Anacapa Island - History

History

Anacapa is the only one of the Channel Islands to have a non-Spanish-derived name. Anacapa comes from the Chumash word eneepah, meaning mirage island.

On the night of December 2, 1853, the sidewheel steamer Winfield Scott running at full speed crashed into the rocks off Middle Anacapa and sank. All of the passengers survived and were rescued after a week.

The United States Coast Guard built a light beacon in 1912 and a light station in 1932 (Anacapa Island Light). It was the last lighthouse built by the United States Lighthouse Service. The lighthouse is located on the eastern part of the island, at the entrance to the Santa Barbara Channel.

On January 31, 2000, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed near the island.

Read more about this topic:  Anacapa Island

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
    —Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929)

    “History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
    —Karl Marx (1818–1883)