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Welcome to Camp Internet's Explore the California Channel and Islands
Off the coast of Southern California sit EIGHT ISLANDS that are often shrouded in fog and many days invisible to the mainland. These mysterious remote islands are home to a long history of fascinating geologic, botanical, animal, and human life. The sea that surrounds them is home to magnificent sea creatures - thousands of WHALES, DOLPHINS and SEALS swim there today … and long ago the now nearly extinct sea otters surrounded the islands on kelp beds. These islands once knew giant wooly mammoths, ancient plants, and even vampire bats that are all now known only thought the fossil record. This complex variety of life in the channel waters surrounding the island and on the mainland coastal and inland valley areas are all linked together in the Camp's study of this unique region.
Recent research has rocked the international scientific community by relocating the site of the first human known to have lived in North America to Santa Rosa Island. Scientists have recently reset the date for the first known human occupation of the islands to 13,000 BC - the EARLIEST recorded date for human occupation currently known in North America! But how did people come to live on these rugged islands? What was their life like? And what plants and animals shared their habitats? Did they live with the wooly mammoths that survived on the islands until 11,000 BC?
The First People in the channel region lived a PEACEFUL LIFE of hunting and gathering food from the sea, plains and mountains … enjoying their natural setting… painting remarkable ROCK ART in the sandstone mountains, studying the stars, retelling their tribal mythological views of the universe … and held local village and regional celebrations and religious ceremonies that were the mainstay of their people for thousands of years. When Europeans later arrived, the coastal villages held some of the largest human populations in North America.
These early Native Californians traded between their tribal groups, inter-married, and shared their skills and knowledge between different tribes. The First People- the Chumash - and the more recent settlers - the Gabrielino - maintained a trade system that moved STEATITE from Catalina Island, SHELL BEAD money from Santa Cruz Island, deer hide from the mainland, and sea faring knowledge between the islands and the mainland … and peacefully across tribal boundaries.
The Chumash peoples in the North, and the Gabrielino in the South, occupied both the islands and the mainland, and their use of ingenious watercraft TOMOL and TI'AT made travel and trade possible for thousands of years. Likewise, these waters saw the first European explorers arrive on the Pacific coast of the New World. By 1769, the first Mission was settled along the channel shores, spreading northward and changing the lives of the First People forever.
PIRATES, smugglers and SHIPWRECKS plagued the coast. Writers and artists arrived to celebrate and comment on dramatic mountains, peaceful native peoples, and challenging weather patterns in the Channel. Their books - Two Years Before the Mast by Henry Richard Dana, Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson, and the more recent works, Island of the Blue Dolphins and Zorro, help Camp Internet students learn about the political, geographic, and cultural environment that has shaped the Channel's landscape today.
Related reading assignments available include Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Defoe, Stevenson, and Verne. The reading materials also include historical documents about the actual Lone Woman of San Nicolas, as well as materials on how the more recent movie about her life was made, and students learn directly from the writings of the first Spanish explorers.
Complimenting the history, social studies, art and reading learning activities, the Camp provides fascinating science projects. Students learn about how the gigantic wooly mammoths who managed to cross the channel waters to the islands, then went through a process of dwarfism and eventually became PYGMY MAMMOTHS, a phenomena that links them to other dwarf mammoths on islands around the world. From the fossil record and its geologic counterpart, students also learn to scan the heavens above and can venture off to explore ancient archeoastronomy, or even capture images of planets using a remote access telescope that brings the heavens to their desk top computer today.
Marine studies are an important focus of the program, and the entire spring is spent learning about the creatures and animals that populate the channel waters, mainland and islands. The sly ISLAND FOX is unique to the channel, and other birds and animals have developed sub species on the islands and exist nowhere else on earth. Sometimes called the Galapagos of the Northern Pacific, the Channel Islands are home to unique species of plants and animals that provide excellent research topics for students in the classroom.
And what about the issues facing the Channel Islands today ? Camp Internet provides expert Trail Guides from National Parks and Marine Sanctuaries, universities and colleges, museums and history centers - all eager to help the young Campers learn more about the history and future of the Channel Islands region, plus help them see what rewarding employment possibilities there are as a result of pursuing higher education goals. Camp is opening the minds of our students, our teachers, and our student's families to understand the wealth of remarkable resources Camp Internet offers for Exploring the California Channel and its Islands. We invite you to join us on the Channel Expedition - and - to enjoy the reward of learning to use the Internet as a dynamic, interactive learning resource that offers learners of all ages a new way to learn, communicate, and share new knowledge.