San Nicolas – the Last Refuge of a Lonely Woman (8 photos)

On this remote patch of land, a woman washed up on the beach for 18 years and lived alone, inspiring writer Scott O'Dell to write the children's story "Island of the Blue Dolphins."





From 1835 to 1853, a Native American woman who found herself on San Nicolas Island after her people were evacuated lived in complete isolation.



Illustration from Arthur Woodward's book (1957)

The lone woman on San Nicolas Island in Scott O'Dell's novel Island of the Blue Dolphins was named Karana, but her real name is unknown. She belonged to the Nicoleño tribe (a Uto-Aztecan people) who had inhabited the island, the most remote of the English Channel Islands, for about 10,000 years.





As in the novel, Alaska Natives came to the island to hunt otter. They came into conflict with the locals, killing most of them. In 1835, it was decided to move the remaining Nicoleños to the California mainland for their own protection. During the evacuation, a young woman was left behind on the island when a storm forced the ship to sail.



San Nicolas Island

Some say the girl was not forgotten. She jumped overboard herself when she realized that a boy remained on the island - her son (according to other sources, her younger brother). This is a later addition to the story, which some attribute to Victorian romanticism. In any case, the woman lived alone on the island for the next 18 years, surviving on roots, seal meat, and shellfish.

Fishermen told of a lone woman who was seen wandering the beaches of San Nicolas Island. After several unsuccessful attempts to find her, a trapper named George Nidever and his crew finally tracked down the mysterious islander. They followed tracks in the sand and found her peeling off a seal skin and wearing a skirt made of green cormorant feathers.



A possible photo of Juana Maria

She was reported to be a very happy and pleasant person. She was about 50 years old when she was brought to the Santa Barbara mission, where she lived with Nidever and his wife. The woman was in perfect health, but she could not communicate directly because no one remained who spoke her language. By this time, her tribe was extinct and had disappeared from the face of the earth. She used sign language to tell part of her story, and she also enjoyed dancing and singing for the people of Santa Barbara.



George Nidever, a sea otter hunter who brought the Lone Woman to Santa Barbara and whose life story was published as The Life and Adventures of George Nidever

Unfortunately, she only lasted seven weeks at the mission; a change in diet left her ill with dysentery. Shortly before her death, she was christened Juana Maria and buried in the Nidever family plot in the mission cemetery. The dress and other items she brought with her from the island were lost.



Holly Harmon's "Portrait of a Solitary Woman from San Nicolas Island" is on display in the Chumash Room of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Archaeologists have since found evidence of two sites where she likely lived: a cave and the whalebone hut near which she was found. Boxes of artifacts, including fishhooks, shell dishes, birdbone pendants, and harpoon heads, have also been found around the island.

All archaeological research was stopped in 2012, when the Pechanga Indians claimed kinship with the Nicoleño and challenged the archaeologists' right to conduct research on the island.



Now the island is inhabited by such cute foxes

Today, San Nicolas Island is inhabited mainly by Navy personnel and is used for training and weapons testing. Work is underway here to preserve the fox species that inhabit the English Channel Islands. The lonely woman from San Nicolas Island remains a mysterious mystery, which can no longer be solved due to the action of almighty time.