Ghost Wave - Chris Dixon [162]
D. L. Mark Raab, Jim Cassidy, and Andrew Yatsko, California Maritime Archaeology: A San Clemente Island Perspective (Lanham, MD: Alta Mira Press, 2009).
E. J. E. Holzman, “The Submarine Geology of Cortes and Tanner Banks,” Journal of Sedimentary Research 22 (1952).
F. Reports published in the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly. Most are available on their Web site, www.pcas.org. The following were especially fascinating:
(1) Paul Porcasi, Judith Porcasi, and Collin O’Neill, “Early Holocene Coastlines of the California Bight,” vol. 35, no. 2 (Spring/Summer 1999).
(2) Andrew Yatsko, “Of Marine Terraces and Sand Dunes: The Landscape of San Clemente Island,” vol. 36, no. 1 (Winter 2000).
(3) Ellen T. Hardy, “Religious Aspects of the Material Remains from San Clemente Island,” ibid.
(4) Clement W. Meighan, “Overview of the Archaeology of San Clemente Island, California,” ibid.
(5) Roy A. Salis, “The Prehistoric Fishery of San Clemente Island,” vol. 36, nos. 1 and 2 (Winter and Spring 2000).
(6) Michele D. Titus and Phillip L. Walker, “Skeletal Remains from San Clemente Island,” vol. 36, no. 2 (Spring 2000).
G. I also conducted telephone interviews with Paul and Judith Porcasi and Andrew Yatsko. The Porcasis alerted me to the existence of pygmy mammoths and Chendytes lawi, the great flightless duck. Yatsko pointed out that the Kinkipar might have gone to Cortes and Tanner Islands to hunt during strong El Niño events—whose warm water can decimate local fish and mammal populations. “They were well maritime adapted,” he said. “The notion of people on those outer islands during the early Holocene period is not at all out of line.” Yatsko also pointed out that “Gabriellino (natives to San Clemente and other islands) culture declined so quickly after European contact that it remains little more than a cipher to anthropologists.”
H. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell (New York, Yearling. First edition, 1961, reprinted, 1987) is a fascinating, fictionalized account of the legendary “Lost Woman” of San Nicolas Island and a must-read for anyone with an interest in the last days of California’s island Indian culture.
CHAPTER 3
1. The reference to the Santa Rosa shipwreck is provided on the first page of the appendix of the 1981 edition of Ship wrecks of the Pacific Coast by James A. Gibbs (Hillsboro, Oregon: Binford and Mort, 1981). Interestingly, the first printing of this book (1957) makes no such mention. Perhaps Gibbs relied on Mel Fisher’s 1957 determination of the ship’s location.
2. From John Potter, The Treasure Diver’s Guide (Hobe Sound, Florida: Florida Classics Library, 1988): “There are several published accounts that a Spanish galleon, carrying some gold, sank at the outer point of Cortez Bank in 1717. This ship was reported to have struck a 15-foot deep shoal now called Bishop’s Rock…”
3. Logs and insight from the Constitution were provided by a Rebecca Parmer, an archivist with the USS Constitution Museum in Philadelphia.
4. The writings of James Alden and fellow Coast Surveyors like Archibald MacRae are published in lengthy annual books titled Report to the Superintendent of the Coast Survey Showing the Progress of the Survey During the Year 18__. These books were digitized by NOAA as images (http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/cgs/data_rescue_cgs_annual_reports.html). The 1855 report contains Archibald MacRae’s discovery of what would become known as Bishop Rock. The finding was reported in “Dangerous Rock on the Coast of California,” New York Times, November 3, 1855.
5. I became aware of MacRae’s death when reading the Coast Survey report of 1856,