Wilmington to Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, 27 m. by sea.
Communication by plane and boat: steamer leaves Wilmington Harbor for island 9:30, 10 a.m., 4 p.m. in summer, 10 a.m. in winter; $3.50-$4.25 round trip, half fares $I.75-$2.15, trip 2¼ hours one way; private automobiles prohibited; all types of accommodations; open all seasons, summer months most popular.
Santa Catalina, 21 miles long by three-quarters to eight miles wide, is the second largest of the eight Channel Islands off the coast of southern California. A rugged mountain chain, culminating in Mount Orizaba (2,109 alt.) and Mount Black Jack (2,000 alt.), extends the length of the island, with canyons and spurs running down to the sea.
In prehistoric times the island was the habitat of sun-worshipping Indians of the Shoshone tribe. Later it was a haven for early Spanish adventurers, and in the 19th century became a port of call for buccaneers and a base for Yankee smugglers. The aura of adventure and violence that enveloped it for more than three centuries ended with a brief mining boom during the Civil War.
At present the 48,438-acre island is a privately owned and exploited pleasure resort. Its metropolis, Avalon, on the eastern end of the leeward side, is an incorporated city with its own municipal government and public schools, and numerous hotels, apartment houses, bungalow courts and cottages. An elaborate casino and other recreational facilities and means of entertainment are in or near the town. One hundred and thirty miles of graveled and dirt roads and a network of bridle paths and hiking trails penetrate the interior, where are wild boar, goat and buffalo herds, quail, Indian caves and burial grounds. Steamships carry most of the half million people who visit the island annually, although seaplanes bring approximately 25,000 a year.
Santa Catalina was discovered by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the Portuguese navigator, in 1542. On October 8 of that year he anchored the San Salvadore and La Vittoria in the Bay of the Seven Moons, now called Avalon Bay, and named the island La Vittoria for his flagship. Cabrillo died on the northward voyage, but months later his ships returned and again laid over here for several days. In 1602, 60 years later, another expedition, seeking a port for Spanish galleons returning from Manila, sailed from Acapulco, Mexico, under command of Sebastian Vizcaino. Vizcaino’s three caravels dropped anchor at the island November 24, 1602, the eve of the feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria, and the navigator accordingly named the island Santa Catalina (Saint Catherine). From the departure of Vizcaino until the founding of the first mainland missions in the late 18th century, nearly 200 years, Spain showed no more interest in the island than it did in the mainland.
In 1805 Captain William Shaler, master of the Leila Byrd, out of Boston, anchored in Catalina Harbor, the first American shipmaster of record to see the place. Thereafter, and until 1821, when Mexico freed herself from Spain and lifted the Spanish ban on foreign trade in California, Santa Catalina was a base for illegal Yankee trading operations with the mainland missions and ranches, and was also visited by Russian hunters from Alaska, who descended with crews of Alaskan Aleuts and Kodiaks to hunt the sea otter that abounded in the waters around the island.
Santa Catalina remained a Mexican possession until the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was ratified in the spring of 1848. Two years previous the private ownership of the island had passed, as the last of the Mexican land grants, to Thomas Robbins, an American of Santa Barbara. Robbins petitioned for the island as a ranch, and Pio Pico, the last Mexican Governor, granted it ; according to one story the governor accepted a horse and saddle in return.
After American occupation the first recorded transfer of the island was to Nicolas Covarrubias. In 1863, at the height of a gold boom on the north end of the island Covarrubias sold the property to a man named Parker, who in turn sold it to James Lick of San Francisco for $80,000. In 1887 Lick sold it for $200,000 to George R. Shatto, who first undertook to develop it as a pleasure resort. Shatto platted a town (Avalon) at what was then known as Timm’s Landing, named it for himself, and sold optional mining rights in the interior to an English syndicate. Ore was carried by burros from Silver Canyon to the town, but the operations proved unprofitable and the syndicate was dissolved in 1889. Three years later Shatto sold the island to Judge J. B., Captain William, and Hancock Banning, sons of Phineas Banning, founder of Wilmington. The Banning brothers formed the Santa Catalina Island Company for the purpose of developing the place as a pleasure and fisherman’s resort, put steamers into service from the mainland, built a hotel, and founded an aquarium on the Avalon water front.
