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Amplifying quieter narratives: strategies for cultural landscape conservation at Santa Cruz Island
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Amplifying quieter narratives: strategies for cultural landscape conservation at Santa Cruz Island
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Content
Amplifying Quieter Narratives:
Strategies for Cultural Landscape Conservation at Santa Cruz Island
by
Daniela Velazco
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF HERITAGE CONSERVATION
And
MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
December 2024
Copyright 2024 Daniela Velazco
ii
Dedication
To my parents, Rebeca and Salvador,
who dedicate their life to the pursuit of knowledge.
iii
Acknowledgements
Embarking on the journey of self-directed research is rarely a solitary one. This thesis is the
culmination of the guidance, support, and inspiration of many along the way. Trudi, your detailed review,
vast experience, and ability to hold space for me as I wrestled with my ideas was invaluable, gently
guiding me back to what first drew me to the field. Drew, your consistent support, from accompanying me
on trips to the island to introducing me to the inner workings of the National Park Service, was
instrumental in the development of this project. Alex, your early insights helped me shape my research
and find the direction I was meant to pursue.
Many thanks to my classmates and thesis writing companions. Emi and Emily, your moral
support at the desks in our MHC corner made all the difference. Sam, our virtual co-working sessions
throughout the summer really got this project to the finish line. Lisa, thank you for believing in me and
making me feel confident in my decision to extend my education in my pursuit of a dual degree.
My gratitude also extends to the Association of Preservation Technology Documentation
Committee for endorsing the early stages of this work. To the National Park Service Cultural Landscape
Program, the work you do is the foundation for it all. Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and Islapedia, thank
you for your dedication to making archival research and historical documentation accessible. Your
commitment to sharing Santa Cruz Island narratives online is an incredible resource for anyone with an
interest in the island’s history.
iv
Table of Contents
Dedication.....................................................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgements......................................................................................................................................iii
List of Figures...............................................................................................................................................v
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................vii
Introduction...................................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 1 The Development of the Cultural Landscape Method..................................................................5
Chapter 2 Santa Cruz Island Landscape Biography....................................................................................16
Chapter 3 Amplifying Quieter Narratives...................................................................................................37
Revealing Change– Design Toolkit for Cultural Landscapes.................................................................37
Delphine’s Grove: Woman’s Histories and Cultural Heritage through Vegetation Management..........48
Corrida Trail: Revealing Vaqueros on Santa Cruz Island through Trail Design and Interpretation.......63
Prisoners Harbor Restoration: Revitalization of Chumash Heritage through Historical Ecology..........74
Chapter 4 “Age of the Abalone” A Living Heritage Strategy .....................................................................81
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................93
References...................................................................................................................................................98
Appendices................................................................................................................................................106
Appendix A:Re-enacting Indigenous Ecologies and Practices.............................................................106
Appendix B: Documenting Delphine....................................................................................................119
Appendix C: How to Define Categories of Historic Properties............................................................124
Appendix D: NRHP Eligibility Criteria................................................................................................124
Appendix E: Significance According to the NRHP..............................................................................125
Appendix F: Integrity According to the NRHP ....................................................................................126
Appendix G: Secretary of the Interior Treatment Approaches for Historic Places ..............................127
v
List of Figures
Figure 2.1 View of Ventura Harbor from the boat to Santa Cruz Island.....................................................16
Figure 2.2 Process of Arrival to the island..................................................................................................17
Figure 2.3 Santa Cruz Island - view of historic vernacular architecture.....................................................18
Figure 2.4 Lemonade Berry ........................................................................................................................19
Figure 2.5 Grasses in the pastures off the main circulation pathway..........................................................20
Figure 2.6 Historic corrals, cypress, and lemonade berry. ..........................................................................20
Figure 2.7 Vegetation on the trail to the campgrounds ...............................................................................21
Figure 2.8 Shade created by the trees lining the main pathway. .................................................................21
Figure 2.9 Eucalyptus Grove in the campgrounds......................................................................................22
Figure 2.10 Looking back towards the campgrounds.................................................................................22
Figure 2.11 Visible hillside erosion.............................................................................................................23
Figure 2.12 Dry laid stone retaining wall. ..................................................................................................23
Figure 2.13 Viewshed towards Anacapa Island. .........................................................................................24
Figure 2.14 Analysis of Slope, Elevation, and Aspect at Santa Cruz Island...............................................27
Figure 3.1 NPS Cultural landscape characteristics and features.................................................................38
Figure 3.2 Design strategies to show change over time..............................................................................39
Figure 3.3 Plan showing three main intervention areas. .............................................................................42
