Tales from California’s Channel Islands

Cache - After a 20 year quest to find a cave reputed to have been used by the Lone Woman, archeologist Steve Schwartz finally discovers the cave. Only to have his excavation efforts shut down by the Navy. This tale chronicles the turf war over the cave between archeologists, the Navy and various Indian tribes.

Cache - After a 20 year quest to find a cave reputed to have been used by the Lone Woman, archeologist Steve Schwartz finally discovers the cave. Only to have his excavation efforts shut down by the Navy. This tale chronicles the turf war over the cave between archeologists, the Navy and various Indian tribes.

The Chumash were a marine culture whose life centered around their plank canoe - the tomol. Since the 1970s when they re-learned how to build the tomol, Chumash paddlers, leaving in the dark of night, have made an annual voyage across dangerous Channel waters to their ancestral home on Santa Cruz Island.

Novelist TC Boyle talks about his attraction to the Channel Islands that led him to write two books about them. One, When the Killing is Done, focuses on the showdown between environmentalists and Channel Islands National Park and Nature Conservancy naturalists who wanted to restore the islands to their native state.

Novelist TC Boyle talks about his attraction to the Channel Islands that led him to write two books about them. One, When the Killing is Done, focuses on the showdown between environmentalists and Channel Islands National Park and Nature Conservancy naturalists who wanted to restore the islands to their native state.

This is the story of an odd couple - Dr. Carey Stanton, who owned Santa Cruz Island, and rock star Joe Walsh. Meeting in the 1970s through Marla Daily, they struck up an unusual, and unusually strong, bond that led to Joe putting on an Eagle's concert to help raise the money for the Nature Conservancy's purchase of Santa Cruz Island...

The Legendary King of San Miguel Island - Betsy Lester Roberti travels back to the windswept and desolate island where she grew up as a child. She describes her "Swiss Family Lester' upbringing and her larger than life father Herbie. And his untimely demise on the eve of World War 2.

The Legendary King of San Miguel Island – Betsy Lester Roberti travels back to the windswept and desolate island where she grew up as a child. She describes her “Swiss Family Lester’ upbringing and her larger than life father Herbie. And his untimely demise on the eve of World War 2.

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Magic Isle – Santa Catalina Island – Catalina is the most widely known of the Channel Islands, and the only one still privately owned. Its fame is the result of the vision of one man, William Wrigley Jr. who bought the island sight unseen in 1919. We chronicle its glory years of movie stars, the Chicago Cubs, and Big Band dancing in the Casino, as well as its struggles to stay relevant today. William Wrigley’s great grand-daughter Alison Rusack and her family tell us about the challenges and joys of keeping his dream alive. 

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Graveyard of Ships – The Channel Islands lie in one of the most hazardous shipping channels in the world. While telling the story of the crash of the paddle wheel steamer Winfield Scott into middle Anacapa Island in 1853, Bob Schwemmer of NOAA and others also describe some of the more than 500 other wrecks in Marine Sanctuary Waters. Many of which can be dived on today in this “underwater museum.” 

The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island - The story of the person known variously as Juana Maria, the Lone Woman, or Karana in the children's classic Island of the Blue Dolphins, is familiar to many people.

The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island – The story of the person known variously as Juana Maria, the Lone Woman, or Karana in the children’s classic Island of the Blue Dolphins, is familiar to many people. While comparing her incredible real life adventure of surviving alone on San Nicolas for 18 years to the story in the book, we uncover new facts about her life as well as that of the book’s writer Scott O'Dell. 

The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island – The story of the person known variously as Juana Maria, the Lone Woman, or Karana in the children’s classic Island of the Blue Dolphins, is familiar to many people. While comparing her incredible real life adventure of surviving alone on San Nicolas for 18 years to the story in the book, we uncover new facts about her life as well as that of the book’s writer Scott O'Dell.