History: How the Channel Islands Were Formed
The five islands of Channel Islands National Park -- San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, and Anacapa -- are strung like great peaks of a mountain range lost long ago to the relentless sea. It takes little imagination to picture their bases on the seafloor, surrounded by foothills and valleys. The islands are volcanic remnants of an ancient mountain range that was once the western extension of the Santa Monica Mountains.
 ©2006 National Park Services Today's islands are actually the peaks of an ancient mountain range. |
Today, only the eroded peaks rise above the ocean, but the islands were formed by the same geologic upheaval that created the mountains on the mainland. About half a million years ago, violent and extensive earthquakes gradually separated the islands from the mainland; over time, wind and water eroded them down to the outcroppings of today.
The History of the Channel Islands: Inhabitants and Explorers
The islands may have been inhabited as early as 30,000 years ago by people who left behind a cooking pit that still contains the burned bones of a small mammoth. How people and mammoths got to the islands remains a mystery. On Santa Cruz island, there are also remnants of villages built by later inhabitants.
More recently the Chumash lived here. They went to sea in long plank canoes, caulked with tar from oil seeps, to fish and to hunt for seals, whales, and sea otters. Their peaceful existence was shattered by the arrival of the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who landed on San Miguel island in 1542. The Spanish hired the native people to hunt sea otters for their pelts. Over time the Spanish brought other people to the islands to help with the hunt. They warred against the Chumash, finally driving them to the mainland.
Wildlife on the Channel Islands
Beaches, rocky harbors, and inlets provide a habitat for such exotic creatures as the northern elephant seal, which can weigh up to three tons and wriggles up sandy beaches on its belly. An equally familiar sight is the thousands of California sea lions that return to San Miguel each year to mate, give birth, and rear their young. The islands also accommodate sea otters, northern fur seals, and all kinds of nesting sea birds.
Sea otters were hunted almost to extinction to satisfy the booming European fur business. Recently they have begun thriving again on the Channel Islands, which today are a refuge for wildlife and plants found nowhere else.
A marine sanctuary extends for six nautical miles around each island, protecting a giant kelp forest that provides a habitat for nearly 1,000 species of fish and many unusual marine plants. Each December, great gray whales stop by the islands to feed on the bountiful sea life.
At Channel Islands National Park, there are archaeological curiosities to examine and ample flora and fauna to explore. Travel to the park in any of the seasons for different experiences: witness a myriad of wildflowers in the spring, revel in the sunny sights in the summer, dive into the clear waters in the fall, or watch migrating gray whales in the winter. A land of ancient beauty awaits visitors.
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