Santa Barbara-Ventura County CA Archives History - Books .....Channel Islands 1891 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 7, 2007, 11:54 pm Book Title: A Memorial And Biographical History Of The Counties Of Santa Barbara, Ventura, And San Luis Obispo THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. "An enterprising party named Cabrillo headed the first special excursion party to Santa Barbara and its islands, that was only 345 years previous to our present boom, but there is a record to the fact that the old sea-rover and his crew of buccaneers were as well pleased with the country as are the tourist parties of to-day. Sailing under direction of no special hotel syndicate or real estate monopoly, Cabrillo and his companions made free to choose their own winter quarters in the fairest spot on all the coast, an island opposite to where our city now stands." Such is the humorous beginning of a paper on the Channel Islands, written in 1887 by a Barbareno, referring to the two-months sojourn of the pioneer explorer, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, and his men, on San Miguel, in the winter of 1542-'43. We have already read how Cabrillo there died, and was buried; also how Sebastian Vizcaino sailed up hither, sixty years later, and named the channel, and renamed the other points of interest. And from that time down to the present, these islands have been conspicuous features in the landscape, objectively and subjectively. Until their examination by the Coast Survey, nothing accurate was known of the numbers, position, extent, or peculiarities of the islands off the coast, from San Diego to Point Concepcion, but the chart published by this body shows clearly the beautiful parallelism, to which Vizcaino first called attention, between these islands and the adjacent mainland. The four islands Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel, with the rocks extending from the last named, have their longer axis parallel to the trend of the shoreline, which is the general direction of the Sierra Santa Ynes, immediately behind it. Cortez Shoal, Santa Catalina, San Clemente, and John Biggs' Rock, have their longer axes northwest by west and parallel to each other, while Santa Barbara Island is the prolongation of the longer axis of San Clemente. Navigators, in making the Santa Barbara channel from the northwest, readily note the neighborhood of these islands through thick, foggy weather, by the peculiar odor of the bitumen which issues from the bottom or the shore some eight miles west, and floats upon the water, working against the winds far beyond Point Concepcion. Vancouver was the first to call attention to the presence of this bitumen. Sir Edward Belcher, in October, 1839, also remarked the phenomenon. The current among these islands runs southward as far as San Nicolas, On the Cortez Shoal it frequently runs against the northwest wind at the rate of nearly two miles per hour; while again it has been found to run nearly as strong in an opposite direction. Santa Cruz, lying almost in front of the city of Santa Barbara, at twenty-five miles distance, contains 52,760.33 acres, and its mountains rise to 1,700 feet in height. It is owned by a French company, who devote it to sheep-raising. There is no settlement on this island, beyond the rancho-houses. Santa Rosa contains 52.696.49 acres, and rises to a height of 1,172 feet. It belongs to A. P. More, and is used for sheep-raising. San Miguel, the most western of the group, is seven and a half miles long, two and a half wide, and contains 15,000 acres. It belongs to the United States Government, and is held in reserve, being unsurveyed. Waters and Schilling occupy it by possessory right, for sheep-raising. Santa Cruz is irregularly shaped, having a rough surface, with a few tracts of level lands. The owners have a line wharf, with a harbor safe in all but northeast winds. The climate is much the same as on the main land, though the ocean winds are stronger. Citrus and deciduous fruits will do well here. This was formerly the resort of great numbers of seal, but continued slaughter has almost extinguished them. Santa Cruz was used by the Mexican Government only as a penal colony a sort of Botany Bay, whose few tenants were yet a constant menace to their mainland neighbors. Santa Cruz was afterward given by Mexico to Castillero, in reward for his discovery of quicksilver at New Almaden. He sold it to the sheep companies. Occasional matanzas, or systematic slaughters of stock, are held here. More than half of Santa Rosa is adapted to tillage. It is nearly quadrilateral in shape. In 1834 it became the joint property of Carlos and Jose Antonio Carrillo, and was given as a dowry to the two daughters of Carlos, who, on the same day married J. C. Jones and A. B. Thompson. The grooms raised sheep on the island, with great success. After some family litigation, Santa Rosa became the property of A. P. and P. H. More, and is now owned by the former. The natural grasses are of very fine quality, and the humid atmosphere keeps them green throughout the year, so that the sheep business is here conducted under particular advantages. One of the most notable events in the history of these islands was the wreck here, in the early days of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, of their steamer Winfield Scott. It is said that her wreck was visible beneath the water for twenty years thereafter. These islands, with their cave dwellings, their kitchen-middens, their battle-grounds, and their obscure history, are full of interest to the ethnologist, the archaeologist, and the antiquarian. Cabrillo described the inhabitants of the Channel Islands as fairly white, with florid complexions. Accounts vary as to the extinction of these people. Some authors opine that they were extirpated by the inhabitants of Russian-America, who used to come to these islands to hunt the sea-otter, and who are known to have slain, even during the present century, all the male inhabitants of San Nicolas, whose effects and women they appropriated. Again it is suggested that a famine reduced the natives to the necessity of preying upon each other, to their extermination; or else that they were fallen upon by the cannibalistic inhabitants of the islands of the western Pacific. Some appearance of probability is given to this theory by the state of the human bones found on the island, many of which have been cracked, as if for the purpose of extracting the marrow. On the other hand, the idea of a famine is counteracted by the existence on the rocks of shell-fish enough to sustain a population of thousands. There are, however, many indications of a terrible drouth experienced here at some time, and the inhabitants may have perished for lack of fresh water. Additional Comments: Extracted from: A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Illustrated Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of its Prospective Future; with Profuse illustrations of its Beautiful Scenery, Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of Prominent Citizens of to-day, BY MRS. YDA ADDIS STORKE. "A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors -will never achieve anything worthy to he remembered with pride by remote descendants."—Macaulay. THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1891. Barlow-Sinclair Printing Co., Chicago. 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