William Wrigley, Jr.’s purchase of the island for $3,000,000 in 1919 resulted in the rebuilding of Avalon and an enormous expansion of the various facilities. Wrigley acquired new steamers for the trip to the mainland, built new piers, erected hotels, developed roads and trails to interior points, and sponsored industries. He solved three of the island’s outstanding problems—water, housing, and sanitation ; more than one million dollars were spent for water facilities alone. Santa Catalina Island is still largely owned by the second Santa Catalina Island Company founded in 1919 by Wrigley and now controlled by his son, Philip Knight Wrigley.
Pier 185, the CATALINA TERMINAL, 0 m., is at the foot of Avalon Blvd. in Wilmington (see The Harbor).
AVALON, 27 m. (20 alt., 1,637 winter pop., 15,000 to 25,000 summer pop.), along the crescent-shaped shore of Avalon Bay is the center of resort and sports activities. Its modified-Spanish character was introduced by William Wrigley, Jr., shortly after his purchase of the island in 1919. The streets are laid out for leisurely strolling, free from the worries of vehicular traffic. Crescent Avenue, the main street, follows the curve of bay and beach, widening in the downtown area to a plaza. Stores, hotels, cafes, and waiting rooms facing upon it were designed in a modified early Spanish style and painted light neutral tones that blend into a general color scheme. Palms and silver-leaved olive trees, set in stone boxes in the center of the avenue, shade low settees and stone benches; grassy squares and fountains, strumming troubadours in velvet costumes, and senoritas in spangled skirts, strolling among the throngs of summer visitors on boardwalk and strand, give the atmosphere.
When in 1887 Shatto purchased the island, he set aside 731 acres for the town by the bay, including what was then called Timm’s Landing. The founder named the town “Shatto” for himself, but later changed it to Avalon, as suggested by his sister, who imagined a resemblance of the site to the fanciful “island Valley of Avilion” (often spelled Avalon), described in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. Avalon’s growth as a resort was slow and erratic under the ownership of Shatto and of the Banning brothers later. In 1913 tents outnumbered the frame houses. Ridding “Rag City,” as it was sometimes called, of this fire hazard was undertaken by the Wrigley organization soon after the island was purchased.
The BOARDWALK, a one and three-quarter mile promenade, skirts the curving shore between Pebbly Beach at the east end of the bay and the St. Catherine Hotel at the west end. After turning Abalone Point and skirting Lovers’ Cove, it becomes Avalon’s paved and ornamented Crescent Avenue at a point opposite Playground Park, then continues to the St. Catherine Hotel as a boardwalk. Unspoiled by the usual cheap resort refreshment stands and concession booths, it is nonetheless one of the principal recreational facilities of the island.
The municipally owned PLEASURE PIER, foot of Catalina Avenue, has booths where steamer tickets are sold and arrangements are made for hiring or taking passage on various types of sport and pleasure craft—rowboats, motorboats, excursion boats, and fishing barges. Guides are available for excursions and fishing trips. Bait is for sale, and fishing tackle for sale or rent.
EL ENCANTO (the enchanted), approached from Crescent Avenue on St. Catherine Way, is a collection of small shops and booths around a patio. Indian and Mexican craftsmen display native wares in a glorified version of an early California market place. The arcaded shops are on the gentle slope of a hill and the patio holds a central fountain and tropical trees and shrubs. An open-air dining place, reached by ascending steps at the patio’s farther end, serves Spanish and American food.
The TUNA CLUB (members only), on the Boardwalk, is a two-story, white frame clubhouse, modern Japanese in appearance, on piles above the shore of Avalon Bay. The walls of the various rooms are hung with mounted fish in glass-paneled frames, each with a brass plate bearing the name of the fisherman and the weight and classification of the specimen caught.
The club awards six different buttons, covering the six classifications, according to weight, for taking tuna, marlin, and broadbill sword-fish on light or heavy tackle. The 251-pound tuna landed under heavy tackle specifications by Colonel C. P. Morehouse of Pasadena in 1899 is still the record catch in that division. The record for broadbill swordfish is the 573-pounder (heavy tackle) taken by George C. Thomas of Beverly Hills, in 1927; and for marlin, the 406-pound specimen landed by A. R. Martin of Beverly Hills with heavy tackle in 1932.
