Catalina Here We Come

Did You Know? - Steed is a working animal used as a mount (especially for warfare).

Did You Know? - The new museum building designed by the architectural firm of Marengo Morton Architects, provides well over 18,000 square feet of exhibition and support space. Visitors to the new building discover all the amenities of a modern museum. The spacious Hagenah Family Lobby offers an impressive welcome to every museum visitor.

The museum tour begins with a film about Catalina Island's history in the museum's Brown Family Digital Theater, which is located just off the main lobby. Also adjacent to the lobby is a fully appointed Harris Family Museum Store, which looks out onto the Hinchliffe Family Atrium. A mural composed of Catalina tile and designed by artist Richard Keit is a highlight of the atrium. The William Wrigley Jr. Gallery, the John and Hasmik Mgrdichian Gallery and the SAPAP Gallery are all exhibition galleries dedicated to the island's history and to special exhibitions, many of which will travel to the island from collections throughout the world.

One of the most unusual features of the museum is the amount of exterior space that exists both on the building's rooftop and in the gardens immediately adjacent to the museum. A large projection wall directly opposite the Ackerman Family Amphitheater, which seats over 100 people and accommodates the exhibition of films in the evening. The SAPAP Plaza and Schreiner Family Plaza provide well over 8,000 square feet of outdoor space, appropriate for dance and music concerts, as well as public and private events.

Did You Know? - In 1976, while Chihuly was in England, he was involved in a head-on car accident during which he flew through the windshield.[6] His face was severely cut by glass and he was blinded in his left eye. After recovering, he continued to blow glass until he dislocated his right shoulder in a 1979 bodysurfing accident. No longer able to hold the glass blowing pipe, he hired others to do the work. Chihuly explained the change in a 2006 interview, saying "Once I stepped back, I liked the view," and pointed out that it allowed him to see the work from more perspectives and enabled him to anticipate problems faster.

Did You Know? - From the island's discovery some 8,000 years ago to William Wrigley's purchase of the island and the rise of Avalon as Hollywood's favorite vacation spot, Catalina Island has a history that is rich in events and personalities, including the island's connection to the Chicago Cubs, its role in World War II, and much more. For the first time, the history of Santa Catalina is told in detail. Designed specifically to accommodate the hundreds of artifacts and photographs in the Catalina Island Museum's archive, the William Wrigley Jr. Gallery permanently exhibits Catalina Island's unique history.

Did You Know? - SS Catalina, also known as The Great White Steamer, was a 301-foot steamship built in 1924 that provided passenger service on the 26-mile passage between Los Angeles and Santa Catalina Island from 1924 to 1975. According to the Steamship Historical Society of America, Catalina has carried more passengers than any other vessel anywhere. From August 25, 1942 until April 22, 1946 the ship served as the Army troop ferry U.S. Army FS-99 at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation transporting more than 800,000 troops and other military personnel between embarkation camps and the departure piers. After a period of service as a floating discothèque, the ship ran aground on a sandbar in Ensenada Harbor in 1997 and remained there half-submerged and decaying for more than a decade.

In January 2009 it was announced that the ship would be cut up for scrap, which has been completed.

Did You Know? - August 10, 1978 [LAT]: “Avalon. Phones on Catalina lose personal touch". One of the nations last manual telephone switchboards has gone into retirement, replaced with a $1.6 million computerized electronic switching system that will connect with a number across the world as quickly as an operator could ring the corner drug store.

A spokesman at Pacific Telephone Co. said there still are a few manual boards operated by small telephone companies in rural areas of the nation, but the retired Catalina Island equipment was the last in the Bell system, which includes about 90% of the telephones in the United States. Telephone service began 58 years ago at Catalina, but the history of communications there is nearly as colorful as the history of the island itself.

From pigeon messenger service to electronic switching system, the tiny island 22 miles off the California shoreline has traditionally been the site of technological pioneering. The world’s first commercial wireless telegraph station was built on the island. The nations first radio-telephone service connected Avalon and the mainland. The first submarine cables used exclusively for voice communication were laid between Avalon and the mainland. The world’s first commercial ultra-high frequency radio-telephone system was used on the island.

According to a booklet published by Pacific Telephone to commemorate the new service, Otto and Oswald Zahn started it all when they totes a basketful of pigeons to the end of the Avalon wharf on July 12, 1894, inaugurating the Catalina Pigeon Messenger Service. That service made possible what was probably the world’s first newspaper ‘suburban’ edition, as the Los Angeles Times started a Catalina newspaper called the Wireless, from the Los Angeles office with stories transmitted by telegraph…

The Avalon telephone directory in 1920 listed 52 subscribers, serviced by a manual switchboard. Last year, the 16 full-time operators who handled the 17 similar boards in the just retired system in placed approximately 1200 off-island calls per day for the 1198 telephone customers among Catalina’s permanent population of 1800…”

Did You Know? - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the breakwaters, awarded a $5 million contract to the Long Beach-based Connolly-Pacific Co. on Sept. 18 to repair the 12 areas of the San Pedro, Middle and Long Beach breakwaters that were most damaged by Hurricane Marie this summer, a Corps officials said.

Hurricane Marie stirred up sizable swells in late August and pummeled the California coastline, tearing away at the three breakwaters that protect the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and homes on the peninsula in Long Beach.

In all, the breakwaters had 82 points of damage, but the middle breakwater bore the brunt of the impact, with 50 areas affected, including three holes large enough to allow water to pass through, officials said.

Though the breakwaters functioned as intended, lessening the impact of the waves hitting the shore, swells produced by Marie were bigger than the breakwaters were designed to handle, Army Corps of Engineers project manager Jim Fields said after assessing the damages. The middle breakwater was built in 1942 to handle waves reaching 12 1/2 feet, but those from Marie were between 14 and 18 feet tall.

The Long Beach breakwater was most affected in six places, with the greatest damage near the Queen’s Gate gap separating it from the middle breakwater, away from the peninsula.

Rocks to repair that damage are being individually selected so that they may fit well with the existing boulders in place. Each rock weighs up to 15 tons, and the work will require up to 30,000 tons of rock, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

A crane from an adjacent barge puts each rock in place, aided by a spotter who guides the crane in placing each boulder.

The rocks come from a quarry in Pebbly Beach on Catalina Island. The initial cost estimate for the repairs to the breakwaters was $20 million.