Uncovering the Channel Islands’ Unique Histories

The magical natural offerings of California’s Channel Islands rival any landscape on the planet, but the archipelago’s assembled histories are almost equally fascinating. The prehistoric and modern pioneers who’ve tended to their shores over the past 15,000 years endured all manners of triumphs and tragedies, leaving a lush fabric of stories in their wake.

Weaving all the tales together in the new book California’s Channel Islands: A History is Frederic Caire Chiles, whose great-grandfather Justinian Caire owned Santa Cruz Island around the turn of the 20th century. Chiles covered his family’s story in his last book and was asked by his publisher, the University of Oklahoma Press, to expand that work into this exhaustive and entertaining examination, which hits every island from San Miguel to San Clemente.

“In doing the Justinian Caire and Santa Cruz Island book, the story was the people: They were center stage, and the island was the background,” Chiles told me over the phone from his home in London. “In this book, the islands and all their rich history are the stars, and it’s not just a story of the last 150 years. It is a story of the last 15,000 years, and an exciting one it is.” An edited version of our interview is below, and excerpts of the book can be found on the pages that follow.