The Tuna Club was organized in 1896 and incorporated in 1901. It is affiliated with the British Sea Anglers’ Society, the British Tunny and the Fly Fishers’ clubs of London, and the Swordfish and Tunny Club of Australia.
Forty years ago the deep waters off Catalina Island abounded with game fish of many varieties—yellowtail, albacore, tuna, marlin, broadbill swordfish, bass, barracuda, and numerous other specimens. Commercial fishing has depleted the yellowtail, rock bass, white sea bass, broadbill swordfish, and tuna, although some varieties—including marlin, barracuda, albacore, and dolphin—have been only partly affected. The decrease in game fish has been caused less by commercial catches of the individual specimens than by depletion of the coast’s sardine supply, since game fish of migratory habits follow the sardines for food; thus the depletion of sardines inevitably means the partial disappearance of the big fish. As yet no protective legislation has been enacted to conserve the sardine supply beyond the three-mile limit.
The warm summer weather sees the peak of the return of the sporty yellowtail, tuna, and swordfish to local waters. Fish are divided into two classes according to their gameness: those taken on stillhook—mostly from barges—and those that will take a trolled lure. The largest and most indomitable of the fish are usually caught by trolling, that is, with bait trolled behind a launch moving at speeds varying from two to ten miles an hour, depending on the variety trolled for.
One of the favorites of sportsmen is the yellowfin tuna, a member of the mackerel tribe, a spirited and brilliant fighter, prized both as commercial and game fish. It may reach a weight of 450 pounds, though it seldom exceeds 125 pounds on this coast. It is a warm-water fish with a range extending from Point Concepcion to the Galapagos Islands, and is caught the year-round off the Mexican coast, though the best season in California is from August through October. The yellowfin is taken on lures trolled at speeds up to nine miles an hour; but the bluefin tuna, another hard fighter, is so wary that the bait cannot be trolled in the usual manner, directly behind the boat, but must be run out 150 or 200 feet; it is held at the surface of the water by a box kite. The kite is first sent aloft, and the end of the kite string is tied to a thin thread across a loop in the leader; the line is then run out, care being taken that the boat’s wake does not cross the path of the fish and so alarm them. When the tuna strikes the hook, usually baited with a flying fish, the thread breaks, and the kite, which falls into the sea, is retrieved later. Albacore, taken by live-bait fishing, is a small tuna, seldom exceeding 70 pounds, that is an excellent fighter on light tackle; its appearance in these waters is now erratic, the period of greatest abundance being usually in July. It has been taken commercially in tremendous quantities for canning.
Of the swordfish and spearfish tribe, whose upper jaw bones are prolonged into a swordlike structure, five kinds are found on the Pacific coast. The broadbill swordfish, most ferocious and powerful of them all, taken in Catalina waters from May to December, is a dark metallic purple to black in color, weighs between 300 and 500 pounds, and has a flattened, sharp-edge “sword,” sometimes four feet long. Unlike tuna and other game fish, swordfish do not travel in schools, but rather singly or in pairs; when they encounter a school of barracuda, mackerel, flying fish, or anchovy, they charge into it, flailing right and left with their swords, and return later to pick up their victims. The broadbill swordfish is harpooned instead of hooked, and will occasionally turn in a rage and charge the fishing boat, driving its sword clear through the planking. A hooked broadbill has been known to fight through a whole day and a whole night before being taken.
Another member of the swordfish tribe, the marlin, so-named because of its short rounded spear suggestive of a marlinspike, is a spectacular fighter, weighing up to 500 pounds or more. Once hooked, this acrobat of the sea may tear off a thousand feet of line ; it leaps out of the water, “walks on its tail,” and fights to the moment it is gaffed. There are two varieties on the Pacific coast, the black and striped marlin, the latter being reputedly the easier to catch. Both are found around the Channel Islands between late June and October ; they are most abundant in September. Also a member of the family is the Pacific sailfish, with a spear and an immense sail-like back fin.
