Lone Woman of San Nicolas's cave is found

An October 2012 story in the LA Times describes the recent discovery of a cave on San Nicolas Island that archaeologists believe sheltered the Lone Woman of San Nicolas.

The story of the Lone Woman was immortalized by Scott O'Dell in his book "Island of the Blue Dolphins".  A fictionalized account of the Lone Woman, whose Native American name was never known, the book tells the tale of a young woman named Karana who survives alone on a remote island for nearly twenty years.



The Mexican government, which then included California, relocated native peoples living on the Channel Islands to mainland missions where they lived, worked, and were converted to Christianity. The natives of San Nicolas were among the last to be moved. Numbering only a few dozen after being devastated by disease and attacks by Aleutian fur hunters, the entire population fit onto one schooner, the Peor es Nada.

Folklore has it that a woman jumped off the ship because her child had been left behind on the island; other stories indicate that she had agreed to meet the ship, but did not arrive on time. Either way, stormy weather forced the ship to set sail without the unnamed woman. The captain of the ship intended to return for the woman, but other duties delayed this mission. The Peor es Nada sunk some months later and no other ships were available to rescue the isolated woman.

The woman's child died after being attacked by wild dogs and she lived the next eighteen years of her life alone on San Nicolas. To survive, she hunted for food in the ocean, made clothes out of bird skin and feathers, and found shelter in a cave. She also built  smaller shelters out of brush and whale bones. The remnants of her whale-bone shelters were located in the late 1930s, but her cave was never found.  Until now.

An 1879 US government survey pointed the way for Steve Schwartz, a Navy archaeologist, and his colleagues. They had previously explored and rejected the sand-filled depression marked on the map as the Lone Woman's cave. But removing the sand revealed a large cavern and artifacts in the sand indicated that it had been used by fishermen making temporary camp on the island. They will continue their excavations in future field seasons.

Archaeologist in the mouth of the Lone Woman's cave
Image from the LA Times

George Nidever and a small crew traveled to San Nicolas in 1852 and found evidence of the Lone Woman; they returned to the island in 1853. The Lone Woman willingly traveled to Santa Barbara with Nidever, where she lived with the Captain and his wife for the short remainder of her life. She died of dysentery within six weeks of her retrieval and is buried at the Santa Barbara Mission. She was baptized as "Juana Maria" on her deathbed.



Bibliography:
Chawkins, Steve. 29 October 2012. "Island of the Blue Dolphins" Woman's Cave Believed Found". The LA Times.

Hudson, T. 1981. Recently discovered accounts concerning the "Lone Woman" of San Nicolas Island. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 3(2): 187-199.

Morgan, R. 1979. An account of the discovery of a whale-bone house on San Nicolas Island. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 1(1): 171-177.

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History -- webpage about the Lone Woman

Discovery News account of the find

Wikipedia entry for "Juana Maria".