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Buried Treasure

One of the most romantic stories about Catalina took place in the 1820s, before the State of California was formed. Samuel Prentiss, trying to find a future for himself in the Mexican territory of Alta California, was shipwrecked off the coast of Los Angeles in 1824, and made his way inland to Mission San Gabriel. There he befriended an elderly Gabrielino, a tribal chieftain who had been brought from Catalina to the Mission, and was told in death-bed confidence that there was Spanish gold buried on Catalina. The elderly chief, Turai, gave Prentiss a treasure map. Prentiss, a poor man himself, went to the coast and built a makeshift boat and sailed across to Catalina, but rough waters caused him to lose much of his supplies .. and the map. But he remembered enough of the map to begin searching for the treasure once he landed. He searched for the treasure for 30 years … but never found it. In the meantime, he built himself a cabin overlooking the beautiful Emerald Bay, and lived a quiet life on the isolated island, exploring the hills and valleys, until his death in 1854 at the age of 72.

The land grant that the Mexican Government assigned to Catalina was awarded to Thomas Robbins. The award of this land grant was one of the last acts of Mexican Governor Pio Pico in 1846 before California was annexed to the United States in 1848. From the 1859s to the 1880s, many people bought and sold the island - a least one in every decade. During these thirty years, the owners ran herds of cattle and sheep and combed the mountains for a sign of gold and silver.