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Description

Published in Avalon! -- A Catalina Rarity

Early separately issued map of Catalina Island, with a large plan of Avalon.

Includes excellent topographical details, roads, coastal features, the areas populated by Goats, Hunting Preserve and four "Ancient Town Sites."

The map includes a large inset map of Avalon Harbor (4 piers!), including the Canvas City,  Farm Buildings, Greek Theater,  Country Club, School House, Roman Catholic Church an the Old Wireless Station.  A second inset gives the location of the island relative to Los Angeles, etc.

Catalina

The map was issued during the period that Catalina was being promoted by the Banning Brothers.

In the 1860s, German immigrant Augustus William Timms ran a sheep herding business on Catalina Island. One of his vessels, the Rosita, would also ferry pleasure seekers across the channel to Avalon Bay for bathing and fishing. The settlement in Avalon was then referred to as Timms' Landing. By the summer of 1883, there were thirty tents and three wooden buildings at Timms' Landing.

The first owner to try to develop Avalon into a resort destination was George Shatto, a real estate speculator from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Shatto purchased the island for $200,000 from the Lick estate at the height of the real estate boom in Southern California in 1887.  Shatto created the settlement that would become Avalon, and can be credited with building the town's first hotel, the original Hotel Metropole, and pier.  Shatto laid out Avalon's streets, and introduced it as a vacation destination to the general public, but failed in his venture and lost the property back to the Lick Estate.

The sons of Phineas Banning bought the island in 1891 from the estate of James Lick and established the Santa Catalina Island Company to develop it as a resort. They built a dance pavilion in the center of town, made additions to the Hotel Metropole and steamer-wharf, built an aquarium, created the Pilgrim Club (a gambling club for men only).  They also paved the first dirt roads into the island's interior, where they built hunting lodges and led stagecoach tours, and by making Avalon's surrounding areas (Lovers Cove, Sugarloaf Point and Descanso Beach) accessible to tourists. They built two homes, one in Descanso Canyon and the other in what is now Two Harbors, the latter now being that village's only hotel.

Just as the Bannings were anticipating the construction of a new, Hotel Saint Catherine, their efforts were set back on November 29, 1915, when a fire burned half of Avalon's buildings, including six hotels and several clubs.  In 1919, due to debt related to the 1915 fire and a general decline tourism during World War I, the Bannings were forced to sell the island, which was next acquired by William Wrigley Jr.  of Chicago.  Wrigley devoted himself to preserving and promoting the island, investing millions in needed infrastructure and attractions. Wrigley built a home overlooking Avalon on Mount Ada, named after his wife, so he could oversee his work.

Rarity

OCLC locates 2 copies (UC San Diego and University of Alberta)

This is the second example we have had in the past 20 years.

Condition Description
Folding map with original printed covers.