The black sea bass, sometimes called jewfish or giant bass, attains a weight of 500 to 600 pounds, but experienced anglers do not consider it as good a game fish as the tuna or swordfish. Several other members of the bass tribe are found in abundance off southern California and Catalina; some of these, excellent both as game and table fish, are the red spotted rock bass, the kelp bass, and the gray and rose threadfin bass. The California white sea bass, steely blue above with a white belly, running from 20 to 90 pounds, and much taken, both from barges and boats, is not a sea bass at all, but belongs to the croaker family.
Unlike its namesake, the porpoise, or “dolphin,” which is a warmblooded mammal like the whale, the common dolphin is a true fish, beautifully colored and a good fighter, but not frequent north of Baja California. California yellowtails, also known as white salmon, are considered excellent game fish; the yellowtail, occurring in schools along the shores of the mainland and Catalina, averages only 10 to 12 pounds, but is an exceedingly game fish, striking viciously and running fast.
One of the most popular small game fish during the summer months is the long slender California barracuda, an excellent food fish, which can be caught with spoons or feathers trolled at a speed of from two to four miles, though live-bait fishing for them is more common. They are not nearly as fierce as some of their Atlantic cousins; although exceedingly voracious, the barracuda of the Pacific never attack human beings. A dozen or so will attack a school of fish, frightening them into gathering in a compact mass, and then make frequent dashes into the churning victims to grab mouthfuls of the smaller ones. Beginning in March, large schools of California barracuda appear along the Channel Islands, where the largest ones are found, and about the end of September disappear.
The SANTA CATALINA ISLAND YACHT CLUB (members only), facing the Boardwalk west of the Tuna Club, is a two-story, white clapboarded structure with an observation tower on the bay side. Active membership is open to owners of yachts used for pleasure purposes only. There is an anchorage in Avalon Bay for a small fleet of pleasure craft. Yachting events and trophy races are sponsored during the season, with special programs held on Labor and Independence Days.
The CASINO (open 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. May 20-Sept. 10), on the northwest promontory of Avalon Bay, is of circular cantilever construction, ornamented in a modern adaptation of the Moorish-Spanish manner. Its white walls, in bold relief against the blue of the sky and bay, are among the first island features noticed by incoming steamer passengers. The lower floor is a theatre seating 1,200 persons. Two ramps of five stages each give access to the upper floor, in which is a large circular ballroom, unbroken by pillars, and a 100-foot-long Marine Bar decorated with fantastic murals depicting fish. In the lobby are nine panel murals of the submarine gardens, and ten cone-shaped panel murals circle the inner walls.
The building was completed in 1929; in 1930 the architects, Sumner and Spaulding of Los Angeles, were given the Honor Award of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for its design.
The ST. CATHERINE HOTEL, 0.5 m., northwest of Avalon in the mouth of DESCANSO CANYON, is one of the leading centers of social activity. The rambling, three-story tile-roofed structure is surrounded by lawns and subtropical trees. The hotel faces its private beach on Descanso Bay, and has the usual recreational facilities. The first unit of the St. Catherine was built in 1918 by Captain Hancock Banning on the site of his former home. When William Wrigley, Jr., purchased the island a year later he rebuilt this unit and enlarged the hotel to its present size.
The SANTA CATALINA AIRPORT, at HAMILTON BEACH, 0.3 m., west of the St. Catherine Hotel, is the terminus of the Wilmington-Catalina Airline (two round-trip flights daily in safe weather, flights more frequent depending upon passenger-volume in season, flight schedule varies according to time of tides; $5 one way, $7 round trip, one way by plane and one way by boat, no half fares, 25-pound free baggage allowance; flight about 16 minutes one way). Two twin-motored Douglas Dolphin amphibian planes make the round trip between the seaplane landing at the foot of Avalon Boulevard in Wilmington to this airport. The plane lands in the water, the wheels are lowered, and the craft rolled up a ramp under its own power to a turntable, where it is about-faced for the return flight. Commercial air service to the island was begun in April 1919 by Sidney Chaplin, brother of Charles Chaplin. The fare at that time was $42.50 for one or two passengers.
