One of the fabled Channel Islands of Southern California, Santa Cruz was once the largest privately owned island off the coast of the continental United States. This multifaceted account traces the island’s history from its aboriginal Chumash population to its acquisition by The Nature Conservancy at the end of the twentieth century. The heart of the book, however, is a family saga: the story of French émigré Justinian Caire and his descendants, who owned and occupied the island for more than fifty years. The author, descended from Caire, uses family archives unavailable to earlier historians to recount the full, previously untold story. Justinian Caire and Santa Cruz Island opens with Caire’s early life as a San Francisco businessman and his acquisition of Santa Cruz Island, where he created a ranching kingdom based on sheep, cattle, and wine. Frederic Caire Chiles examines the business practices of the Justinian Caire and Santa Cruz Island companies, documenting the island’s economic ups and downs and the environmental impact of ranching in those days. Above all, he looks at the family’s daily life on the island from the mid-nineteenth into the twentieth century. This epic contains tragic elements, as well. What began as a profitable ranch and an idyllic retreat ended in the family divided by bitter litigation and the forced sale of the island. Family diaries and letters enable Chiles to tell the story of an intensely private clan and its struggle to hold an island dynasty together. The history of Santa Cruz Island has never been told so thoroughly or so well. Replete with intimate portraits and high drama, this California story will move readers as it informs them.

For the first time a thorough history of Santa Cruz Island's tumultuous past is provided. In pre-Columbian times it was a source of wealth to the indigenous peoples--the place where they made their shell bead money. During the Spanish-Mexican period it was a smuggler's haven, where fur hunters avoided the customs officials.

The island of Anacapa, off the coast of California, is overrun with black rats which are threatening the ancient population of ground-nesting birds. Alma Boyd Takesue of the National Park Service is campaigning to exterminate them once and for all, but her systematic plan is in danger of sabotage by two notorious environmental activists, Anise Reed and Dave LaJoy. But when Alma's sights turn to the infestation of non-native pigs on the island of Santa Cruz - where Anise was brought up by her rancher mother - the stakes are raised and the debate threatens to boil over into something much more real...

Prehistoric foragers, conquistadors, missionaries, adventurers, hunters, and rugged agriculturalists parade across the histories of these little-known islands on the horizon of twenty-first century Southern California. This chain of eight islands is home to a biodiversity unrivaled anywhere on Earth. In addition, the Channel Islands reveal the complex geology and the natural and human history of this part of the world, from the first human probing of the continent we now call North America to modern-day ranchers, vineyardists, yachtsmen, and backpackers. Not far below the largely undisturbed surface of these islands are the traces of a California that flourished before historical time, vestiges of a complex forager culture originating with the first humans to cross the Bering Land Bridge and spread down the Pacific coast. This culture came to an end a mere 450 years ago with the arrival of Spanish conquistadors and missionaries, whose practices effectively depopulated the archipelago. The largely empty islands in turn attracted Anglo-American agriculturalists, including Frederic Caire Chiles’s own ancestors, who battled the elements to build empires based on cattle, sheep, wine, and wool. Today adventure tourism is the heart of the islands’ economy, with the late-twentieth-century formation of Channel Islands National Park, which opened five of the islands to the general public. For visitors and armchair travelers alike, this book weaves the strands of natural history, island ecology, and human endeavor to tell the Channel Islands’ full story.

Rising from the waters of the Pacific off the southern California Coast, Santa Cruz Island captures the imagination. Once home to a large Chumash population, in the nineteenth century it became a self-sufficient island rancho. As with all islands of beauty and size, it attracted people from the coastline. But as author John Gherini tells us in his prologue: The attractions of the island, however, routinely led people into conflict, wrapping it in a shroud like its morning fog. The modern history of the island would witness the passion to own it, to protect it, to use it and to fight over it. For the first time a thorough history of Santa Cruz Island's tumultuous past is provided. In pre-Columbian times it was a source of wealth to the indigenous peoples—the place where they made their shell bead money. During the Spanish-Mexican period it was a smuggler's haven, where fur hunters avoided the customs officials. As a land grant, it passed through the hands of Andres Castillero, William E. Barron, and eventually was purchased by Justinian Caire. The island flourished under the direction of Caire and his family. It was a secluded paradise off the Santa Barbara Coast, with extensive sheep and cattle holdings, as well as an esteemed winery. Seeds of conflict were sown by Justinian Caire's will when the island was divided between family members. The Stantons, Rossis, Gherinis, the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy all were involved over time. The tortured legal and family disputes are recounted for the first time in this important new work. Island ranching, hunting and recreation, and environmental challenges are described in detail. Recent historical events involving the establishment of the Channel Islands National Park are explored, as well. A handsome volume with notes, appendix, bibliography and index. Embellished with thirty-six photographs and maps from the author's family archives.

Every day, thousands of Southern California residents see the California Channel Islands on the horizon, yet few can name all eight. Santa Catalina Island, third largest, is by far the best known. It is the only island with a city, Avalon, where dozens of hotels, shops, and restaurants await visitors year-round. Three of the islands are owned by the US Navy: San Clemente, San Nicolas, and San Miguel. San Clemente and San Nicolas Islands are used for military training, naval weapons development, and missile testing; thus access is restricted. Five islands fall within the boundaries of Channel Islands National Park: San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara Islands. Close to the mainland and yet worlds apart, scenic day trips and primitive camping opportunities are available on all five park islands. With neither stores nor modern conveniences, a trip to Channel Islands National Park is a step back in time.