History

Human history dates back to 12,900 B.C. in Channel Islands National Park.

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History Details

The oldest known human remains found to date in North America date back to 12,900 B.C. on Santa Rosa Island. Over the next 8,000 years, populations grew on the other four islands and the island lifestyle thrived. Fast forward to 1542, when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed up the coast and died on a Channel Island; this is also the time of the first written descriptions of the islands and their people, the Chumash. A measles outbreak in 1806 significantly reduced the Chumash population, and the last of the tribe moved from the islands to the mainland in the 1820s. In 1850, California became part of the United States, and in that decade the U.S. Coast Survey began mapping the islands to improve navigation and commerce. "Mutiny on the Bounty" was filmed in part on San Miguel Island in 1935. In 1938, the Channel Islands National Monument was established, comprised of Anacapa and Santa Barbara islands; the monument's boundaries were extended in 1947 to include one mile off the shores of the two islands. Channel Islands National Park and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary were established in 1980.

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