Figure 3.4 Juxtapositions and time edges. ..................................................................................................43
Figure 3.5 Trenches in the landscape ..........................................................................................................44
Figure 3.6 Pathway to Belvedere de Castellazo..........................................................................................44
Figure 3.7 Il Sacrario di Redipuglia on inauguration day...........................................................................45
Figure 3.8 Source: The Terraces in the Memorial.......................................................................................46
Figure 3.9 Perspective for the Cypress Grove. ...........................................................................................47
Figure 3.10 Vegetation survey ....................................................................................................................49
Figure 3.11 Section cut showing Delphine's Grove ....................................................................................50
Figure 3.12 Delphine's Grove .....................................................................................................................50
Figure 3.13 Italian Stone Pine at the Main Ranch, 1932 ............................................................................51
Figure 3.14 Delphine and Justinian Caire, 1880.........................................................................................52
Figure 3.15 Delphine and Albina on the pier with Santa Cruz Island behind them....................................52
Figure 3.16 Delphine's Grove through time................................................................................................53
Figure 3.17 USGS 7.5 Topographic Map 2021...........................................................................................54
Figure 3.18 Matterport scanning fire damaged tree ....................................................................................55
vi
Figure 3.19 Imagery exported from Matterport scans. ...............................................................................55
Figure 3.20 Watershed near Delphine's Grove............................................................................................56
Figure 3.21 Delphine's Grove visible from Smugglers road.......................................................................57
Figure 3.22 Images depicting materiality at Delphine's Grove...................................................................58
Figure 3.23 Fire damaged cypress at Delphine's Grove..............................................................................58
Figure 3.24 Young cypress growing in Delphine's Grove post fire. ...........................................................59
Figure 3.25 Growth from below fire damaged cypress tree........................................................................59
Figure 3.26 Viewshed from Delphine's Grove............................................................................................60
Figure 3.27 Design Strategies at Delphine's Grove. ...................................................................................62
Figure 3.28 Rendering showing citizen science set up. ..............................................................................62
Figure 3.29 Corrida trail graphic.................................................................................................................63
Figure 3.30 Sheep shearing on the pier at Prisoners Harbor, circa 1900 ....................................................65
Figure 3.31 Vaqueros herding sheep at Prisoners Harbor. ..........................................................................65
Figure 3.32 Vegetation change through the years.. .....................................................................................66
Figure 3.33 Example of existing fence lines within the Caire-Gherini Ranch Historic District.................67
Figure 3.34 Remains of sacateras (hay barns) at Caire-Gherini Ranch Historic District.. .........................67
Figure 3.35 Caire Gherini Historic District site plan. .................................................................................68
Figure 3.36 Winged fencing on the east end of the island. .........................................................................70
Figure 3.37 A 1945 postcard depicting the Scorpion Ranch pasture on the east end of the Island.............70
Figure 3.38 The Corrida Trail with historic fence line and features marked. .............................................72
Figure 3.39 Sunset Views from Corrida Trail.............................................................................................73
Figure 3.40 Image on the Corrida Trail showing vegetation succession. ...................................................73
Figure 3.41 Filling the wetland at Prisoners Harbor 1880s.. ......................................................................74
Figure 3.42 Map showing approximate location of Island Chumash Village sites.....................................74
Figure 3.43 Prisoners Harbor Restoration Plan. .........................................................................................76
Figure 3.44 1892 survey over 2002 imagery...............................................................................................78
Figure 3.45 Map of Prisoners Harbor in 1934. ...........................................................................................79
Figure 4.1 Chinese abalone fishery on Santa Cruz Island ..........................................................................85
Figure 4.2 Workers at Pierce Brothers abalone processing shop ................................................................86
Figure 4.3 Abalone Condition.....................................................................................................................87
Figure 4.4 Red Abalone at Kelp Farming Operation ..................................................................................90
Figure 4.5 White abalone from the Bodega Marine Laboratory.................................................................90
Figure 5.1 Proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary..........................................................95
Figure 5.2 The National Marine Sanctuary System....................................................................................96
vii
Abstract
The National Park Service (NPS), recognized as a pivotal force in cultural landscape
preservation, defines its role as America’s storyteller through place, striving to protect significant sites and
their associated stories. Despite its extensive framework, the NPS's cultural landscape approach
predominantly relies on historical records to document and preserve existing material aspects of
landscapes. This method often fails to fully represent historical complexity, as the visible remnants and
documented histories frequently reflect the perspectives of dominant groups, leaving other narratives
marginalized. To foster a more inclusive conservation practice, it is essential to adopt strategies that
actively reveal a diverse range of histories. This thesis uses Santa Cruz Island, within Channel Islands
National Park, as a case study to explore design-based conservation strategies that address multiple
historical narratives embedded in cultural landscapes.
