Avalon is the only incorporated city on Santa Catalina Island, in the California Channel Islands, and the southernmost city in Los Angeles County. The city is a resort community with the waterfront dominated by tourism-oriented businesses. The older parts of the town on the valley floor consist primarily of small houses and two and three-story buildings in various traditional architectural styles.
Newport Beach is a coastal city of about 85,000 in southern Orange County, California, United States. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries; however, today it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island draws visitors with a waterfront path and easy access from the ferry to the shops and restaurants.
The Channel Islands are an eight-island archipelago located within the Southern California Bight in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. They define the Santa Barbara Channel, which sits between the islands and the Californian mainland. The four Northern Channel Islands are part of the Transverse Ranges geologic province, and the four Southern Channel Islands are part of the Peninsular Ranges province. Five of the islands are within the Channel Islands National Park, and the waters surrounding these islands make up Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. The Nature Conservancy was instrumental in establishing the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.
Catalina Airport is a privately owned airport located 6.4 miles (10.2 km) northwest of the central business district of Avalon, California, United States, in the middle of Catalina Island. The airport is open to the public and allows general aviation aircraft to land there. One-time landing fees are $38 for Piston single, $44 for Piston twin, $55 for Turbine single, $110 for Turbine twin. Overnight fees are $22 for a single engine or $27 twin engine. Operating Hours are 8:00 am- 5:00 pm. The airport is primarily used for general aviation. The airport is also used for airfreight from the mainland. Supplies for the island are delivered daily.
The Catalina Casino is an entertainment facility in Avalon on Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Los Angeles in California, US. It is the largest building on the island and the most visible landmark in Avalon Bay when approaching the island from the mainland.
The Catalina Island Marine Institute (CIMI) is a non-profit educational program founded in 1979 and run by Guided Discoveries on Santa Catalina Island, California.
George Young was a Canadian marathon swimmer who, on 15–16 January 1927, became the first person to swim the 22 mile channel between Catalina Island and the mainland of California. Though familiar to the Toronto swimming community, Young was only seventeen and a relative unknown in America, lacking the national recognition of a number of his competitors. Around three thousand spectators on Catalina Island watched the race begin. Young's 22 mile swim began with the sound of a starter's pistol on the Northeastern edge of Catalina Island at the narrow point of the Harbor at Isthmus Cove at 11:21 AM on Saturday, January 15, 1927, and ended the next morning after 15 hours 44 minutes at 3:06 AM on the rocky shores of Point Vicente Lighthouse, in Rancho Palos Verdes, South of downtown Los Angeles.
The Catalina Island Conservancy is a nonprofit organization established to protect and restore Santa Catalina Island, California, United States. The Conservancy was established in 1972 through the efforts of the Wrigley and Offield families. The Conservancy was created when both families deeded 42,135 acres (170.51 km2) of the island over to the organization—88% of the Island.
The USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies is an environmental research and education facility run by the University of Southern California. It is an organized research unit that encompasses a wide range of faculty and topics across the university as well as operating a marine laboratory at the edge of Two Harbors, California on Catalina Island approximately 22 miles south-southwest of Los Angeles.
SS Catalina, also known as The Great White Steamer, was a 301-foot steamship built in 1924 that provided passenger service on the 26-mile passage between Los Angeles and Santa Catalina Island from 1924 to 1975. According to the Steamship Historical Society of America, Catalina has carried more passengers than any other vessel anywhere. From August 25, 1942, until April 22, 1946, the ship served as the Army troop ferry U.S. Army FS-99 at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation transporting more than 800,000 troops and other military personnel between embarkation camps and the departure piers. After a period of service as a floating discothèque, the ship ran aground on a sandbar in Ensenada Harbor in 1997 and partially sank on the spot. It was scrapped in 2009.
The SS Cabrillo was a wooden passenger steamship operating in Los Angeles County, California, during the first half of the 20th century. The steamship provided transportation between the Port of Los Angeles and the ports of Avalon and Two Harbors on Santa Catalina Island.
Camp Cherry Valley was a summer camp on the leeward side of Catalina Island, California, which is owned and operated by the Greater Los Angeles Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. It is located two coves north of Two Harbors at Cherry Cove. The camp, valley and cove get their name from the Catalina cherry trees native to the island. It also offers non-Scouting programs on a year-round basis.
