CATALINA STORIES — reau. After Cabrillo claimed the island for Spain, hunters moved in to prey on seals and otters, while pirates and smugglers enjoyed Catalina's many hidden coves. The island had a brief and unsuccessful history with mining and cattle ranching, and several investors tried to make a go of turning Catalina into a high-class getaway. Many saw financial ruin before the town of Avalon was founded, and the first hotel was built in the late 1800s. But it was William Wrigley Jr. — the gum magnate, if that doesn't sound too weird — who put the resort-island touches on Catalina almost exactly 100 years ago that have shaped the island as we know it today. "[Wrigley] brought the Chicago Cubs baseball team, which he owned, to the island for spring training from 1921-1951, with the exception of a few years during WWII," the Visitors Bureau said. Long story short, sailors have been enjoying the 22-mile-long, 8-mile- wide Santa Catalina Island long before our tenure as the West Coast authority on these matters. We've heard of families who have made pilgrimages to the island for generations — kids who were playing on the beach in AvaCatalina can seem like the most crowded place in the world or the most lon Harbor in the '60s remote. All it takes is a short walk or bike ride. are now watching their grandchildren do the same. Catalina is full of history and stories. "I grew up going to Catalina on powerboats with my parents from the late '50s, and have never stopped loving it,"
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wrote Jim, 'Goose' Gossman, who now lives in the Bay Area, but trailers his 18-ft West Wight Potter pocket cruiser all over California. "Its basic charms have not changed: The sense of adventure leaving the mainland, dolphins rushing to surf your wake, and the anticipation of landfall with the first whiff of the island's scent are the same as ever. As a kid, I dove for coins tossed from the SS Catalina while it was docking (always with some kid braver than I grabbing the bow for a tow in), and watched sea planes skirt the Casino's rooftop to land inside the harbor." Kent Carter, who sails his Beneteau 40 Lynn Lee out of Marina del Rey, echoed the draw of childhood memories. "Growing up in Southern Cali-
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atalina — and the Channel Islands at large — offer everything that the Bay Area does not. Sitting a mere 20 miles offshore in a temperate climate with mellow summer winds, Catalina has long been a warm(ish)-water haven for all manner of cruisers. And while the summer months are certainly the prime season, being in SoCal, Catalina is cruise-able year round. Catalina is of course just one of eight islands making up the Channel Island archipelago. The rest of the islands offer their own unique beauty, idiosyncrasies and complex, wildly different microclimates. But for now, we're focusing on the crown jewel itself. As with most of California, Catalina was first populated by Native Americans, claimed by the Spanish, and squabbled over with Mexico before being absorbed into the United States. Catalina has been populated for between 7,000 and 8,000 years, and "Archaeologists excavating on a limited scale at Little Harbor on the seaward side of the island have found evidence of increasingly complex material cultures," said the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bu-
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