1
Introduction
During my second year of graduate school in the landscape architecture design studio,
'Landscapes Beyond Land,' I focused on the Southern California Bight, a coastal region stretching from
Point Conception near Santa Barbara to Baja California. My research centered on cultural systems, where
I examined how local stories and practices relate to place, identity, and belonging. By framing my
research through narratives and worldviews, I discovered how deeply intertwined these elements are with
landscapes. I explored how Indigenous practices and folklore evolved in Southern California through an
extensive understanding of the land and its processes. This focus on heritage practices felt like the
missing piece in my design work, significantly altering my career direction. It inspired me to pursue a
dual degree in Heritage Conservation.
Heritage can be defined as a “cultural and social process, which engages with acts of
remembering that work to create ways to understand and engage with the present.”1
While the traditional
Western views of ‘heritage’ can emphasize tangible material elements from the past as a basis of heritage,
scholars such as Laurajane Smith argue that heritage can be construed as a process to:
construct, reconstruct, and negotiate a range of identities and social and cultural values and
meanings in the present. Heritage is a multilayered performance...that embodies acts of
remembrance and commemoration while negotiating and constructing a sense of place,
belonging, and understanding in the present.2
In this thesis I explore notions of storytelling and heritage as process. Santa Cruz Island, or
Limuw, one of the Southern California Channel Islands, is known as the Chumash Site of Emergence,
home to the Island Chumash for millennia and currently managed as a cultural landscape by the National
Park Service (NPS). This thesis examines Santa Cruz Island as a case study for cultural landscape
conservation. Santa Cruz Island, part of Channel Islands National Park, is a cultural landscape that
1 Laurajane. Smith. Uses of Heritage (1st ed.). Routledge. 2006.
https://doiorg.libproxy1.usc.edu/10.4324/9780203602263, 2. 2 Ibid, 2006, 3.
2
encapsulates the multifaceted history of California. The layered landscape makes it an ideal case study for
testing conservation strategies designed to identify and interpret a plurality of stories.
Goals and Methodology
- To understand the development of Santa Cruz Island over time by evaluating its cultural
landscapes, preservation efforts, and interpretation strategies.
- To expand storytelling potential in an inclusive way, bringing attention to quieter narratives and
living heritage practices.
My interdisciplinary methodology is based on the cultural landscape method developed by the
National Park Service and the landscape biography framework refined by Dutch cultural landscape
researchers. Initiated in 2001, the landscape biography framework explores how landscapes have evolved
through time, viewing each landscape as the interim outcome of a long-standing and complex interplay
between “agency, structure, and process.”3
The landscape biography framework is compelling because it provides a view of landscapes as
dynamic processes. It considers the reciprocal impact of individuals and landscapes as living
environments, recognizing the landscape as complex and layered with spatial legacies that are constantly
reshaped by people and other agents. This perspective blurs the line between nature and culture, with
change over time serving as the foundational structure. 4
In recent years, several academic programs have moved from the terminology of historic
preservation to heritage conservation. To preserve means to “pause or understand a resource from a
certain point in time, effectively protecting it from change or evolution. On the other hand, heritage
conservation is about managing change, it means assessment, interpretation, documentation, and strategic
3 Jan Kolen, and Renes Johannes. “Landscape Biographies: Key Issues.” In Landscape Biographies, edited by Jan
Kolen, Johannes Renes, and Rita Hermans, 21–48. Amsterdam University Press, 2015.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt15r3x99.4. 4 Hong Wan Chan. “Retrieving landscape: Drawing(s) as key to the development of alternative biographical readings
of Nanhai in the Pearl River Delta.” In SPOOL, ISSN 2215-0897 Volume #10, Issue #1. Edited by Lara Schrijver,
Frank van der Hoeven, Ghent University, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, 2023
https://doi.org/10.47982/spool.2023.1.07.
