent a boat to find a place onshore for the passengers and ordered everyone on board to abandon ship. The large group was brought to the beaches of Anacapa where they camped for nearly a week. Another ship, the California, saw the smoke from the passenger's fires and rescued the women. It returned on December 9 and removed the rest of the passengers. The company of the Winfield Scott was left on the island to attempt to recover mail, baggage, furniture, and some of the machinery from the wreck, but there was little hope of saving the ship or of getting it off of the ledge.

San Pedro

You can explore the watery remains of the Winfield Scott shipwreck, though divers and snorkelers are prohibited by antiquity laws from removing any artifacts. The wreck is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

For more information about the Winfield Scott and other Channel Islands shipwrecks, check out the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Shipwreck Database at http://channelislands.noaa.gov/.

Chumash Tomol Crossing

Each day, commercial and private boats take visitors across the Santa Barbara Channel to the shores of the Channel Islands. Can you imagine making that same journey in a canoe? It might take an entire day and would require tremendous physical strength to forge through the rough waters.

Hundreds of years ago, the native island Chumash traveled these ancient waters for hunting, fishing, and trading. They built canoes, called tomols, from redwood trees that drifted down the coast, fastening the cut planks together with animal sinews and sealed with a tar-like substance called yop. Yop is a combination of pine pitch and asphaltum which occurs naturally in the Channel and along the coast from oil seeping into the water from below the earth's surface. The tomol remains the oldest example of an ocean-going watercraft in North America.

The tomol is central to the Chumash heritage, constructed and paddled by members of the Brotherhood of the Tomol. The historic Brotherhood disbanded in 1834, but in 1976, a contemporary group built Helek, which means Peregrine Falcon, based on ethnographic and historic accounts of tomol construction. It was the first tomol built in 142 years and the modern paddlers travelled from San Miguel Island to Santa Rosa Island, and finally to Santa Cruz Island.

Twenty years later, the Chumash Maritime Association completed a 26-foot-long tomol which they named 'Elye'wun (pronounced "El-E-ah-woon"), the Chumash word for Swordfish.

On September 8, 2001, 'Elye'wun made the historic crossing from the mainland to Santa Cruz Island. The dangers of the past did not escape the modern crew. During the journey, the tomol began to leak and also encountered a thresher shark and several dolphins. Over 150 Chumash families and friends gathered to greet the tomol and paddlers on the beaches of Santa Cruz.

Three years later, on September 11, 2004, 'Elye'wun again crossed the Channel to Santa Cruz Island, this time greeted by more than 200 Chumash and American Indians at the historic Chumash village of Swaxil, now known as Scorpion Valley. The 21-mile trip took over ten hours! A crew of Chumash youth aged 14 to 22 joined the paddlers, a significant accomplishment for the next generation of Chumash leaders.

Additional tomol crossings took place in September 2005 and August 2006. Members of the Chumash community continue to celebrate their heritage and culture through this event.

Centuries ago, the tomol was used to connect different island Chumash groups with each other and the mainland. Today, it links past generations of Chumash with the present-day Chumash community.

You can read about history of the Channel Islands Chumash by following this link.

Check out the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History for more information about the Chumash and current archeology.

The Lone Woman of San Nicolas

Each year, Scott O'Dell's Newbury Award winning novel Island of the Blue Dolphins introduces young people to the Channel Islands. O'Dell's tale of the young girl Karana was inspired by the true story of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas who was left on the Island in 1835 when a boat took the remaining Nicoleño people to the mainland. She lived alone on the island until George Nidever, a fisherman and sea otter hunter, discovered her in 1853 and brought her to the Santa Barbara Mission.

Although San Nicolas Island is not one of the park islands, the story of the Lone Woman gives interesting insight to the lifeways of the native inhabitants of the Channel Islands at the time Europeans had established a sizeable population in what is now California. Follow this link to learn more about the true story of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas.

