Union Barracks

Catalina Island holds the uncommon distinction of having Union Barracks that trace back to the Civil War. In January 1864, the U.S. Army dispatched a scout team to Catalina Island to evaluate it as a possible reservation site for Native Americans described as militant. The scout report noted two good harbors, fresh water access, and favorable weather along the southern part of the California coastline. At the time, Southern California was also thought to have many Confederate sympathizers, and the U.S. Army Drum Barracks in San Pedro was worried that Confederacy guns and gold might be brought to the island, then collected later and smuggled onto ships traveling around the Horn to Southern ports.

A force of 83 Union soldiers from Company C, 4th Regiment, California Voluntary Infantry occupied the barracks at Two Harbors. By late 1864, with the Confederacy nearing defeat and native uprisings calming, the soldiers were pulled back and sent to Drum Barracks.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Hollywood production crews stayed at the Two Harbors Barracks while turning Santa Catalina Island into the South Pacific for films including Mutiny on the Bounty and Old Ironside.

Many years after that first military use, the barracks again served the U.S. military. During World War II, the U.S. Coast Guard operated the barracks as a training station for new recruits. Since 1951, the Isthmus Yacht Club has managed the barracks. Today, they remain the island’s oldest structure.