Avalon/Catalina History

Catalina's Native Tribes

Native American tribes began inhabiting Catalina Island over 7,000 years ago. The most recent was the Gabrielino/Tongva tribe, who called the island "Pimu" or "Pimunga," and themselves "Pimungans." On this semi-arid island, the Pimungans maintained a secluded existence, living off the land and the abundant sea life in its surrounding waters.

The Pimungans were fishers, traders, and artisans, being renown for their soapstone carvings that they traded for goods from the mainland of California. They traversed the 20 miles to the mainland in plank canoes.

Spanish Discovery

On October 7, 1542, the Pimungans paddled out into the channel to greet the Galleon of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. The Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico) had appointed Cabrillo to lead an expedition in search of a passage to the Far East. Cabrillo and his men traded gifts with the Pumnugans, claimed the Island for Spain and named it San Salvador, after his ship. After a few hours, the Spanish departed for points north.

Over the next 60 years, contacts with the Spanish were infrequent but generally amicable. On November 24, 1602, the ship of Sebastian Viscaino sighted the Island and renamed it for Saint Catherine. He and his men stayed on land for a few days before sailing on.

The establishment of the Mission system in California, starting in 1769, disrupted the native trading schemes. Spain's mercantilist policies forbade their outposts to trade with non-Spanish ships. But with such a broad territory to administer, enforcement of its policy was sporadic at best. At the turn of the 19th century, Russians, American and Aleut otter hunters came to Catalina to hunt the teeming population of island otters.

With English and American commercial fleets becoming ascendant, more and more illegal trade developed with the local outposts. The Mission officials would trade leather and tallow and otter pelts for manufactured items.

After the Mexican Revolution in 1820, California became a province in the new country. In a shift from Spanish practices, the new government allowed trade with others, but levied a duty on imported cargoes. To avoid paying the duty, merchant ships would offload their cargoes on Catalina, then proceed to Monterey to pay their duties. Once given permission to trade along the coast, they would return to Catalina to replenish their holds.

As these new trade schemes took hold, the Pimungans elected to leave the island.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

Sebastian Viscaino

Mexican Land Grant

Mexican Governor Pio Pico awarded Catalina Island to Thomas Robbins as a land grant in 1846, just days before the start of the Mexican American War. Robbins had provided various maritime services for the Mexican Government, and was rewarded for these services with the land grant. For the land grant to be effective, however, the land had to be worked. Robbins developed a small rancho on the island.

In 1848, California became a territory of the United States upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo. In 1850, Robbins sold the property to Jose Maria Covarrubias.

Catalina and the Gold Rush

With the discovery of gold in California in 1849, prospectors and fortune-seekers from around the world flocked to the state. Title to the former Mexican Land Grant owners came into question, and squatters moved onto the land and laid claim by virtue of possession. On Catalina, squatters laid claim to several parcels of land, raising cattle and sheep.

In 1863, prospectors came to Catalina, registering their claims and mined a small quantity of silver. In 1864, a company of US Army soldiers arrived to survey its resources and suitability as an Indian reservation. The Secretary of the Interior, however, ruled against the reservation proposal, and the Army returned to the mainland

At around the same time, James Lick, one of the wealthiest men in California, purchased the Covarrubias interests, and his title to the island was confirmed by patent in 1867. He proceeded to evict all squatters and miners who declined to enter into a lease agreement with him. From 1870 through 1890, Catalina Island was run as a cattle and sheep ranch.

Catalina Becomes a Resort Destination

By 1890, Los Angeles had ballooned to a population of 50,000. With Catalina just a 20 mile journey across the channel, the island became a popular spot to get away from it all. In 1887, George Shatto, a real estate speculator, bought the Island for $200,000 at the height of a real estate boom.

With the intent of turning the island into a tourist mecca, he developed the infrastructure for the lots he sold that make up today's Avalon, and established its first hotel, the Metropole, and pier. (Shatto's sister-in-law christened the city Avalon after the Avalon featured in Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem Idylls of the King.) Shatto used steamships he leased from Phineas Banning to bring tourists to the island. Despite his efforts, Shatto defaulted on the mortgage, and Lick regained control of the Island.

In 1891, the sons of Phineas Banning bought the island from Lick and established the Santa Catalina Island Company to develop it as a resort. A fire in 1915 destroyed much of Avalon, including the Metropole Hotel. And as World War I hampered tourism to the island, the Banning sons were forced to sell their interests to William Wrigley Jr., the chewing gum magnate, in 1919.

Wrigley's Santa Catalina Island Company focused on attracting tourists to the island. He built the Avalon Casino in 1928-9, replacing a smaller venue, the Sugarloaf Casino. Nightly broadcasts of Big Band music from the Casino ballroom were begun on CBS in 1934, and lasted until the late 1950's.

For a ten year span, starting in 1927, a pottery--Catalina Clay Products--was established on the island to provide building materials for the Avalon Casino. The pottery later made a complete line of vases, flower bowls, candle holders, lamps and other decorative accessories for the home. The pieces made in that era are today quite collectible.

The Chicago Cubs, also owned by Wrigley, used the island for the team's spring training grounds from 1921 through 1951.

During World War II, the island was closed to tourists and used for military training facilities. The steamship ferries were commandeered by the War Department for use as troop transports.

Today's Catalina

In 1972, members of the Wrigley family established the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation and preservation of Santa Catalina Island. On February 15, 1975, the final step was taken to ensure the protection of the majority of Santa Catalina Island when Mr. and Mrs. Philip K. Wrigley and Mrs. Dorothy Wrigley Offield, through the Santa Catalina Island Company, deeded 42,135 acres of the Island to the Conservancy.

With this gift, the conservation and preservation of most of Catalina's interior and 48 miles of its coastline were given permanent status in perpetuity.

The Conservancy's legal mandate is to preserve the Island's native plants and animals, its biological communities and its geological and geographical formations of educational interest. Equally important, the Conservancy is also charged with managing the Island's open space lands and seeing that they are used solely for the enjoyment of scenic beauty and for controlled recreational purposes.

Its responsibility is to preserve any one or more of such parcels on Conservancy-owned land in and about Santa Catalina Island while keeping these lands open to the general public with reasonable restrictions concerning the needs of the land. The Conservancy also owns and operates the popular recreational Catalina Airport-in-the-Sky and as an additional part of its commitment to providing public access, it maintains most of the Island's interior roads. The Conservancy provides a Ranger service both on land and along the shore to assist visitors and assure the security of Conservancy property.