The Channel Islands were once home to two Native American peoples: the Chumash in the Santa Barbara group and the Gabrielino in the Santa Catalina group. The islands were visited in 1542 by the Portuguese navigator Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who is reputedly buried on one of them. The larger islands were later used for sheep and cattle ranching, but those activities have ended. Santa Catalina Island is a noted resort, and San Clemente is used as a training ground by the U.S. Navy. Seeping oil from a ruptured underwater well in the Santa Barbara Channel caused widespread ecological damage to several of the northern islands in 1969.
Ian