Santa Catalina Island Series

When I saw that I didn't have Corrie's and my anniversary off, but I did have off a three day span week earlier, we decided to take advantage of it and planned a trip to Catalina Island. I remember first hearing about Catalina from a character Bob Hoskins played in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? It helped that we could walk to the ferry terminal from our apartment.

In the next few (maybe with this post there will be six total) posts I'll discuss our adventure on the not-so-tiny Channel Island with pictures and anecdotes.

A brief background: we stayed in the city of Avalon, sometimes referred to as Avalon Bay (not anymore). Catalina Island is a part of LA County, and Avalon is the southern most incorporated city in the county. There are about 3700 people living in Avalon, out of roughly 3900 on the island. A small village called Two Harbors, named for a geologic formation noticeable when looking at a map of Catalina, has about two hundred inhabitants, while a handful of folks eek out a living on other solitary harbors or isolated mountains in the interior.

The Tongva aboriginal Californians were the original human inhabitants, as the bay at Avalon is nice; it gets deep fast, and today even there is a nice scuba diving industry right off the breaker. After that the Spaniards came and named it for their queen, Catherine. Later known as a fisherman's paradise, it began to draw wealthy white men trying to promote it as a getaway from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles.

That really happened in earnest when Wrigley, the chewing gum magnate from Chicago took an interest while he was spending his winters away from the harsh Chicago weather in his sunny Pasadena mansion. Wrigley had the financial clout to make it happen, and was able to cultivate the right Hollywood connections to lure celebrities.

The Cubbies even spent a few weeks a year out at Avalon playing ball dung the spring. They came for almost twenty years straight.

Not only did Hollywood stars come out to play, but filmmakers as well, as many films from the thirties were made on the island.

Besides fishing, tourism, and film-making, a ceramic tile company was founded, using the island's native clay. While it was only running for a decade or so, it produced thousands of pieces, many of which are recognized as collectible prizes nowadays. There is still a few artisan pieces of ceramic tile being produced, usually for collectors or for municipal tings, like he following mosaics, which adorn the wall of a set of public restrooms:




Once the development of affordable, reliable, an quick air transportation matured, Catalina and Avalon's status a destination began to wane. It still lives on as a tourist zone, but is definitely not as important to the imagination of southern California citizens as it once was.