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An Account of the Discovery of a Whale-Bone House on San Nicolas Island

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An Account of the Discovery of a Whale-Bone House on San Nicolas Island UC Merced Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Title An Account of the Discovery of a Whale-Bone House on San Nicolas Island Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/48z0m0t6 Journal Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 1(1) ISSN 0191-3557 Author Morgan, Ron Publication Date 1979-12-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California An Account of the Discovery of a Whale-Bone House on San Nicolas Island RON MORGAN EDITOR'S NOTE: The story of the Basketry Water Bottle," Reports of the Univ. courage and endurance of Juana Maria, the of California Archaeological Survey [Berkeley] lone woman of San Nicolas Island, has been No. 50, pp. 1-3). the subject of nutnerous magazine articles, scientific papers, and newspaper accounts for N October of 1977, the Santa Barbara rnore than a hundred years. In 1961, novelist I Museum of Natural History was awarded Scott O'Dell fictionalized Juana Maria's tragic grants by the National Endowment for the life in his Island of the Blue Dolphins (New Humanities, the National Park Service, and York: Houghton Mifflin Co.), which was private donors for the purpose of establishing filmed by Universal Studios in 1964. Briefly, an archive of source material relative to the the Mexican government in 1835 removed all history of the eight California Channel Islands. of the aboriginal inhabitants of San Nicolas This project, known as the Channel Islands Island to the California mainland. As the ship Photographic Survey, has been involved in the pulled away from the island, a young woirian, collection of early photographs, diaries, whose child had been left behind, leaped into correspondence, and manuscripts; the inter­ the sea and swam back to shore. Sixteen years viewing of present and former island residents later, Juana Maria was discovered still and researchers; and the taking of comparative marooned on the island—her child now dead photographs of areas depicted in the early —by George Nidever, captain of a sailing images or mentioned in the literature. schooner. She was brought to Mission Santa In the early stages of this work, we con­ Barbara, where she died six weeks later. The ducted bibliographic studies with the extensive few possessions brought to the mainland by collection of Channel Islands literature owned Juana Maria were reportedly sent to Rome by Dr. Carey Stanton of Santa Cruz Island. with the exception of a twined basketry water This material included an obscure publication bottle, which found its way to the California that contained an article detailing the success­ Acadetny of Sciences, only to be destroyed by ful search for the remains of the hut once fire in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. occupied by Juana Maria of San Nicolas A photograph of this basket was published in Island, written by Dr. Arthur Woodward, 1960, together with a brief description, by formerly of the Los Angeles County Museum R. F. Heizer ("A San Nicolas Island Twined (Woodward 1957). [171] 172 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY Included in the article is a lively narrative notes. Loretta also prepared for publication a on the rediscovery of the whale-bone hut, as line copy of Woodward's 1939 sketch of the well as a wealth of historical information on whale bones and rocks making up the site at San Nicolas Island which Woodward com­ the time of its rediscovery. Because of the piled in conjunction with the Los Angeles importance of this material, I was encouraged County Museum's 1939-1941 expeditions to by Dr. Travis Hudson to prepare the photo­ the Channel Islands. graphs and extract the descriptions of the hut One other publication mentions the shelter for publication in this journal. in reference to the discovery of sea elephants The photographs presented special prob­ on a nearby beach (Comstock 1946). lems of dirt, processing streaks, and fading. Published historical descriptions of Juana Extensive pencil retouching was necessary to Maria's hut by Nidever and Dittman are remove the flaws without obscuring the detail. available in the monograph Original Accounts In spite of their shortcomings, the photographs of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island are the most persuasive evidence for the con­ (Heizer and Elsasser 1976). dition and existence of the hut at the time of At the suggestion of Dr. Stanton, I located Dr. Woodward's investigations. and visited Dr. Woodward shortly before the end of 1978. Althougha thorough search failed