3
management of resources.” 5 The National Park Service uses the term historic preservation when referring
to their management of cultural resources. When discussing the current NPS cultural landscape
perspective I will use the term preservation. Otherwise, I will use the term conservation as it more
accurately represents the cultural landscape approach this thesis explores.
Overview
Chapter one examines the evolution of cultural landscape theory and policy in the United States.
It delves into how these developments have shaped the current cultural landscape approach used by the
National Park Service (NPS). By evaluating the historical foundations and policies, this chapter aims to
highlight both the strengths and limitations of the present method, providing insights for advancing
cultural landscape conservation.
Chapter two introduces Santa Cruz Island utilizing a first-person photo journal to offer a personal
perspective. Additionally, it examines contemporary management practices under the collaborative
framework between the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy and presents Santa Cruz
Island using the landscape biography framework, detailing its major cultural and ecological
transformations over time. This chapter outlines how the island's landscape has evolved and sets the stage
for exploring various narratives and conservation strategies. The Santa Cruz Island Historic Ranching
District represents the most recent and visible narrative with active preservation efforts.
Chapter three investigates additional, less obvious narratives that have influenced the island’s
landscape, proposing design-based conservation strategies to bring these quieter stories to light. Key
narratives explored include Delphine’s Grove: Women’s histories and cultural heritage through vegetation
management, Corrida Trail: The role of island vaqueros on Santa Cruz Island through trail design and
interpretation, and Prisoners Harbor Restoration: The revitalization of Chumash heritage through
historical ecology restoration.
5 Elizabeth A. Croswell. Historic Preservation vs. Heritage Conservation. Fairfax County Virginia Department of
Heritage Conservation. Accessed from Historic Preservation vs. Heritage Conservation | Park Authority
(fairfaxcounty.gov).
4
Chapter four introduces a ‘living heritage’ strategy centered on the traditional practice of abalone
wild harvest. This chapter illustrates how the story of the abalone reflects broader environmental and
cultural shifts in California. The abalone’s long history and its fluctuating population serve as indicators
of the changing cultural landscape and underscore the significance of integrating natural and cultural
resources in cultural landscape management. The ‘living heritage’ strategy is essential for advancing the
field and ensuring that a diversity of narratives and heritage practices are considered and conserved for
future generations.
5
Chapter 1 The Development of the Cultural Landscape Method
With foundations in scholarship from Germany, France, and England, the first use of the term
cultural landscape in the United States was attributed to Carl Sauer, cultural geographer, and director of
the Berkeley School program in California. In The Morphology of Landscape Sauer described the cultural
landscape as:
fashioned from a natural landscape by a cultural group. Culture is the agent, natural areas as the
medium, the cultural landscape the result. Under the influence of a given culture, itself changing
through time, the landscape undergoes development, passing through phases. 6
Sauer emphasized morphology— form, and structure, of landscapes and the historical processes
that shaped them through time. Considered the father of cultural geography, Sauer rejected the notion that
landscapes were created solely through natural processes and emphasized the dynamic relationships
between humans and their environment.
Influenced by Sauer, scholars such as J.B. Jackson, and Pierce F. Lewis pushed the concept of
cultural landscapes, expanding the frames from which they could be conceptualized. John Brinckerhoff
(J.B.) Jackson founded the magazine Landscape: Magazine of Human Geography in 1951 and was the
editor and publisher until 1968. Landscape helped push the discourse around cultural landscapes by
publishing works on the topic. Jackson wrote about ordinary, everyday landscapes and buildings, such as
farms, city streets, highways, and commercial strips, and was interested in what they illuminated about
human culture.