The GLIDDEN INDIAN MUSEUM (open 9-5; adm. 25¢), on the hill slope above Avalon, contains a comprehensive collection of Channel Island archaeological relics. The collection includes 500,000 pieces of wampum, as well as Spanish and Venetian beads; unassembled bones of an estimated 3,000 skeletons; and some 10,000 teeth. Forty cases are filled with pestles, mortars, flutes, pipes, arrowheads, cooking stones, bone and stone knives, treasure boxes, war clubs, and fishhooks. One of the most interesting exhibits is a great stone burial urn about 18 inches in diameter, its rim geometrically decorated with wampum. When the urn was discovered it contained the flexed skeleton of a girl four or five years old, probably the daughter of a chief. Many of the recoveries came from the large aboriginal burial grounds at White’s Landing, Little Harbor, the Isthmus, Empire Landing, and Johnson’s Landing on the island.
The museum was established in 1923 by Ralph Glidden, who prior to that time had collected for the Heye Foundation Museum of the American Indian in New York City.
The Santa Catalina Indians, or Gabrielinos (a Spanish term from the Mission San Gabriel), were a branch of the Shoshone, belonging to the great Uto-Aztecan family. In skin pigmentation they were exceptionally fair, and culturally were definitely superior to many California tribes. The Catalenos, as they were known to the Spaniards, called their island “Pimu” or “Pipimar,” or sometimes “Pimugna.”
The earliest mention of the Santa Catalina Indians in the records of white man is in an account of the voyage of Cabrillo in 1542. Sixty years later, when Sebastian Vizcaino came, he described the Indians as fine-looking, and dressed in skins; and he mentioned the numerous houses and rancherias of the isle, and the canoes capable of holding 20 men. Father Torquemada, historian with Vizcaino, considered the Catalenos far superior to the natives of the mainland. He says that the women were attractive and modest, and the children “white and ruddy and very smiling.”
Although the manuscripts of the early Spanish historians have been of great value, they do not include much detail of Indian life, and scientists have deduced what is known of these Indians from their artifacts. Almost every canyon and cove hold the remains of villages rich in relics, sometimes only half-hidden under the tangled brush and cacti. Without doubt the Catalenos lived mostly from the sea; the huge piles of abalone shells indicate the importance of abalone as a food, and the numerous bones of tuna and swordfish, seals and whales and sea-elephants, suggest that the Indians were in all likelihood expert fishermen. There is evidence, too, of other food: bones of birds, coyotes, and rattlesnakes; flat mortars of stone, of the kind used for grinding acorns, and deep ones for holding seeds. Stone scrapers for skins are found in numbers, and grinders and pestles of many sizes. Knives are of quartz or chert, some crude, but others showing evidence of patient and skilled workmanship; many have wooden handles. There are finely polished plummets of green stone, used as sinkers for nets, and fishhooks of pearly abalone and of bone, beautifully fashioned, with a groove for the line, which was made of seaweed.
As sculptors the Santa Catalina Indians reached a degree of skill that was not primitive in any sense. In the deepest burial areas crudely shaped vessels have been found, unpolished and irregular, along with blunt clublike instruments. But in overlying deposits are forms showing progressive development until, in the later ones, appear highly conventionalized carvings of dolphins, whales, sea lions, flying fish, in which the artist caught the essence of the subject with imagination and simplicity. With these are the vessels, also cut with stone from stone, simple in outline but of perfect workmanship.
Flutes, whistles, and fifes are frequently discovered in the old town-sites; they are of deer bone, many perforated with holes, the larger end closed by asphaltum, some decorated with abalone and asphaltum mosaic. Most probably they were used in the mourning ceremonies, which were held not so much for the death of an individual as in commemoration of all who had died. In historic times the singing and dancing continued for five days, each song or verse ending with a growl. Burial rather than cremation was prevalent with the Catalenos throughout the whole of their history, a practice differentiating them from Indians of the mainland. However, the possessions of the dead were burned, with protracted rites, and great care was taken to see that nothing was left undestroyed. Very little has been discovered concerning other social customs. Marriage was by purchase, and polygamy common; incest was punished by death; infidelity of the wife was also thus punishable, although the usual solution was for the injured man to take the seducer’s mate in exchange. In each village there was a chief, but his particular importance and functions are not known.