THE DON MEADOWS INTERVIEWS to locate the unpublished photographs. Dr. Woodward generously lent the field notes "Beginning in 1939, the Los Angeles (Woodward 1939, 1940) of his expeditions for County Museum embarked upon a five-year duplication and inclusion in the archives. period of field research on the Channel Islands, In an unrelated incident. Dr. Charles mainly in biology. The work was to progress in Rozaire brought to our attention the photo­ three stages. The first stage was merely a graph file from the Los Angeles County survey or reconnaissance to determine what Museum's 1939-1941 expeditions, which is aspects should be studied in detail later. The now on loan to us. A comparison of the dates second stage was to sample some of the more and descriptions on the mounts of seven of the promising sites in greater detail. The third photographs with the dates and descriptions stage was to have been in-depth studies of in Woodward's field notes revealed that Dr. particular species or areas. The work was Rozaire had provided us with the unpublished halted part way through the second stage by photographs of Juana Maria's house. World War II. One photograph from 1939 was attributed "The search for Juana Maria's hut was one to Dr. Woodward, but the six 1940 images of two specific things we were looking for in were attributed to Marion Hollenbach, the the first expeditions in 1939; the other was archaeological field assistant for the 1940 Juan Cabrillo's grave. San Nicolas Island expedition. Perhaps "I had brought a copy of Nidever's report. problems of classification and filing explain We read it over and discussed it after we had why the photographs were never published. been on San Nicolas Island a few days. By that Additional information was subsequently time, we knew the lay of the country, and it acquired in two taped interviews with Don gave us a lot better understanding of what Meadows (1979), which I summarize in this Nidever was talking about because we were article. there and we could refer to the report at any Mrs. Meadows graciously aided my wife, time. Therefore, we knew in general—within Loretta, in organizing and transcribing the a mile or so—approximately where it [the hut] fading characters of Dr. Woodward's field was. A WHALE-BONE HOUSE ON SAN NICOLAS ISLAND 173 "Art and I started out together; after we got remnants of a whale bone hut—ribs on the to the top [of the ridge] we split up. I went to ground here. I took a photograph of the old the left toward the windward side of the island, whale ribs. and he split to the right. He came back to me "This entire ridge is one huge site. All of a little later and yelled to me that he had found the ridges here are covered with acres and it. We only spent about an hour there. Art acres ofshell mounds (Woodward 1939:27-29). came back later to take pictures. "As we rode up the hill I remarked to "I had very little to do with it [the dis­ Lamberth: "If Nidever was right, then we covery] other than I was on the island at the should find the remains of Juana Maria's same time. He [Art Woodward] was the one house on that high point" (Woodward who really discovered it [Meadows 1979]." 1957:263). "Continuing further up along the ridge, WOODWARD'S ACCOUNT OF THE which is broken, we came to a higher point EVENTS OF JULY 25, 1939 from which the visibility is good. On the apex of the hill were the many ribs, scapulae, etc.. "At this point I am going to relate my own of a whale—definitely a hut site. I took a experiences in the rediscovery of the hut site photograph from the south side looking once occupied by Juana Maria. On July 25, toward the end of the west point [Fig. 1]. The 1939, in company with Reggie Lamberth,. I house ruin consists of 19 pieces of whale bone set out on horseback to ride to the west end in a fair state of preservation. Here probably of San Nicolas. With [Lamberth's] generous stood the hut of Juana Maria. See sketch services as guide, we started out from camp, [Fig. 2]. headed west along the beach, covering prac­ tically the same route as Nidever and his "I found a weathered bone barb from a fish companions eighty-six years earlier. harpoon a trifle northwest of the hut site. The "In my knapsack, I had a copy of Ellison's midden was dramatized by the huge amounts The Life and Adventures of George Nidever, of red abalone shells—pure shells with very published in 1937. It proved a valuable guide little admixture of sand or other debris. to the landmarks we visited. At last we came "This site tallies perfectly with Nidever's to the end of the island, just as Charley Brown account. It is on the high part of the long ridge had done (Woodward 1957:262). sloping back from the west end ridge.
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