Santa Rosa Island, California
Encyclopedia
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...
at 53,195 acres (215.27 km² or 83.118 sq mi). Defined by the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
as Block 3009, Block Group 3, Census Tract
Census tract
A census tract, census area, or census district is a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census. Usually these coincide with the limits of cities, towns or other administrative areas and several tracts commonly exist within a county...
29.10 of Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, on the Pacific coast. As of 2010 the county had a population of 423,895. The county seat is Santa Barbara and the largest city is Santa Maria.-History:...
, the 2000 census
United States Census, 2000
The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
showed an official population of 2 persons. It is part of Channel Islands National Park
Channel Islands National Park
- External links :* Official site: * *...
. Highest peak is Vail Peak, at 1589 feet (484.3 m).
Santa Rosa is located about 26 miles (41.8 km) off the coast of Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
in Santa Barbara County.
It is occupied by rolling hills, deep canyons, a coastal lagoon and beaches adorned with sand dunes and driftwood
Driftwood
Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea or river by the action of winds, tides, waves or man. It is a form of marine debris or tidewrack....
. The Chumash, a Native American people who lived in the Channel Islands at the time of European contact, called the driftwood
Driftwood
Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea or river by the action of winds, tides, waves or man. It is a form of marine debris or tidewrack....
wima because channel currents brought ashore logs from which they built tomol
Tomol
Tomols are plank-built boats, historically and currently used by the Chumash and Tongva Native Americans in the Santa Barbara and Los Angeles area. They were also called tii'at by the Tongva. Tomols are long. They were especially important as both tribes relied on the sea for...
s (plank canoes).
There are a variety of recreational activities to take part in on Santa Rosa Island, including kayaking, camping and hiking. A private boat charter company offers a number of trips to the island year round, and camping reservations can be made through Channel Islands National Park offices in Ventura, CA.
A year round charter flight service is available from Camarillo Airport
Camarillo Airport
Camarillo Airport is a public airport located three miles west of the central business district of Camarillo, a city in Ventura County, California, United States. It is roughly equidistant from Los Angeles, CA and Santa Barbara, CA although it is inland...
for hikers and campers to Santa Rosa Island.
Early History
Wisconsin glaciation
The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age occurring during the last years of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago....
, the four northern Channel Islands, including Santa Rosa Island, were conjoined into Santa Rosae
Santa Rosae
Santa Rosae was an ancient landmass off the coast of present-day southern California, near Ventura County and Santa Barbara County, of which the northern Channel Islands of California are remnants....
, a single island that was only five miles (8 km) off the coast. In 1960, archaeologists discovered the remains of 13,000 year-old Arlington Springs Man, among the oldest human remains in the Americas, on the island. Pygmy mammoth
Pygmy Mammoth
The Pygmy Mammoth or Channel Islands Mammoth is an extinct species of dwarf elephant descended from the Columbian mammoth . A case of island or insular dwarfism, M. exilis was only to tall at the shoulder and weighed about , in contrast to its tall, ancestor.Remains of M...
s (Mammuthus exilis) have also been excavated there.
Mexican land grant
Governor Manuel MicheltorenaManuel Micheltorena
Manuel Micheltorena was a Brigadier General of the Mexican Army, Adjutant-General of the same, Governor, Commandant-General and Inspector of the Department of the California...
made a Mexican land grant
Ranchos of California
The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...
of the island of Santa Rosa to brothers José Antonio Carrillo
José Antonio Carrillo
Captain José Antonio Ezequiel Carrillo was a Californio rancher, officer, and politician in the early years of Mexican Alta California and U.S...
and Carlos Antonio Carrillo
Carlos Antonio Carrillo
Carlos Antonio Carrillo , Governor of Alta California from 1837 to 1838. He took his oath as governon in Pueblo de Los Angeles, present day Los Angeles, on December 6, 1836. aCarlos Antonio Carrillo was the son of a prominent California family...
in 1843. They gave the island to Carlos daughters, Manuela Carrillo de Jones and Francisca Carrillo de Thompson. Their husbands - John Coffin Jones (1796–1861) and Alpheus Basil Thompson (1795–1869) - entered into a partnership to manage the island. A claim was filed with the Public Land Commission
Public Land Commission
The Public Land Commission, a former agency of the United States government, was created following the admission of California as a state in 1850 . The Commission's purpose was to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican land grants in California.California Senator William M...
in 1852, but the grant was not patented to Manuela Carrillo de Jones and Francisca Carrillo de Thompson until 1871. The acrimonious Thompson-Jones partnership ended in 1859, and by 1862 T. Wallace More owned the whole island. The island was used as a sheep ranch during the late-19th century by the More family.
Vail Ranch
The More family sold the island to Walter L Vail and J.W. Vickers in 1902, forming the Vail & Vickers Company of Santa Barbara. The partnership used the island for cattle ranching and a private hunting reserve.Recent history
The United States Air ForceUnited States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
maintained a radar base on the island during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
In the late 1970s Mobil
Mobil
Mobil, previously known as the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, was a major American oil company which merged with Exxon in 1999 to form ExxonMobil. Today Mobil continues as a major brand name within the combined company, as well as still being a gas station sometimes paired with their own store or On...