Arlington Woman

The following was written by Dr. John R. Johnson, Curator of Anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Johnson's career has been devoted to understanding the culture and history of the Chumash Indians and their neighbors in south central California through the study of archeology, archival records, and invterviews with contemporary Native Americans. Most recently, Dr. Johnson has headed the team that has been investigating the earliest evidence for people in our region at the Arlington Springs Site on Santa Rosa Island.

Arlington Springs: The Earliest Evidence for Paleoindians in Coastal California

Arlington Springs Woman broke into the news following the Fifth California Islands Symposium held at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in 1999. Newspapers, magazines, television news, and radio programs around the world reported on what is arguably the earliest dated human remains in either North or South America.Using a small fragment of a human femur discovered by Phil Orr in 1959 on Santa Rosa Island, modern techniques of bone protein analysis and radiocarbon dating indicate that Arlington Springs Woman lived some 13,000 (calendar) years ago.Only one other find in North America, a child burial from the now-destroyed Anzick Site in Montana has ever been dated to this early age.

Arlington Springs Woman lived at the end of the Pleistocene when the four northern Channel Islands were all still united together as one mega-island, and the climate was much cooler than today. The evidence that people had arrived on that island by 13,000 years ago demonstrates that watercraft were in use along the California coast at that early date and lends support for a theory that the earliest peoples to enter the Western Hemisphere may have migrated along the Pacific coast from Siberia and Alaska using boats. Recent radiocarbon dating by Dr. Larry Agenbroad of pygmy mammoth fossils from Santa Rosa Island suggests that the last of these unique mammals may have been present on the island at the time the first humans arrived.

An interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and geologists has been investigating the Arlington Springs locality over the past twelve years. In 2001 detailed studies were conducted to date the geological layers at the site and collect information regarding the late Pleistocene environment on Santa Rosa Island. New technologies, such as laser mapping and ground penetrating radar have been used to document the site and gather additional information to guide future research. During the most recent field season, a series of soil cores were obtained that will yield invaluable information about the geological and environmental history of the island.

Limuw: A Story of Place

Hutash, the Earth Mother, created the first Chumash people on the island of Limuw, now known as Santa Cruz Island. They were made from the seeds of a Magic Plant.

Hutash was married to the Alchupo'osh, Sky Snake, the Milky Way, who could make lightning bolts with his tongue. One day he decided to make a gift to the Chumash people. He sent down a bolt of lightning that started a fire. After this, people kept fires burning so that they could keep warm and cook their food.

In those days, the Condor was a white bird. The Condor was very curious about the fire he saw burning in the Chumash village. He wanted to find out what it was. He flew very low over the fire to get a better look, but he flew too close; he got his feathers scorched, and they turned black. Now the Condor is a black bird, with just a little white left under the wings where they did not get burned.

After Alchupo'osh gave them fire, the Chumash people lived more comfortably. More people were born each year and their villages got bigger and bigger. Limuw was getting crowded. And the noise people made was starting to annoy Hutash. It kept her awake at night. So, finally, she decided that some of the Chumash people had to move off the island. They would have to go to the mainland, where there weren't any people living in those days.

But how were the people going to get across the water to the mainland? Finally, Hutash had the idea of making a bridge out of a wishtoyo (rainbow). She made a very long, very high rainbow that stretched from the tallest mountain on Limuw all the way to Tzchimoos, the tall mountain near Mishopshno (Carpinteria).

Hutash told the people to go across the rainbow bridge and to fill the whole world with people. So the Chumash people started to go across the bridge. Some of them got across safely, but some people made the mistake of looking down. It was a long way down to the water, and the fog was swirling around. They became so dizzy that some of them fell off the rainbow bridge, down through the fog, into the ocean. Hutash felt very badly about this because she told them to cross the bridge. She did not want them to drown. To save them, she turned them into dolphins. Now the Chumash call the dolphins their brothers and sisters.

Prisoners Harbor

Santa Cruz Island lay deserted for several years after the native Chumash had gone to the mainland. Fishermen, hunters and travelers occasionally stopped or squatted on its shores. After gaining independence from Spain in 1821, the Mexican government renewed its interest in Alta California and the Channel Islands. In 1830, a series of events, now steeped in myth, left one of the more evocative names on the Island of Santa Cruz.

