page_title: History of Santa Catalina Island (California)
section_title: Early developers (1860–1919)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Santa Catalina Island (California) / Early developers (1860–1919)
caption_attribution_description: English: Island Mountain Railway on Santa Catalina Island, an incline cable railway on the side of a hill, 1910 Photograph of the Island Mountain Railway on Santa Catalina Island, an incline cable railway on the side of a hill, 1910. It runs between the summit and Lover's Cove, near Avalon. This view from the lower landing shows a rail car at the foot of the incline. A canvas provides shade over the raised wooden platform which is decorated with plants in planters. The station at the top is also visible. A sign at the coastal landing reads "Island Mountain Railway, fare Avalon to Summit and return 25AC/, fare Avalon to Lover's Cove and return 25AC/, fare Lover's Cove to Summit and return 25AC/, fare Lover's Cove to Avalon and return 25AC/, fare Summit to Avalon and return 25AC/, fare Summit to Lover's Cove and return 25AC/, fare for above trips children 15AC/, apply land dep't commutation tickets 100 rides $5.00", "Persons wishing to ride on this incline please push button". Call number: CHS-2795 Legacy record ID: chs-m5501; USC-1-1-1-5614 Photographer: Pierce, C.C. (Charles C.), 1861-1946 Filename: CHS-2795 Coverage date: 1910 Part of collection: California Historical Society Collection, 1860-1960 Type: images Part of subcollection: Title Insurance and Trust, and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, 1860-1960 Repository name: USC Libraries Special Collections Accession number: 2795 Microfiche number: 1-26-48 Archival file: chs_Volume149/CHS-2795.tiff Repository address: Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 Geographic subject (country): USA Format (aacr2): 3 photographs&#160;: glass photonegative, photonegative, photoprint, b&amp;w&#160;; 21 x 13 cm., 13 x 10 cm., 20 x 25 cm. Rights: Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library; From the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California Subject (adlf): railroad features Project: USC Repository email: specol@usc.edu Contributing entity: California Historical Society Date created: 1910 Publisher (of the digital version): University of Southern California. Libraries Format (aat): negatives (photographic); photographic prints; photographs Geographic subject (state): California Subject (file heading): Los Angeles County -- Catalina -- General Format: glass plate negatives Geographic subject: islands: Santa Catalina Island Access conditions: Send requests to address or e-mail given. Phone (213) 821-2366; fax (213) 740-2343. Geographic subject (county): Los Angeles Subject (lcsh): Islands; Railroads, Cable Subject: Island Mountain Railway
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: In the 1860s, German immigrant Augustus William Timms ran a sheep herding business on Catalina Island. One of his vessels, the Rosita, would also ferry pleasure seekers across the channel to Avalon Bay for bathing and fishing. The settlement in Avalon was then  referred to as Timms' Landing in his honor. By the summer of 1883, there were thirty tents and three wooden buildings at Timms' Landing.
  By the end of the 19th century, the island was almost uninhabited except for a few cattle herders. At that time, its location just 20 miles (30 km) from Los Angeles—a city that had reached the population of 50,000 in 1890 and was undergoing a period of enormous growth—was a major factor that contributed to the development of the island into a vacation destination.
  
  The first owner to try to develop Avalon into a resort destination was George Shatto, a real estate speculator from Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Shatto purchased the island for $200,000 from the Lick estate at the height of the real estate boom in Southern California in 1887. Shatto created the settlement that would become Avalon, and can be credited with building the town's first hotel, the original Hotel Metropole, and pier.  Though early maps labeled the town Shatto, Shatto's sister-in-law Etta Whitney came up with the permanent name of Avalon. This name was pulled as a reference from a poem by Lord Tennyson called "Idylls of the King" about the legend of King Arthur. 
  Mr. and Mrs. Shatto and myself were looking for a name for the new town, which in its significance should be appropriate to the place, and the names which I was looking up were 'Avon' and 'Avondale,' and I found the name 'Avalon,' the meaning of which, as given in Webster's unabridged, was 'Bright gem of the ocean,' or Beautiful isle of the blest.'
  — Etta Whitney.
   Shatto laid out Avalon's streets, and introduced it as a vacation destination to the general public. He did this by hosting a real estate auction in Avalon in 1887, and purchasing a steamer ship for daily access to the island. In the summer of 1888, the small pioneer village kicked off its opening season as a booming little resort town. Despite Shatto's efforts, in a few years he had to default on his loan and the island went back to the Lick estate.
  Avalon's oldest remaining structure, the distinctive Holly Hill House,  was built on a lot purchased from Shatto and his agent C.A. Summer for $500 in 1888. Peter Gano, the engineer who built Catalina's first freshwater system, built it by himself, hauling material he had brought on his boat up the hill with the help of an old circus horse, Mercury. When it was complete in 1889, he asked the woman he loved to join him. As she refused to move to an island, he remained there alone. Recently restored, it is a well-known Avalon landmark.
  The sons of Phineas Banning bought the island in 1891 from the estate of James Lick and established the Santa Catalina Island Company to develop it as a resort. They had a variety of reasons for doing this. They wanted Catalina's rock to build a breakwater at Wilmington for their shipping company. They had also just built a luxurious new boat, the Hermosa, to bring tourists to the Island. If tourism failed, this investment was at risk. By owning Catalina, they would not only get their rock, but also money from tourists for their passage as well as everything on the island. The Banning brothers fulfilled Shatto's dream of making Avalon a resort community with the construction of numerous tourist facilities. They built a dance pavilion in the center of town, made additions to the Hotel Metropole and steamer-wharf, built an aquarium, created the Pilgrim Club (a gambling club for men only). Although the Bannings' main focus was in Avalon, they also showed great interest in the rest of the island and wanted to introduce other parts of Catalina to the general public. They did this by paving the first dirt roads into the island's interior, where they built hunting lodges and led stagecoach tours, and by making Avalon's surrounding areas (Lovers Cove, Sugarloaf Point and Desca
caption: The Island Mountain Railway at Avalon on Santa Catalina Island was an incline cable railway on the side of a hill. It operated from 1904–1918.[17]
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