In 1979, Marwyn Samuels published the essay The Biography of Landscape in which he argued
that landscapes can be conceptualized as biographical accounts of the people who have lived, worked, and
shaped the landscape through time. In the same series of geographic essays, geographer Pierce F. Lewis
wrote Axioms and Reading the Landscape: Some Guides to the American Scene. He described cultural
landscapes with a specific emphasis on the American ordinary, everyday landscape. He described the
6 Carl Ortwin, Sauer. The Morphology of Landscape. United States: University of California Press, 1925.
6
cultural landscape as an unintentional autobiography written on land, reflecting values of importance
through time:
All human landscape has cultural meaning, no matter how ordinary the landscape may be…our
human landscape is our unwitting autobiography, reflecting our tastes, our values, our aspirations,
and even our fears, in tangible, visible form. We rarely think of the landscape in that way, and so
the cultural record we have in the landscape is liable to be more truthful than most
autobiographies because we are less self-conscious about how we describe ourselves. 7
In this article, Lewis published a series of axioms or rules to help guide people on how to read the
morphological signs that represented the American cultural landscape. D.W. Meining explored the human
subjective interpretation of landscape. He argued that when a group of people look at the same scene or
place, they may see similar elements, but the meaning comes from their personal experience. Meining
writes, “Any landscape is composed not only of what lies before our eyes but what lies within our
heads.”8 This perspective considers landscape as a composition of physical, tangible, and intangible
elements such as memories, thoughts, and experiences.
During the mid to late twentieth century, more scholars add to the literature on cultural landscapes
from their backgrounds and perspectives. Examples of the vastness of this work include Urban Planners
Jane Jacobs (1961) and Kevin Lynch (1960), Humanist Geographer and Phenomenologist Yi Fu Tuan
(1977), Humanist Geographer Denis Cosgrove (1986), and Urban Historian and Architect Dolores
Hayden (1995). Their work dealt with the concepts of sense of place, place attachment, and the politics of
place expanding Sauer’s early morphological method of understanding cultural landscapes and
emphasizing other intangible layers that influence the production and interpretation of cultural
landscapes.
Influenced by Marxism, Denis Cosgrove wrote about landscape as “not merely the world we
see…[but] a construction, a composition of that world” turning attention towards:
the symbolic and cultural meaning invested in these forms by those who have produced and
sustained them, and that is communicated to those who come into contact with them…for it is the
7 Pierce F Lewis. “Axioms for Reading the Landscape.” In The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes:
Geographical Essays. ed. D.W. Meinig (New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 1979). 8 D.W. Meining. "The Beholding Eye: Ten Versions of the Same Scene." In The Interpretation of Ordinary
Landscapes: Geographical Essays, (New York: Oxford University Press. 1979), 33-48.
7
origins of landscapes as a way of seeing the world that we discover its links to broader historical
structures and processes and are able to locate landscape study within a progressive debate about
society and culture. 9
Cosgrove emphasizes a political layer to the reading of cultural landscapes, asserting that the
development and representation of landscapes are shaped not just through culture but through power in
which the dominant groups have greater authority over the symbolic representations in the landscape,
creating contested sites of cultural expression.
Individual and collective memory shapes our sense of personal identity and connects us to
community belonging. According to Stephanie Taylor in Narratives of Space and Place, our memories or
life stories are understood as smaller stories within bigger place-based narratives. Memories of our own
lives are connected to the history of the places where we live. This connection to history makes us feel
more attached to our surroundings. It also helps us feel a sense of belonging to the community and its
shared stories about the past.10
Our sense of who we are is connected to our memories – individual memories of where we have
been and lived, and the shared memories tied to the histories of our families, neighbors, colleagues, and
cultural groups. In The Power of Place, Hayden writes about place attachment, collective memory, and
the role public history has in historic preservation and the design of our built environment. She describes
landscapes as “storehouses for these social memories” because natural features like hills or waterfronts,
streets, buildings, and settlement patterns, shape lives and can last for generations. She argues against
urban renewal projects and claims that once the urban landscape is damaged important memories
ingrained in place can be lost. However, even areas destroyed by development can be marked to preserve
some shared meaning or acknowledge the pain and struggles experienced there. How cultural landscapes
are interpreted and conserved impacts individual and community memory and identity formation.
9 Denis E. Cosgrove. Social Formation and Symbolic Landscapes, 2nd ed. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
1998), 15-18. 10 Stephanie, Taylor. Narratives of Space and Place. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
8
Hayden’s seminal work emphasizes that landscapes are not merely physical spaces but are
imbued with memories, identities, and power dynamics, all of which are crucial for informing future
frameworks for cultural landscape conservation. As we look to conserve and interpret these landscapes, it
is necessary to consider their complex histories and the diverse narratives they hold, ensuring that they
maintain their stories and remain meaningful for generations to come.
