The Shadow
The 2010 census lists Santa Catalina Island’s population at 4,000, the same number of human skulls that were reported to have been excavated there in the early 1800s by Ralph G. Glidden.
A self-taught Indiana Jones type of archeologist, Glidden claimed to have discovered 800 grave sites on Santa Catalina Island, and he reported that the skeletons that he unearthed were those of giants with fair hair who measured from 7’ to 9’ feet in height. Some modern-day archeologist question Glidden’s photo of a giant skeleton he claimed to have unearthed and wonder if he knew how to photo shop back then.
Located 22 miles west of Long Beach, Calif., Catalina Island, another name for Santa Catalina Island, is a tourist attraction that can be reached by ferry from Long Beach in an hour.
I lived in a beach house on Long Beach, one with a large living room that I could run across and leap out the front window onto the white sand of Long Beach that stretches 10 miles north from the Seal Beach jetty to what once was the Long Beach Auditorium.
That was in 1968 before I met my wife to be and moved to Clifton Forge, and Santa Catalina Island with its scenic Avalon Bay located on its east side served as a snorkeling destination for me.
I signed on to a skipper’s yacht as a deckhand along with two of my friends, and we made the 22-mile trip from Long Beach to Catalina Island in less than an hour, anchored off the shore, and dived for abalone and lobsters.
Santa Catalina Island is one of the eight Channel Islands that lie off the coast of Southern Calif., and the captain of the yacht, an engineer who had retired from Lockheed-Douglas, enjoyed visiting the islands. We once sailed as far north as San Nicholas Island where we anchored and dived until a shark was spotted, ending our diving there.
Santa Catalina Island is the largest of the Channel Islands, stretching 22 miles in length, one-half mile in width at its narrowest point and eight miles wide at its greatest width. It features 52 miles of scenic coastline, much of which I have personally viewed while snorkeling.
The island features caves and 2,000 plant and animal species, 145 that are unique.
For me, Catalina Island remains a fond memory tied to the sad memory of news about the drowning of Natalie Wood, 43.
Somehow, she wound up in the water at night off The Splendor, the yacht she and her husband, Robert Wagner, and their friend, Christopher Walken, were traveling on before they anchored off the coast of Santa Catalina Island.
Woods starred with James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause,” and she was one of my favorite movie stars. Three years before her death, I had moved from Calif. to Clifton Forge to coach Alleghany County High School’s varsity basketball team and teach physical education and health.
The year of her death, 1981, my Alleghany County High School varsity basketball team won ACHS’s only Blue Ridge District Tournament. It was held at Washington & Lee University, and our Colts defeated William Byrd High School 50-48 on a buzzer-beater the first night and triumphed over Lexington High School the next night 60-48.
Questions still remain about the way Wood wound up in the water, lending a shroud of mystery tied into the history of Santa Catalina Island.
Hollow Earth theorists believe that Earth is hollow and houses an entire civilization that use portals to exit the Earth. One of the portals according to those who subscribe to that belief is believed to be on Santa Catalina Island.
“Pravda” has published articles about the Hollow Earth civilization living beneath the surface of the Earth, and some who believe in the paranormal continue to believe that the Earth is hollow and that advanced beings live there and exit through portals on the surface of the Earth. Some claim that UFOs come from inside the Earth where the civilization of advanced beings dwell.
According to modern-day scientists, there is ample proof that there were those who crossed the Bering Strait land bridge from Siberia into the Americas thousands of years ago and that their dwelling on the Channel Islands at some point in time is undeniable.
As for the giant skeletons reportedly unearthed by Glidden, debunkers maintain that bones can elongate while they remain buried for centuries and that the photo Glidden produced as evidence of his find could have been photoshopped.