Oil Corporation was granted exploration rights on the island. Both explosive and vibroseis exploration methods were used. Extensive surveys and geological maps were made at that time.
National Park
In 1980, Santa Rosa Island was included within Channel Islands National Park over the objections of Vail & Vickers, which then successfully lobbied to have the legislation stipulate that purchase of their land would be the highest priority of the Channel Islands National Park. Vail & Vickers, under threat of condemnation and planned government appraisals, sold the island in 1986 for the appraised value of nearly $30 million, which worked out to around $550 per acre. The initial agreement allowed continuation of the ranching and hunting operation for 25 years via a series of five-year renewable special use permits issued by the National Park Service. A lawsuit by the National Parks Conservation AssociationNational Parks Conservation Association
The National Parks Conservation Association is the only independent, membership organization devoted exclusively to advocacy on behalf of the National Parks System...
in 1996 resulted in a court-approved settlement agreement which included removal of all cattle from the island and phased reduction by Vail & Vickers of the non-native deer and elk by 2011.
In 2006 U.S. Representative Duncan Hunter
Duncan Hunter
Duncan Lee Hunter is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the House of Representatives from California's 52nd, 45th and 42nd districts from 1981 to 2009....
(R-CA) introduced a provision into the annual defense policy bill that would allow disabled veterans to continue hunting elk on the island past 2011, without the consent of Vail & Vickers or the National Park Service. The provision stayed in the bill and was signed into law by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. This legislation was repealed by the next Congress as part of the FY 2007 Omnibus appropriations bill
Omnibus bill
An omnibus bill is a proposed law that covers a number of diverse or unrelated topics. Omnibus is derived from Latin and means "for everything"...
, also signed into law by President George W. Bush.
Douglas Hughes, a California governor candidate in 2010, proposed that sex offender
Sex offender
A sex offender is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and by legal jurisdiction. Most jurisdictions compile their laws into sections such as traffic, assault, sexual, etc. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a...
s be moved to the island if they opt not to leave California or remain in prison.
Ecology
Torrey Pine
The Torrey Pine, Pinus torreyana, is the rarest pine species in the United States, an endangered species growing only in San Diego County and on one of the Channel Islands, endemic to the coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion in the U.S...
(Pinus torreyana var. insularis) grows on the island. The population of this endangered species
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
is estimated at approximately 1000 trees. The Island Oak
Island Oak
Quercus tomentella, the Island Oak, also the Island Live Oak or Channel Islands Oak, is an oak in the section Protobalanus.-Distribution:...
(Quercus tomentella) is native to the island.
Flightless geese, giant mice and pygmy mammoth
Pygmy Mammoth
The Pygmy Mammoth or Channel Islands Mammoth is an extinct species of dwarf elephant descended from the Columbian mammoth . A case of island or insular dwarfism, M. exilis was only to tall at the shoulder and weighed about , in contrast to its tall, ancestor.Remains of M...
s are extinct, while the island fox
Island Fox
The island fox is a small fox that is native to six of the eight Channel Islands of California. There are six subspecies of the fox, each unique to the island it lives on, reflecting its evolutionary history...
, spotted skunk
Spotted Skunk
The Eastern Spotted Skunk is smaller and more weasel-like than the striped skunk. The spotted skunks are faster and more agile than the striped skunks and they have better pelts. For the last 100 years, the Eastern Spotted Skunk was bred for its fine silky fur...
, and munchkin dudleya
Dudleya gnoma
Dudleya gnoma is a rare species of succulent plant in the stonecrop family known by the common names munchkin liveforever and munchkin dudleya. It is endemic to Santa Rosa Island, one of the Channel Islands of California, where it is known from one single population containing about 3200 plants...
(Dudleya gnoma) (one of the six endemic plant species on the island) still live there. The island is home to one of only three known populations of Hoffman's rockcress
Boechera hoffmannii
Boechera hoffmannii is a rare species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name Hoffmann's rockcress. It is endemic to the Channel Islands of California, where it is known from only three or four populations on two of the eight islands. A 2005 report estimated a remaining...
.
Its surrounding waters serve as an invaluable nursery for the sea life that feeds larger marine mammals and seabirds.
The rare endemic lichen Caloplaca obamae
Caloplaca obamae
Caloplaca obamae is a species of lichen in the fungus genus Caloplaca. It is the first species to be named in honor of United States President Barack Obama. C. obamae was discovered in 2007 by Kerry Knudsen on Santa Rosa Island in California and published in March 2009...
, discovered in 2007 and described by Kerry Knudsen in 2009, commemorates United States President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
Further reading
- U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Survey. (1975). Bathymetric map: California, southwest of Santa Rosa Island [Scale 1:250,000 ; transverse Mercator proj. (W 140º—W 120º/N 56º—N 48º)]. Washington, D.C.: author.
External links
- Channel Islands National Park Website from the National Park ServiceNational Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
. - History of the island from the Santa Cruz Island Foundation.
- Channel Islands Aviation flights to the islands for day trips and multi day hiking and camping