The National Park Service Perspective on Cultural Landscapes
The National Park Service is a federal agency under the Department of the Interior and the largest
preservation agency in the United States. The Park Service was established in 1916 under The National
Park Service Organic Act which defined the agency, its role, and its responsibilities. Its mission is stated:
"....to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for
the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the
enjoyment of future generations."11
Before the Park Service, the only preservation policy in the U.S. was the Antiquities Act of 1906.
The primary purpose of the Antiquities Act is to protect and preserve archaeological sites, historic
landmarks, and culturally significant areas on federal lands. It grants the President the authority to
designate national monuments to protect objects of historic or scientific interest. This act was developed
after cultural resource loss, extraction, and community-based advocacy for historic places.
The passing of the Antiquities Act came in closely after the West took shape as a place filled with
manifest destiny ideologies, seen as the last frontier and a land ripe for the taking. The new U.S. territory
defined its borders through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the Mexican American war of 1846, and the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. This rise in public interest increased the demand for authentic
prehistoric artifacts from indigenous cultures found in the West.
11 National Park Service Organic Act: AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, AND FOR
OTHER PURPOSES, Approved August 25, 1916 (39 Stat. 535).
9
According to Sellars, an
unrestrained destructive extraction of thousands of valuable objects from age-old Indian sites that
paralleled the rampant extraction of natural resources, such as timber and minerals, was taking
place throughout the West.12
Many of these resources were on public or reservation land, however, before passing the
Antiquities Act, the government was unable to prevent extraction.
In response to the uncontrolled extraction of natural and cultural resources, legislation for their
protection began to pass in Congress, such as the 1891 protective legislation to protect timber on public
land. The General Land Revision Act of 1891 gave the President authority to create permanent forest
reserves through executive action. By 1901, they set aside forty-one forest reserves, totaling 46 million
acres. The Roosevelt administration of the time worked towards a more orderly and planned approach to
public lands, basing their process on the knowledge of scientists and engineers, rather than politicians and
legislators.13
Ancient settlements in the southwestern U.S. began to gain recognition as important
archaeological sites, receiving attention from scholars interested in ancient cultures. The 1892 Columbian
Historical Exposition in Madrid, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and the 1889
Museum of American Archaeology in Philadelphia all trace the growing interest. All three exhibited
objects from Indigenous tribes. In preparations for the 1893 Columbian Exposition, people were
employed to gather materials from Greenland and Labrador; Alaska and Canada; nearly all of the Indian
tribes of the United States; the West Indies, Yucatan and other parts of Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, Peru,
Bolivia, and Patagonia…Such an exhibit of the ethnology and antiquities of the New World had never
been seen before and excited wide interest.14
12 RW Sellars. A Very Large Array: Early Federal Historic Preservation - The Antiquities Act, Mesa Verde, and the
National Park Service Act. Volume 25, Number 1, 2008. 66. 13 Samuel P Hays. “The Public Land Question”. In Conservation and The Gospel of Efficiency: The Progressive
Conservation Movement, 1890–1920, 66–90. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1959.
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt7zw8b4.9.
14 Ronald, F. Lee. The Antiquities Act of 1906. Office of History and Historic Architecture Eastern Service Center,
Washington D.C. U.S. Department of the Interior, 1970. 24.
10
The General Land Revision Act of 1891 served as an important precedent for the Antiquities Act
of 1906, which allows the President to protect prehistoric and scientific resources on public lands, as
national monuments, like the protections that already existed for timber reserves.
By 1909, President Roosevelt created eighteen national monuments, including Chaco Canyon in
New Mexico and Montezuma Castle, Tumacácori, and the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Before the National
Park System was established in 1916, thirty-five national parks and monuments already existed thanks to
the Antiquities Act.
Despite the legislation passed to protect these public lands and to develop national parks and
monuments, a sad irony prevailed: the preservation and environmental movements protecting the
landscapes and objects of Indigenous cultures also marked the forced removal of Indigenous Peoples to
create National Parks and Monuments. Many tribes were forcibly removed from their land and the
traditional cultural activities that led to the development of prehistoric and historic landscapes were
prohibited within the newly established boundaries of the National Parks and Monuments, relegating their
traditional activities to take place on reservations, if at all.15 What was valued here was not the
preservation of culture, but the conservation of the tangible physical elements culture created over time.