Santa Catalina Island is a rocky island off the coast of Southern California in the Gulf of Santa Catalina. The island covers an area of about 75 square miles. It features a diverse and rugged landscape, including rolling hills, canyons, coastal cliffs, and sandy beaches. The island's highest peak is Mount Orizaba, rising to an elevation of 2,097 feet. The island is 22 mi long and 8 mi across at its largest width. The island is situated in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 29 mi south-southwest of Long Beach, California. Politically, Catalina Island is part of Los Angeles County in District 4. Most of the island's land is unincorporated and is thus governed by the county.
Camp Santa Catalina Island (1864), located on Santa Catalina Island, California at the isthmus, located near the west end of the island. In 1863, following the incident of the Confederate privateer, J. M. Chapman, a military reservation and harbor defenses were proposed here to keep it from being used by a hostile power.
Catalina Express is an American passenger ferry service that operates scheduled trips between Santa Catalina Island and mainland California. The company began service in 1981 with a single sixty-passenger vessel. As of 2016, the Catalina Express fleet includes eight high-speed vessels that can make the roughly 30-mile (48 km) crossing in about an hour.
David Malcolm Renton, known as "DM", was a builder and business executive in southern California. He is best known for his Craftsman style homes in Pasadena and for the construction of the Casino Ballroom and other homes on Catalina Island in the early 1900s. Renton was influential in the development of Catalina Island under William Wrigley Jr., serving as vice-president of the Santa Catalina Island Company and the Wilmington Transportation Company from 1919 to his retirement in 1936. He also served as president of the Wilmington Catalina Airlines from 1931 to 1942.
The history of human activity on Santa Catalina Island, California begins with the Native Americans who called the island Pimugna or Pimu and referred to themselves as Pimugnans or Pimuvit. The first Europeans to arrive on Catalina claimed it for the Spanish Empire. Over the years, territorial claims to the island transferred to Mexico and then to the United States. During this time, the island was sporadically used for smuggling, otter hunting, and gold-digging. Catalina was successfully developed into a tourist destination by chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr. beginning in the 1920s, with most of the activity centered around the only incorporated city of Avalon, California. Since the 1970s, most of the island has been administered by the Catalina Island Conservancy.
The Trans-Catalina Trail is a long-distance trail which traverses Santa Catalina Island off the coast of southern California. From the eastern terminus at The Trailhead in Avalon out to Parson's Landing on the West end, then looping back to Two Harbors, the trail's official length is listed as 38.5 miles (62.0 km). Camping is allowed by permit from the Catalina Island Conservancy. There are five campgrounds along or near the trail: Hermit Gulch, Black Jack, Little Harbor, Two Harbors, and Parsons Landing. Hikers usually take between 2 and 5 days to complete the route.
Hamilton Cove Seaplane Base was a seaplane base on the Catalina Island, California from 1922 to 1947. The Seaplane Base was located just north of the City of Avalon, California in Hamilton Cove. Pacific Marine Airways operated out of the base with service between Wilmington, Los Angeles and Catalina Island from 1922 to 1928. This was a popular vacation route to the island and had 3,500 passengers in 1927, running two 20 minutes rides a day. Pacific Marine Airways was started by Foster Curry, Curry Village in Yosemite National Park was his previous project. Pacific Marine Airways started operations with World War 1 Curtiss HS-2L flying boats converted to 6 passenger planes. The amphibious seaplanes would land just offshore and then taxi up a ramp to the "airport". In 1928 Pacific Marine Airways switched to Loening C-2 seaplanes and moved from Wilmington to Mines Field now LAX. In 1928 Western Air Express took over operations and moved operations to an airport they owned, Vail Airport in Montebello, California. In 1931 Western Air Express service switched to using the 10 passenger Douglas Dolphin, a twin-engined seaplane. In 1931 the seabase was taken over by Wilmington-Catalina Airlines which was owned by the Wrigley family, which owned much of the island. With the start of World War 2 all civilian air traffic stopped. All Catalina Island airports were shut down in September 1942. The US Coast Guard took over the Hamilton Cove Seaplane Base. In 1945, after World War 2 the Hamilton Cove Seaplane Base reopened but did not offer regularly scheduled flights. In 1947 the Hamilton Cove Seaplane Base closed as there was now a land-based airport, Catalina Airport and a new seabase in Descanso Bay south of Avalon, home of the Saint Catherine Hotel (1918-1966). The hangar was moved to the land airport and all other traces of the terminal at Hamilton Cove were demolished for the condominium complex built in the early 1970s, the Hamilton Cove condominiums.
United States
California 