The Catalenos were primitive builders: their houses, of tule mats on a framework of poles, soon disintegrated and little is known of their appearance. The diary of the expedition of Miguel Costanso in 1769 says that they lived in villages of dome-shaped houses, up to 55 feet in diameter, each house containing four families. In general a town had one sweat-house, partly underground, with a roof of earth, and heated by fire and smoke; and a circular yoba (religious house) walled with willows woven wicker-fashion among stakes. The trading-canoes, which were undoubtedly more important to them than houses, were not dugouts owing to the scarcity of big timber on the island, but were made of planks crudely split with wedges, lashed and asphalted together. The Catalina Indians made no pottery; all their dishes and utensils were cut out of steatite from the great soapstone ledges of Santa Catalina, the best supply of this material in California at the time. Their manufactory can still be seen at Empire Landing (see below) where they cut ollas (pots) with quartz chisels, and expertly rounded and curved the edges.
The reason for the disappearance of the Indians from Santa Catalina Island is not definitely known. It is believed that they were slaughtered in great numbers by the Alaskan Aleuts and Kodiaks brought south by the Russians to hunt otter; they were a gentle people and would have been no match for the fierce northerners. Those who remained were probably induced by the mission priests, during the first half of the 19th century, to come to the mainland for protection, where their identity became lost among the bewildering massing of the tribes about the missions.
In the CHIMES TOWER, above the Glidden Museum, are the Avalon Westminster Chimes, which automatically sound the time at 15-minute intervals from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. to welcome the incoming steamer from the mainland.
The SANTA CATALINA ISLAND VISITORS’ COUNTRY CLUB (free; greens fee $1), on a knoll at the head of Sumner Avenue in Avalon Canyon, is open to all visitors the year round. The rambling clubhouse overlooks the spring training park of the Chicago Cubs. The stuccoed building is roofed with red tile, and surrounds a patio planted with palms and shrubbery. Facilities include an 18-hole golf course, a nine-hole pitch-and-putt course, and tennis courts.
Since 1921, the CATALINA BASEBALL PARK (exhibition games free; 12 m. daily, Feb. 25 to Mar. 15), Fremont St. and Avalon Blvd., has been the spring training camp of the Wrigley-owned Chicago Cubs, of the National League. The diamond is between Avalon Boulevard and the foothills, with the fairways of the Visitors’ Country Club links encircling the farther end. The park is used by an Avalon team during the summer.
The CATALINA NURSERY, east side of Avalon Boulevard south of the Visitors’ Club course, grows flowers, trees, and shrubs. During the various blooming seasons the three-acre tract set aside for the cut flower trade is beautiful with asters, dahlias, gladioli, iris, marigolds, zinnias, daisies, chrysanthemums, delphinium, poinsettias, and other flowers. The 15-acre orchard—almond, fig, orange, lime, grapefruit—extends from the nursery headquarters to the Wrigley Memorial. Many kinds of trees, shrubs, vines, succulents, and cacti are propagated.
The BIRD PARK (open 8-6; free; reached by busses leaving corner of Crescent and Metropole Aves. every half hr. 7-7), in Avalon Canyon, 2 m. from Avalon, contains more than 8,000 birds of 650 varieties, principally from foreign countries. Of its 20 acres, 10 are set aside for breeding purposes. The birds are housed in 520 cages, most of them outdoors and in surroundings simulating the birds’ native habitats. Among the inhabitants are plumed birds of paradise; an ibis, once sacred to the Pharaohs of Egypt; toucans, with huge beaks shaped like bananas; song birds small enough to fit into a thimble; ostriches, emus, and cassowaries; a “double-billed” rhinoceros hornbill, whose kind are rarely kept alive in captivity; trained macaws and penguins; talking ravens; and scores of weird-looking specimens from India, China, South America, Siam, Australia, New Zealand, Malaya, and the South Sea Islands. Visitors are partial to the talking mynah birds from southeastern Asia, which can be taught to pronounce difficult words. Jimmie, a mynah, is the park’s foremost conversationalist.
Many of the park birds have appeared in motion pictures, among them Old Jack, a loquacious, 63-year-old raven of kleptomaniac propensities whose caustic replies to greetings are the delight of children and grown-ups alike. Old Jack entered the movies in early silent films and is still in demand. His actions and postures were photographed by cameramen of the Walt Disney Studio and reproduced in one of the characters of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Rivaling Old Jack in favor is Oscar the Penguin, whose most recent movie appearance was in The Young in Heart. Other bird actors are Cocky, a New Zealand cockatoo that appeared with Fredric March in Buccaneer; and the cassowary, a very vicious and short-tempered bird used in a scene in Treasure Island.
