Catalina Island’s Earliest History

Learn about Catalina Island’s earliest chapters, including Native American life, Spanish exploration, the Mexican Land Grant era, and more.

Native American Life on Catalina Island

Santa Catalina Island has supported human life for at least 8,000 years. At Little Harbor, located on the Island’s seaward side, archaeologists working in limited excavations have uncovered signs of material cultures that grew more complex over time. These early communities relied heavily on the ocean’s abundance, gathering and hunting resources that ranged from abalone and other mollusks to small and large fish, as well as marine mammals such as sea lions.

Because the semi-arid island provided only modest plant resources, Islanders exchanged sea products—and later steatite—for items they needed. They traveled the 20-mile crossing to the mainland and to other Channel Islands in carefully built plank canoes. Steatite, an easily carved stone that withstands fire without cracking, came from Santa Catalina and has been discovered at both mainland and Island sites across southern California.

Across thousands of years, as different peoples moved through California, multiple Native American groups likely lived on the Island. For several thousand years before Europeans arrived, the Los Angeles basin and the Southern Channel Islands—Santa Catalina, San Clemente, and San Nicholas—seem to have been home to peoples connected linguistically through the Takic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.

When Europeans first made contact, the people of Santa Catalina Island are believed to have called the island Pimu and referred to themselves as Pimungans (or Pimuvit). Skilled on the water, they navigated plank canoes across a channel that could be dangerous and used those voyages for trade. Following Spanish colonization, the introduction of unfamiliar diseases, against which they had little immunity, caused their population—apparently once thriving—to fall sharply. The mission system also reshaped southern California’s economy, disrupting Pimungan trade routes and social ties.

After such an immense cultural upheaval, Pimungan society could not continue in its former way. By the mid-1820s, the remaining few Pimungans had either relocated or were moved to the mainland. Together with other Native American groups within the influence of Mission San Gabriel, the Pimungans became known among Europeans as Gabrielinos. People with Gabrielinos among their ancestors still live in the southern California area today.

Spanish Explorers Reach Catalina

On October 7, 1542, the Pimungans of Santa Catalina Island paddled out to meet the Spanish galleon carrying explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo to their shore. Only 50 years after Columbus first entered the Western Hemisphere, the Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico) had approved a voyage north along the California coast in search of a route to the Far East. The Pimungans were brought aboard the vessel, and gifts passed between the two groups. The specific cove where the Spanish anchored is unknown. Cabrillo claimed the Island for the King of Spain, recorded the visit in the ship’s log, and named the Island San Salvador after his ship. After roughly half a day, Cabrillo continued sailing up the coast.

Aside from the possible yearly glimpse of the Manila Galleon traveling down the coast on its return from the Philippines to New Spain, the Pimungans were largely undisturbed until 1602. On November 24, the eve of St. Catherine’s Day, the ship of the second Spanish explorer, Sebastian Viscaino, came within sight of the Island. Viscaino gave it the name Santa Catalina in honor of Saint Catherine. His group remained a day or two longer than Cabrillo had and did some limited exploration on land before departing. An Augustinian friar traveling with the expedition celebrated the first Catholic Mass on Santa Catalina. The encounter with the Pimungans was friendly, though the Islanders were upset when sailors shot Ravens, which held special importance in their world.

Otter Hunters on Catalina

Spanish influence began reaching the Pimungans not long after Spain started establishing missions along the coast in 1769, driven by concern over Russian and English expansion. Although no mission was constructed on the Island, the Pimungans began receiving other outsiders. Spain, strongly committed to the Mercantilist Theory then in favor, prohibited its colonies from trading with foreigners. Sea otter, however, were abundant around the Channel Islands, and Russian and American sea otter hunters wanted their pelts because they commanded high prices in China. By 1805, Russian, American, and Aleut otter hunters were entering Island waters in violation of Spanish authority. Since the Spaniards lacked enough ships to patrol the area, the hunters could camp and hunt without being detected.

Smugglers on Catalina

Yankee and English merchant vessels also began arriving, having rounded Cape Horn of South America with cargoes of manufactured goods. They understood that the California outposts were poorly supplied by the government of New Spain, and that Friars and local residents were often willing to exchange leather, tallow, and even otter pelts for manufactured items, despite the fact that doing so was illegal.

After New Spain broke from its mother country and became Mexico in 1820, California became a province within the new nation. The Mexican government permitted trade with foreigners, but it charged a tariff on all goods brought into the country. Because there was no property or income tax at the time, those tariffs were the primary source of revenue for operating the government. Even so, the Mexican government still lacked sufficient ships to monitor the California coast.

Smugglers would land a portion of their cargo at Santa Catalina, then go to the customs port and pay duty only on what remained aboard. After receiving authorization to trade along the coast, they would do so, returning to Catalina to restock with goods that had never been declared. Some smugglers openly established warehouses on the Island and were reprimanded and fined by Mexican officials. Trade continued to center on leather and tallow, along with otter skins while they remained available, in exchange for manufactured goods. The leather and tallow traveled back to the East Coast or England, where they were made into manufactured products and might even be sent around Cape Horn again. By then, the surviving Pimungans had departed the island.

Mexican Land Grant

In 1846, Mexican Governor Pio Pico granted Santa Catalina Island to Thomas Robbins, only four days before the United States invaded California. Robbins, a naturalized Mexican citizen, had lived in California for about 20 years and had carried out several services for the government, chiefly as a ship captain. Land was commonly used as payment for services, but ownership remained conditional. To keep title, the grantee was required to put the land to use. Robbins created a small ranch on the Island, then sold it in 1850 to Jose Maria Covarrubias, two years after California became part of the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Ranching, Mining & Military

News of the gold discovery in 1849 drew people from across the globe to California. Landowners in the former Mexican province had been assured that, under the new American government, their land grant titles would be honored, but they were required to prove ownership. Before the Land Commission, these cases could take years to settle.

With ownership unresolved, squatters often occupied land and claimed rights through possession. On Santa Catalina Island, different squatters claimed separate areas and began grazing sheep and cattle. Several coves still carry the names of these early squatters, including Ben Weston Beach, Howlands Landing, Gallaghers Beach, and Johnsons Landing. Meanwhile, in Santa Barbara on the mainland, men were buying and selling portions of the Island. James Lick of San Francisco ultimately acquired the various sections, and his title was confirmed by patent in 1867, once Robbins grant was finally ruled legal.

At the same time, as the northern California diggings began to diminish, Santa Catalina Island experienced a mining surge of its own. Prospectors came to the Island in 1863 and did find silver in some quantity, primarily at the Island’s west end. In January of 1864, a company of Union soldiers from Fort Drum in Wilmington arrived to evaluate the Island’s resources and whether it could serve as an Indian reservation. Native Americans in northern California were resisting intrusion onto their lands, and the commander of the Army of the Pacific hoped to remove them from their homes and relocate them to the Island. The Secretary of the Interior, responsible for Indian Affairs, rejected the plan, and the soldiers had left the Island by September of the same year.

During the Army’s stay, soldiers removed squatters and miners whose claims were questionable, allowing only those who were firmly established to remain. When James Lick asserted ownership in 1867, he expelled all squatters and miners who would not enter lease agreements with him. For the next 20 years, Santa Catalina Island was home mainly to sheep, cattle, and a handful of herders. Fishermen, often Chinese or Japanese, visited periodically, as did yearly crews of sheep shearers. Over time, the Island’s beautiful coves began filling with summertime tents as adventurous mainland visitors sailed across the channel to picnic along the shore and get away from the heat of California’s inland valleys. Santa Catalina Island was beginning its transformation into a vacation destination.