While the Antiquities Act allowed for the creation of national monuments and parks to support
the federal protection of antiquities in the West, the Historic Sites Act of 1935 expanded the National Park
Service’s role in historic preservation throughout the nation. Described by historian Barry Mackintosh in
his report on the program as:
a national policy to preserve for public use historic sites, buildings, and objects of national
significance for the inspiration and benefit of the people of the United States, … it directed the
National Park Service to survey historic and archaeologic sites, buildings, and objects to
determine which possess exceptional value as commemorating or illustrating the history of the
United States.16
15 William, Cronon. The Trouble with Wilderness. 1995. 16 Barry, Mackintosh. 1985. The Historic Sites Survey and National Historic Landmarks Program: A History.
Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, History Division. 6.
11
After World War II, the quick growth of economic and physical developments nationwide posed
significant threats to historic sites, leading to changes in the “physical and environmental fabric of
American society.”17 To mitigate this, the Historic Sites Act of 1935, put on hold during the war, was
reinvigorated in 1956. Mission 66, a ten-year program that provided funding to rehabilitate and improve
conditions in National Parks also funded the reactivation of the Historic Sites Survey to publicize the
findings of the 1930s Survey, pinpoint properties that represent various historical themes in American
history and promote the preservation and safeguarding of these historic properties by engaging
individuals, organizations, communities, and states. This initiative laid the groundwork for the National
Historic Landmark Program, in 1960.
The National Historic Landmark (NHL) program was meant to support people, community
groups, and states to preserve properties of national importance. Originally managed by the National Trust
for Historic Preservation, the program bestows honorary designation on private property rather than
purchase by the government. The historic properties were evaluated for their exceptional national
significance and ability to represent historic themes important to the representation of the diverse history
in the U.S. The program officially recognized nationally significant properties by reporting them as
eligible for landmark designation. After property owners signed an agreement promising to maintain
historic character and allow annual inspections by Park Service representatives, they received a plaque
recognizing their status as an NHL.18 Up until this point, cultural resource management and historic
preservation policy in the U.S was focused solely on buildings, structures, and objects of antiquity.
The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966, the most relevant federal mandate for
cultural landscape preservation and management expanded the 1935 Historic Sites Act and the 1960
National Historic Landmark program. The NHPA outlined a vision for a more unified nationwide program
17 Roots of the National Historic Landmark Program,” National Parks Service, accessed April 1, 2024
https://www.nps.gov/articles/roots-of-the-national-historic-landmarks-program.htm. 18 Barry, Mackintosh, The Historic Sites Survey and National Historic Landmarks Program: A History. Washington,
D.C.: National Park Service, History Division. 1985. 47.
12
of historic preservation among federal, tribal, and state governments; local municipalities; and private and
non-profit organizations. This vision stated:
The spirit and direction of the Nation are founded upon and reflected in its historic heritage; these
historical and cultural foundations of the Nation should be preserved as a living part of our
community life and development to give a sense of orientation to the American people...the
preservation of this irreplaceable heritage is in the public interest so that its vital legacy of
cultural, educational, aesthetic, inspirational, economic, and energy benefits will be maintained
and enriched for future generations of Americans.
The NHPA expanded the National Parks Service's authority and responsibilities in historic
preservation. It mandated the establishment of the National Register of Historic Places, managed by the
National Park Service to nominate, and list properties of national, state, and local significance.
The NHPA established a national preservation program based on a wide-ranging partnership
among the federal government, States, Indigenous Tribes, Native Hawaiians, local governments,
nonprofit organizations, and the private sector.19 The NHPA took a more holistic view, considering
environmental and cultural contexts when managing cultural resources, and established consultation and
federal checks and balances meant to protect historic places in a more inclusive way.
The National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, authorized by NHPA is the
national list of places considered representative of important themes in United States history. While one
of the goals of the NHPA was to create a more inclusive preservation approach, the types of listings on the
register do not represent the diversity of narratives that make up the history of the United States.
According to Sommers,
listings on the national register typically derive from a top-down approach whereby academically
trained experts in approved scholarly fields determine historical and architectural integrity and
hence eligibility, rather than from more grassroots or collaborative approaches.20
This top-down approach, described by scholar Laurajane Smith, as the Authorized Heritage
Discourse or AHD, can lead to a one-dimensional view of history, focusing on the material and not fully
19 “Roots of the National Historic Landmark Program,” National Parks Service, accessed April 1, 2024,
https://www.nps.gov/articles/roots-of-the-national-historic-landmarks-program.htm. 20 Laurie Kay. Sommers. "Folklore and Historic Preservation: Past, Present, and Future." Journal of American
Folklore 132, no. 526 (Fall, 2019): p. 360.