The Mexican government wished to expand its presence and increase its population in the Santa Barbara area. Since 1825, it had been sending prisoners northward to populate the area. In 1830, a band of approximately 40 Mexican convicts left Acapulco for Santa Barbara. Outraged and afraid, the people of Santa Barbara searched for a way to make the men leave. They convinced the men that there was promising work in developing a cattle ranch on Santa Cruz Island and raised enough money to purchase livestock and tools for the men to bring to Santa Cruz.

The prisoners landed in a cove now known as Prisoners Harbor. There they found that developing a ranch would never be prosperous. Some accounts report that a fire destroyed most of their provisions and forced them to leave the island, and others say that the prisoners consumed all that was given to them and then decided to leave. The cattle were slaughtered and their hides were lashed around logs to form rafts. Some believe that the hides attracted sharks on the journey back to Santa Barbara, killing many of the men. One supposed eyewitness told a historian that the escaped prisoners "were rounded up again, dealt with at the whipping post and distributed under supervision of officers at Santa Barbara and Monterey." A third story says they safely arrived in Carpinteria and dispersed.

The true story of the prisoners at Santa Cruz Island may never be known, but their mysterious legacy lends its name to Prisoners Harbor.

People

For over ten thousand years, the northern Channel Islands have hosted a diverse range of peoples and cultures. The large number and undisturbed condition of archeological sites on the islands are shedding light on coastal migration patterns of the earliest Americans and their subsistence in the marine environment. Human remains discovered in 1959 at Arlington Springs on Santa Rosa Island have been dated to more than 13,000 years of age, among the oldest dated human remains in North America.

New information about the Island Chumash, the native population that inhabited these islands for thousands of years, continues to fascinate historians and visitors alike. These native people relied on the sea for much of their sustenance and manufactured tools and trade items from shells and stones. The Chumash were able to travel between the islands and the mainland in plank canoes, called tomols, which were constructed out of redwood trees drifting down the coast.

In 1542, explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo reached San Miguel Island while voyaging along the American coast seeking new lands for conquest and development. For two hundred years, explorers and traders visited the islands where they hunted otters, seals, and sea lions for their pelts and oil, greatly increasing the exploitation of the marine resources and introducing diseases that decimated the native populations.

Claimed for Spain by the early explorers, the islands fell under Mexican rule in 1821. Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa were awarded as Mexican land grants with the intent of raising livestock. Initial ventures into sheep and cattle ranching began on these islands in the 1830s. With California statehood in 1850, the islands became part of the United States. Each of the five northern Channel Islands was developed for livestock ranching during some period of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Taking advantage of the expansive fields and altering much of the natural environment, ranchers and vaqueros, or cowboys, built successful sheep and cattle ranches. Many historic ranch buildings remain on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands today.

The U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard all established posts on the northern Channel Islands during the 20^th century. Light towers were constructed on Anacapa and Santa Barbara Islands in the 1910s, and a full light station was built on East Anacapa Island in 1932, run by the Coast Guard into the 1960s. Coastal defense build-up led to the establishment of an Army base in 1943 and an Air Force Base in 1950, both on Santa Rosa Island. The Navy managed San Miguel Island from 1948 until it transferred management to the National Park Service in 1967. The Navy also continues to maintain a small post on Santa Cruz Island.

Today National Park Service personnel and park visitors form the primary population of the five northern islands. Established as a National Monument in 1938, Anacapa and Santa Barbara islands were the first two islands under NPS management. In 1980 legislation creating Channel Islands National Park added the three remaining Northern Channel Islands. Today the National Park Service protects and preserves the historic resources associated with the various historic inhabitants of the islands to help tell their stories to the public

Native Inhabitants

Archeological evidence indicates that there has been a human presence in the northern Channel Islands for thousands of years. Human remains excavated by archeologist Phil Orr from Arlington Springs on Santa Rosa Island in 1959, recently yielded a radio-carbon date of over 13,000 years of age. Archeological sites on San Miguel Island show continuous occupation from 8,000 – 11,000 years ago.