The WRINGLY MEMORIAL, head of Avalon Canyon, 1 m. SW. of Bird Park, is a white stone mausoleum containing the remains of William Wrigley, Jr. The repository was erected in 1936 from island stone and sand; the only imported material is the Georgian marble lining the crypts. The land surrounding the memorial is maintained in its primitive state.
EAGLES NEST LODGE, 10 m. from Avalon in the interior of the island (visited on the Isthmus Auto Tour; see below), is a one-story rustic hunting lodge named for nearby Eagle Mountain. All hunting on Santa Catalina Island, which is a private preserve, is conducted in supervised trips ($10 a day for each person, including guide service and transportation). For boars and goats—hunted the year round with a deer rifle and from horseback—no state license is required, but sportsmen must obtain a permit from the Santa Catalina Island Company. Hunting of Catalina quail (Nov. 15 to Dec. 31), a large variety found nowhere else, requires a state license as well as a permit from the company.
Between 20,000 and 30,000 wild mountain goats and some 2,000 wild hogs roam the interior. The unsupported legend is that their progenitors were left by Spanish explorers, either by Cabrillo in 1542 or by Father Torquemada of Vizcaino’s 1602 expedition. Two herds of bison (no hunting), donated to the Santa Catalina Island Company several years ago by a motion-picture company after completion of a film, also roam the island.
The ISTHMUS, in the northwest section of the island (reached on the ‘Round the Island Cruise and Isthmus Auto Tour; see below), is a narrow neck of land where the island is almost cut in two. The flat mesa between Isthmus Cove on the leeward side and Catalina Harbor on the windward side is only a half mile wide. It was in Catalina Harbor that the Lelia Byrd dropped anchor in 1805. Fronting Isthmus Cove is a settlement of one-story, thatched cottages used by the summer population. The Isthmus has been chosen by many motion-picture companies as location for sea pictures; more than 60 silent and talking films have been made here, wholly or in part. Among the most recent were Hurricane, Ebb Tide, Treasure Island and Submarine D-I.
One mile offshore at Isthmus Cove is uninhabited BIRD ROCK, of about two acres, a nesting place for sea gulls, pelicans, and cormorants. SHIP ROCK, a mile beyond Bird Rock, resembles a ship under full sail.
Midway between Isthmus Cove and Catalina Harbor are the former UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BARRACKS, built in 1864 to house Union troops sent to the island to prevent seizure of Catalina Harbor by Southern sympathizers, who intended to establish a base for Confederate privateers here. Remodeled in 1930, the buildings are now the quarters of employees of the Santa Catalina Island Company.
(All boats boarded at Avalon Pier; auto trips from Avalon Plaza; rates vary from season to season.)
The GLASS BOTTOM BOAT TRIP (frequent daily departures; 5½ miles; 45 minutes), visits the marine gardens extending along the protected north shore of the island from Pebbly Beach to Emerald Bay, a distance of 17 miles. The section visited by the boat is near Avalon—between Abalone Point and Pebbly Beach. As the glass-bottomed boat proceeds slowly along the coast, a constantly changing view of life on the floor of the sea is revealed. Brightly-colored fish dart in and out among the shell-encrusted rocks, and strands of waving sea fern, sea grasses, rainbow kelp, and boa-feather moss wave upward from beds of red and lavender algae. Quills of a sea-urchin protrude from among rocks to which live abalone cling; and sea cucumbers lie motionless among masses of bridal veil moss and sea heather. On rare occasions a sinister-appearing, but harmless, sandshark is seen prowling the ocean floor. During the trip divers go over the side and swim beneath the boat in view of the passengers.
The SEAL ROCK TRIP (frequent daily departures; 11 miles; 1½ hrs.), is made along the jagged lee shore of the island to the cluster of rocks just off NORTHEAST POINT, the home of several hundred hair “seals,” or California sea lions. The color of the animals varies from light brown to deep black; some attain a weight of a ton or more, and have a life span of 50 years. Although a few remain on the rocks the year round, most of them follow the shifting of the warm Japan current, going southward to Mexican waters for the summer. They are most plentiful on Seal Rocks from September to May.
