For the second day in a row, I find myself sittting here in the living room of our hilltop with the sun shining brightly on a crisp December morning and the air being so clear that the Pacific Ocean feels to be right at our feet to the west. Just over the rolling hills of Vista that sit between our hilltop and the coast, we can see a full 40 miles of deep blue ocean. Most days there is a haze or morning fog or even a complete marine layer that makes it difficult to discern land and sea from one another. But today, the crispness of the air has made it possible to make out every last detail on the horizon and the color palette distortion is not only minimal, it almost feels as though it is somehow enhanced by the vibrant sunshine. Without even getting up and walking outside onto our deck, I can see to the south, the long low outline of San Clemente Island. San Clemente Island is the southernmost of California’s Channel Islands, sitting about 68 miles west of San Diego in the Pacific Ocean. as the crow flies, that leaves me about 75 miles from it’s nearest shore. It’s an island about 21 miles long and 4.5 miles wide (slightly larger than Bermuda by my reckoning). It is owned and controlled by the U.S. Navy and has been used for training and weapons testing since 1934. It’s off-limits to civilians without special permission and is home to several endangered species of birds and aquatic life.
Slightly further north, through a saddle in the rolling hills, I can see Santa Catalina Island, which is approximately 85 miles away to the northwest of our hillside. The closest point on Catalina to the mainland is about 22 miles offshore from the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the typical ferry route from Dana Point to Avalon (the main town on Catalina) is about 26 miles over water. Unlike San Clemente Island, Catalina is open to tourists, accessible by ferry, and while mostly owned by the Catalina Island Conservancy (a foundation set up by the Wrigley gum family), 88% of the island is protected. The Wrigley family established the Catalina Island Conservancy under the auspices of Philip K. Wrigley (son of chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr.). He bought controlling interest in Santa Catalina Island in 1919 for $3 million. He developed Avalon as a resort destination, built the iconic Art Deco Casino building in 1929, which was never actually a gambling casino, but a ballroom/theater, made Catalina the spring training home for his Chicago Cubs and preserved most of the island’s interior with roaming herds of American bison. It’s one of California’s oldest and largest private land trusts. The conservancy protects over 60 miles of rugged coastline and manages the interior that most tourists never see. The Wrigley legacy is still visible. The family’s influence shaped Catalina into a unique mix of accessible tourism and protected wilderness rather than overdeveloped resort destination.
When Kim and I first met and we took our first trip west to meet each other’s families, Kim’s nephew Josh, who had recently graduated from Humboldt State in Arcadia, was working as a ranger on Catalina. Specifically, he was posted to work in the northwestern village of Two Harbors, the only other town on the island besides Avalon, While Avalon is a booming metropolis of 3,700, Two Harbors boasts a resident population of 150. We booked a condo in Avalon for a night and spent a day walking the town and then took the tour bus across the spine of the island on the dirt roads to see what the interior looked like and what was going on in Two Harbors. Two Harbors is sort of bar & grill on a beach and that’s about it. It’s the sort of place that young people get together to dress up like pirates and party hard and then fall asleep on the beach. In fact, the place looks exactly like the sort of remote island spot where pirates might wall have moored for a few days on their way to ravage some coastal community…back in the day.
California’s coastal waters actually saw significant pirate activity, particularly during the Spanish colonial period and into the early American era. Sir Francis Drake was probably the most famous pirate to do so. In 1579, he raided Spanish ships along the California coast and claimed “Nova Albion” (likely near San Francisco) for England. The Spanish considered him a pirate; the English called him a privateer…so goes the nomenclature of history. Thomas Cavendish followed Drake’s route in the 1580s, capturing the Spanish treasure galleon Santa Ana off Cabo San Lucas with a fortune in silk, gold, and spices from Manila. Hippolito Bouchard was an Argentine privateer who raided California in 1818, sacking Monterey and several missions. He’s considered the only pirate to successfully attack and occupy a California town. The Manila Galleon trade was the big prize in the Nineteenth Century. Spanish treasure ships sailed from the Philippines to Acapulco loaded with Asian goods, gold, and silver, passing along the California coast. These slow, heavily laden ships were prime targets. Then, during the Gold Rush era (1849-1860s), California saw a different kind of piracy. The “Sydney Ducks”, comprised of Australian ex-convicts who turned to crime in San Francisco, set up smuggling operations, hijacking ships in San Francisco Bay and working with Chinese pirate gangs operating out of various Pacific ports.
As for Catalina’s history with piracy, it is more legend than documented fact, but historical sources describe Catalina as attractive to pirates and smugglers because of numerous hidden coves (especially at Two Harbors/the Isthmus and Cat Harbor), the fact that it is close to mainland but isolated enough to avoid authorities, and because it had a very low population, such that the Spanish couldn’t really enforce their territorial claims. And the undisputed fact is that smuggling was definitely common as California got its statehood legs underneath it. During the Mexican era (1821-1848), Mexico levied nearly 100% tariffs on foreign goods. Smugglers from Spain, France, Russia, England, America, South America, China, and the Sandwich Islands would anchor in Isthmus Cove or Cat Harbor under cover of darkness, unload 2/3 of their cargo into caves or bury it in sand, sail to Mexican customs, pay tariffs on the lighter load, return to Catalina, reload, and sell their goods (tariff-free) along the coast. But like all things California, it was a very casual version of piracy and not like the intensive pirate action in the Caribbean. It wasn’t a full pirate base like Port Royal or Tortuga. Nevertheless, Catalina does have a buried treasure legend. In 1828, Samuel Prentiss was told by a Tongva person about “Indian treasure and pirate plunder” buried under a tree on the island. He drew a map, but it blew overboard. No treasure has ever been found…yet. The cold waters, rocky coastline, and fewer ports made California a less hospitable venue for long-term pirate operations. Even pirates like efficiency and comfort, I guess.
So I will continue to look out at the deep blue of the Pacific from our hilltop and I will dream of pirates and far eastern adventures. I will organize our own neighborhood sortie to Catalina soon to raid Avalon as good pirates must…carrying off our souvenir booty back to the mainland.