The native populations of the Channel Islands were primarily Chumash. The word Michumash, from which the name Chumash is derived, means “makers of shell bead money” and is the term mainland Chumash used to refer to those inhabiting the islands. Traditionally the Chumash people lived in an area extending from San Luis Obispo to Malibu, including the four Northern Channel Islands. Today, with the exception of the Islands, Chumash people live in these territories and areas far beyond. Approximately 148 historic village sites have been identified, including 11 on Santa Cruz Island, eight on Santa Rosa Island, and two on San Miguel Island. Due to the lack of a consistent water source, Anacapa Island was likely inhabited on a seasonal basis. A true maritime culture, the Chumash hunted and gathered natural resources from both the ocean and the coastal mountains to maintain a highly developed way of life.

The southernmost park island, Santa Barbara Island, was associated with the Tongva people, also called Gabrieleno, although the Chumash also visited the island. Like the Chumash, they navigated the ocean and traded with their neighbors on the northern islands and the coast. Lacking a steady supply of fresh water, no permanent settlements were ever established on Santa Barbara Island. Tongva/Gabrieleno people lived primarily on the Southern Channel Islands (Santa Barbara, San Nicolas, Santa Catalina and San Clemente islands) and the area in and around Los Angeles.

Navigation, Trade, and the Tomol
These earliest inhabitants exploited the rich marine resources. Isolated from the mainland, they navigated between the islands and back and forth to the mainland using tomols. A plank canoe constructed from redwood logs that floated down the coast and held together by yop, a glue-like substance made from pine pitch and asphaltum, and cords made of plant materials and animal sinews, the tomol ranged from eight to thirty feet in length and held three to ten people. Sharkskin was used for sanding, red ochre for staining, and abalone for inlay and embellishment.

The use of the tomol allowed for an elaborate trade network between the islands and mainland, between natives and non-natives, and amongst the island communities themselves. ‘Achum, or shell bead money was “minted” by the island Chumash using small discs shaped from olivella shells and drills manufactured from Santa Cruz Island chert. The shell bead money was exchanged with mainland villages for resources and manufactured goods that were otherwise unavailable on the islands.

Today, the Chumash Maritime Association, in partnership with Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and Channel Islands National Park, continues the tradition of the tomol by conducting Channel crossings.

Missionization
By the time European explorers arrived in the Santa Barbara Channel, there were some 21 villages on the three largest islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz, with highly developed social hierarchies that featured an upper class of chiefs, shamans, boat builders, and artisans, a middle class of workers, fisherman, and hunters, and a lower class of the poor and outcast. Because of the scarcity of fresh water, Anacapa and Santa Barbara islands did not support permanent habitation.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was impressed by the friendliness of the Chumash people he encountered. However, diseases introduced by the European explorers began a decline in the native population. As European colonists began to settle along the coast, introducing new economic enterprises, exploiting the marine resources, and establishing Catholic missions, the native food sources were depleted, native economies were altered, and island populations declined even further. By the 1820s, the last of the island Chumash had moved to the mainland, many of them to the Missions at Santa Ynez, San Buenaventura, and Santa Barbara.

The mission system depended on the use of native labor to propel industry and the economy. The social organization of Chumash society was restructured, leading to the erosion of previous power bases and further assimilation. When California became part of Mexico, the government secularized the missions, and the Chumash sank into the depths of poverty. By the time of the California gold rush, the Chumash had become marginalized, and little was done to understand or help the remaining population.

Contemporary Chumash
Today, Chumash community members continue to move forward in their efforts to revive what was becoming a forgotten way of life. Much has been lost, but Chumash community members take pride in their heritage and culture.

With a current population nearly 5,000 strong, some Chumash people can trace their ancestors to the five islands of Channel Islands National Park. The Chumash reservation in Santa Ynez represents the only federally recognized band, though it is important to note that several other organized Chumash groups exist.

The National Park Service invites you to visit Channel Islands National Park, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, and other local areas to learn more about the Chumash and other Native American cultures.