The EVENING FLYING FISH TRIP (daily, Apr. to Oct., 40 minutes), follows the north here. A 45-million candlepower searchlight attached to the vessel bores through the night sky, attracting thousands of flying fish and reflecting the iridescent colors of their “wings” (fins). The flight of the fish resembles the glide of an airplane, as its fins remain rigid. The wriggling lower part of the tail provides motive power; the upper part acts as a rudder. The fish can glide from 50 to 100 yards, but must return to the water when its wings dry. The flying fish, which range in length from 12 to 18 inches, keep to deep water during the day but at night seek the shallower shore regions. A migratory species, they prefer warm waters, and are seen off Santa Catalina Island only during the summer.
The AVALON SPEEDBOAT TRIP (frequent daily departures; 2 miles), is a 50-mile-an-hour ride in high-powered speedboats.
The ISTHMUS BOAT TRIP (May to Oct.; 28-mile round trip; 3 hrs.), is a cruise along the lee coast of the island, from Avalon Bay to Isthmus Cove, with an hour’s stop for lunch and sightseeing at the Isthmus. The course follows the curving shore and affords close views of the rock formations, caves, and beaches.
The ‘ROUND THE ISLAND CRUISE (10:30 a.m. Sun. only, Apr. to Oct.; 55 miles; 3 to 3½ hrs.), is taken in a large double-deck excursion boat. From Avalon to Isthmus Cove the boat follows the same course as on the Isthmus boat trip (see above). After a 45-minute stop-over at the Isthmus, the course is northwest, past the mouth of CHERRY VALLEY, honey-combed with tunnels and shafts dating from the Civil War mining boom. Just around Red Point, the island narrows to LAND’s END, and the steamer begins to feel the force of waves from the open sea. Rounding Occidental Point, at Land’s End, and heading down the south coast, the wildest of the island’s land-and seascapes are seen: steep cliffs rearing skyward, the surf booming at their base. This part of the island is as wild and uncultivated as when the white man first visited it 400 years ago. Between Eagle Rock and Catalina Harbor the coast line is incised with a series of small coves—Ironbound Bay, Lobster Bay, Smugglers’ Cove—in which Orientals who had been deported under the 1855 China Boy Laws were hidden until they could be smuggled back to the mainland. South of the wide mouth of Catalina Harbor the island widens again, reaching its greatest width at BEN WESTON POINT. The course veers around CHURCH ROCK, aglow after heavy rains with green, lavender, rose, blue and orange tints, then moves along the narrow northeast headland to Seal Rocks and back to Avalon.
The ISTHMUS AUTO TOUR (daily) follows the Old Stage Road from Avalon to the Summit (1,520 alt.), then descends to HAYPRESS LANDING, site of an Indian town in prehistoric days, and enters Middle Ranch Canyon. In this canyon is Middle Ranch, some of whose buildings date from the Civil War period. Westward the road passes Eagles Nest Lodge (see above), then the soapstone ledges from which Indians once cut bowls and mortars, and suddenly swings out upon a high ridge. It descends rapidly to the southwest coast, skirting LITTLE HARBOR, with INDIAN HEAD ROCK (resembling the head on buffalo nickels), a symbolic sentinel for the Indian burial ground and kitchen midden on Little Harbor’s shore, jutting from a headland.
From Little Harbor the route cuts diagonally across the island again, ascending gradually to West Summit (1,086 alt.), then drops by easy stages to the flat mesa of the Isthmus, where a stop for lunch and sightseeing is made before the return trip to Avalon over the same route.
The STARLIGHT DRIVE (Apr. to Oct.; 7 miles; 45 minutes), is made in open busses through the environs of Avalon and its adjacent scenic points. A costumed guitar or accordion player supplies musical background. Stops are made at UPHAM and INPIRATIONS POINTS for views over night-lighted Avalon.
The SKYLINE DRIVE (daily the year round; 30 minutes; 5 miles), is a trip by motor bus along the major part of the Starlight Drive course.