The Islands you see from San Clemente to Santa Barbara (and some you don't) Part 3 of 5

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"The Islands you see from San Clemente to Santa Barbara (and some you don't) Part 3 of 5

By: Steve Mino and Natalie Vizir

Today we will talk about one of the prominent and visibile islands you see while traveling along our Southern California coast line - Santa Catalina Island, most commonly referred to as Catalina Island. The island is 22 miles long and 8 miles wide at it's largest points and is located 22 miles of the coast.
Archeaologist claim that human existence can be traced back to atleast 7,000 years on Catalina Island. The Island is said at one time to have been the home of the Pimugan Tribe. The Southern Channel Islands (Santa Catalina, San Clemente and San Nicolas) appear to have some of the same traits, different from their Northen Channel Island counterparts. For 1000's of years before outsider human contact, mainly Spanish explorers, English Merchants and smugglers, these skilled hunters and fisherman navigated their canoes to and from the mainland. Spanish colonization around 1820, dwindled the large tribe and these Uto-Aztecan speaking people were mixed with mainland native americans, such as the Juaneno's and other coastal tribes, at the Mission San Gabriel where they became known as the Gabrielinos'.

Santa Catalina was discovered by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo on October 7, 1542. The discovery was part of an expedition approved by Columbus in search of a passage to the Far East. On November 24th, Saint Catherines Day, a second ship captained by Sebastian Viscaino spotted the island and renamed it Santa Catalina in honor of Saint Catherine.
In 1820, New Spain revolted against it's mother country and became Mexico with California becoming a province. The Mexican Governer, Pio Pico, gave by land grant to Thomas M. Robbins, Santa Catalina Island in 1846 - just days before the United States invaded California. Robbins held the land for 4 years, but sold it to Jose Maria Covarrubias after Caifornia became a part of the US by way of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
With the California Gold Rush in full stride in 1849 it didn't take long for people to search Catalina for gold riches. They found a good deal of silver near the west end of the island in 1863 but that was about it. By 1864, Union soliders set foot on the island considering it for an Indian Reservation, but by 1867, then owner James Lick forced out everyone not willing to enter lease agreements with him and for many years after the island was inhabited by only a few long term residents, sheep and cattle. The buffalo would later appear on the island after being imported by a film making company. In 1887, George Shatto, a real estate mogul from Michigan purchased the island for $200,000 from James Slick in attempts to create Santa Catalina into a vacation resort. Unfortunately, this was at the peak of the market and a few years later he defaulted on the loan and the island went back to the Slick Estate. In 1891, the sons of Phineas Banning bought the land and pursued the former dreams of Shatto in turning Catalina, particularly the tiny harbor named Avalon by former owner Shatto's sister-in-law - Etta Whitney (taken from a poem about the Legend of King Arthur) into a vacation destination. They made great progress, however, in 1915 half of Avalon burned in a fire and with negative impact of World War 1, the Bannings were forced to sell the island, this time it was sold in "shares." The largest investor would be William Wrigley of the famed Wrigley Chewing gum. In no time, Wrigley purchased controlling interest and with millions invested and proper promotion the dream was becoming reality. Only during World War II was the island closed to tourism while being used by the military for target practice. After the war ended tourism re-established and the rest is history......

 Nobody knows more about Southern California Coastal real estate than the team of:  Steve Mino and Natalie Vizir.
Areas of coverage include:
San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Capistrano Beach, Dana Point, Ladera Ranch, Irvine, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo, Coto De Caza, Rancho Santa Margarita, Lake Forest, Aliso Viejo, Foothill Ranch, Laguna Beach, Newport Coast, Newport Beach, Corona Del Mar, and other Orange County and Riverside County cities.

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Steve Mino & Natalie Vizir
Century 21
OCCOASTPROPERTIES.COM
Steve: 949-300-7412
Natalie: 949-300-5074
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