Editor’s Note: Jim Watson is the author of “Mysterious Island: Catalina.”
It seems everyone’s been having an anniversary lately. The City of Avalon celebrated its 100th anniversary last year along with the Catalina Island Museum, which marked its 60th. The Los Angeles County Library is celebrating its centennial in Avalon this year, Lolo’s Barber Shop has been with 50 years and Mr. Ning’s recently celebrated their 25th anniversary.
Editor’s Note: Jim Watson is the author of “Mysterious Island: Catalina.”
It seems everyone’s been having an anniversary lately. The City of Avalon celebrated its 100th anniversary last year along with the Catalina Island Museum, which marked its 60th. The Los Angeles County Library is celebrating its centennial in Avalon this year, Lolo’s Barber Shop has been with 50 years and Mr. Ning’s recently celebrated their 25th anniversary.
And here at the Catalina Islander, it’s non-stop party as we celebrate our centennial.
But also celebrating an anniversary this year is this wee little column of mine, Mysterious Island, which was first published in the Islander three years ago this week. In that first column, I detailed an article that appeared on the front page of the Islander in 1947 wherein numerous witnesses claimed to have seen three “flying discs” racing over a crowded Avalon on a hot July afternoon. This occurred only a day after the infamous Roswell episode in New Mexico.
When I first began Mysterious Island, I wondered how long a column based on Catalina’s folklore, legends and historical oddities could possibly last. Six months? A year? Two years?
But as the weeks went by, my list of future column ideas quickly grew. Before long, I had mapped out several year’s worth of potential columns. I learned that—despite the diminutive size of Avalon in the scheme of this great big world—there were more mysteries in this little place than are dreamt of in Horatio’s philosophy, to paraphrase the Bard. So, this week I will treat you, Dear Reader, to a taste of things to come including future columns, TV shows and even a foray into fiction. Read on.
Meat And Potatoes
For those of you paranormal junkies, there will be continued representation of your preferred genre in the form of a number of tales of UFO sightings (including some recent ones), ghostly encounters and the like. In “The Whisps of Whittley,” for example, we will delve into the inordinate number of ghost stories that seem to revolve around the old homes along Whittley Avenue.
There are stories of “Bloody Mike’s Cave” and Bigfoot’s old stomping grounds at the Pet Cemetery as well as other tales that have kept the children of Avalon shivering beneath their covers over the years.
We’re History
If the paranormal isn’t your cup of tea, I’ll be presenting the usual amount of unusual tales from Catalina’s unique history. There was the Battle of Casino Point incident in the turbulent years of the early 1970s when the hill above the Casino was occupied for several weeks by a group calling itself the Brown Berets who were intent on reclaiming Catalina Island for the Republic of Mexico.
Other upcoming stories include the mysterious massive waves that on at least two or three occasions crashed into Avalon Bay on otherwise calm days, a man who lived on a flying saucer-shaped boat and an accounting of the most terrible Nor’easters to strike Avalon.
Then there is the fascinating story of the Tiki culture, which took Avalon by storm in the 1940s and ’50s and continues to be part of our cultural landscape today. With its origins in the 1930s, the Tiki phenomenon was a romanticized version of tropical island culture.
The movement gave birth to uniquely-themed bars and restaurants as well as such venerable libations as the Mai Tai, the Bahama Mama and the Blue Hawaiian. American servicemen returning from the South Pacific after World War II helped set the Tiki movement in stone as an American cultural phenomenon and Catalina was transformed into prime Tiki territory.
Pack With Me
I’ll be getting more up close and personal with you this year. You can hop in my boat or my backpack and travel with me on assorted expeditions and adventures around the Island. We’ll visit places like the old World War II bunkers at China Point, the numerous idyllic coves on the leeward side of the Island or the lonesome, windswept headlands of the backside. Since only half of this mysterious Island is above the waterline, we’ll also be donning SCUBA gear and diving into the deeps.
And why stop at Catalina? In a new series entitled “Mysterious Island Goes To (fill in the blank),” I’ll be occasionally reporting on areas of the non-Catalina world. Spectral gunfighters in Bodie, California, the old mob in Las Vegas and the ghosts of the Tong warriors in the mists of San Francisco’s Chinatown are all on the bill of scare. And who knows how far we can go with this? New York? Africa?
‘Island Alone’
What would happen if we all woke up one morning and found out that the mainland had disappeared? Not only was Los Angeles gone, but the entire North American continent was gone along with South America, Europe, Africa and every other speck of land, leaving Catalina Island the only dry land on earth.
Would we have enough to eat? Would there be enough water to support the 4,000 or so people on the Island? How long would the Pebbly Beach station be able to produce electricity and what would we do once we were “powerless”?
It’s a silly little premise, of course. But as with many silly little premises, this pioneering plunge into fiction could have some fascinating undertones.
In researching this series, I am in the process of interviewing renewable energy experts, authorities on agriculture and animal husbandry, water supply and sanitation and so on. I might even quiz a few sociology experts on what we could expect. As the months and years went by, would we form a perfect union? Or would it be Lord of the Flies?
Other Stuff
A few more exciting things we’ve got coming up include some possible “Mysterious Island” radio spots on our local radio station, KISL 88.7 on the FM dial, and even a new television show to accompany my existing program “Spotlight on Catalina” that airs on Catalina Broadband Solutions Channel 3. The new show, called “Catalina Quest,” will primarily be dedicated to local activities, places to go and people to see.
But, of course, I won’t be able to help throwing in a few “Mysterious Island” segments as well.
Jim Watson is the author of “Mysterious Island: Catalina,” available on Amazon, Kindle and in stores all over Avalon.
