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I lived in Santa Barbara for many years, but never visited the Channel Islands, unfortunately. There was no Channel Islands National Park back in the days when I lived in the Santa Barbara area.

At one time, Santa Cruz Island was privately owned. A man owned 80,000 acres on the island, and there were some private landowners that owned some smaller parcels.

The man who owned the 80,000 acres, the vast majority of Santa Cruz Island, planned to leave the land to his two sons. The island has wild boars and some Chumash Indian archeological sites, as well as rare plants and other critters.

One son was killed in World War II, so the other son inherited it all. He never had any kids, so.....I think it was in the 1980’s....he either gave the land to the Nature Conservancy or willed it to them, one or the other.

Eventually it became part of Channel Islands National Park.
The smaller private land owners didn’t want to sell, but their land was taken by eminent domain. Military helicopters appeared over the landowners property one night and heavily armed men rappelled down and seized each property. Land of the free, huh? I don’t know if they were military or were from some out-of-control federal agency.

There are some smaller islands nearby; the U.S. Navy used one of them as a bombing range MANY years ago....either Anacapa Island or Nicholas Island....I don’t remember which.

There was an abalone fishery in the area when I lived there. I don’t know if that fishery still exists after the national park designation. The inside of the large shells were quite beautiful....they looked like mother of pearl.

Needless to say, I was shocked when I learned of this tragedy this morning. Awful.