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Development of Santa Cruz Island
The dream of mining on Santa Cruz Island was never realized by the San
Francisco businessmen who owned the island during the late 1800s. They did form a company with the intention of mining, called the Buena Ventura Company in 1863, but by the 1870s there was a collapse on the mining industry in California and their plans never materialize.
But it was mining in California that enabled one of the long term owners of Santa Cruz Island to purchase an increasing number of shares until Justinian Caire became the sole owner if the island in the early 1890s. Justinian Caire was a French businessman who had come to San Francisco in 1851 and established a series of successful hardware stores that specialized in imported mining and wine making equipment and supplies. Mr. Caire was originally a 10% share holder in the Santa Cruz Island Company formed in 1869, and by the 1890s had become the sole owner, using profits from his sale of mining supplies to mainland miners to fund the acquisition of the entire island.
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