13
capturing the intangible importance of place or the multitudes of narratives and perspectives that represent
it.21
The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, the professional codification standards for Historic
Preservation in the United States define preservation as taking steps to maintain the existing form,
integrity, and materials of a historic property (See Appendix G). This usually involves continuous
maintenance rather than extensive replacement or new construction. Preservation focuses on the tangible
elements that survive from the past and aims to keep their appearance consistent with historical times.
The emphasis on the tangible makes the material, or historic fabric, crucial for verifying the historical
significance of places and supporting their preservation efforts. While this focus on material fabric can be
appropriate for the preservation of historic structures, cultural landscapes can be more complicated due to
the inherently evolving nature of landscapes.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that Cultural Landscapes were defined as an historic resource type
within the National Park Service. The National Park Service Cultural Landscape Program and the
National Trust for Historic Preservation developed reports for landscape evaluation, the Cultural
Landscape Inventory (CLI) and the Cultural Landscape Report (CLR), to inform and guide landscape
preservation. The National Park Service's perspective on cultural landscapes is the most prominent
contribution to cultural landscape management in the U.S.
To understand the current challenges in the cultural landscape perspective within the NPS, it is
essential to examine its foundational practices. Cultural landscapes are one of five categorized cultural
resources consisting of: archaeological resources, cultural landscapes, structures, museum objects, and
ethnographic resources.
Significance and Integrity are concepts that define the cultural landscape perspective within the
park service. Significance relates the resource to its important historical, cultural, scientific, or
technological association. This association is manifested in its physical qualities. Significance relates the
21 Laurajane. Smith. Uses of Heritage (1st ed.). Routledge. 2006.
https://doiorg.libproxy1.usc.edu/10.4324/9780203602263.
14
resource’s tangible qualities and makes the connection between the tangible and intangible, the ideas,
events, and relationships that make it important.
Association is the tie between the resource and its cultural context. The National Register of
Historic Places has categorized significance into four areas:
A: Historic events or B: noteworthy people, C: embodiment of technical accomplishments,
design, or workmanship, D: sources of valuable information in historical or archeological
research or may be important in the cultural system of an ethnic group.
22
Integrity is defined as the “past revealed in physical form.”
Integrity addresses the degree to which behavior and ideas are manifested in the form and
substance of a resource. A cultural resource has integrity if it retains material attributes associated
with its social values. … The integrity of a cultural landscape is judged by how much the
characteristics that define its historical significance are present.23
Integrity is conveyed through seven aspects: location, setting, design, materials, workmanship,
feeling, and association.24 Definitions provided in Appendix F.
NPS has established numerous National Register bulletins detailing the treatment of cultural
landscapes beginning with a Historic Resource Study and a Cultural Landscape Inventory (CLI). 25 The
CLI identifies cultural landscapes, documenting their location, historical development, characteristics,
features, property integrity, condition, and management. This inventory is further expanded in a Cultural
Landscape Report (CLR), which includes treatment recommendations and records of implemented
treatments.
22 National Park Service, “NPS-28: Cultural Resource Management Guideline: Chapter 1 Fundamental Concepts of
Cultural Resource Management. NPS Office of Policy: NPS-28, Cultural Resource Management (Chapter 1)
(accessed May 2024).
23 National Park Service, “NPS-28: Cultural Resource Management Guideline: Chapter 1 Fundamental Concepts of
Cultural Resource Management. NPS Office of Policy: NPS-28, Cultural Resource Management (Chapter 1)
(accessed May 2024).
24 National Park Service, “What is integrity” National Register of Historic Places. chromeextension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/Info-sheetNR-integrity-2024-05-02_508.pdf. 2024 25 National Register Bulletin 18: How to Evaluate and Nominate Designed Historic Landscapes; National Register
Bulletin 30: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Rural Historic Landscapes; National Register Bulletin 40:
Guidelines for Evaluating and Registering Battlefields; and National Register Bulletin 41: Guidelines for Evaluating
and Registering Cemeteries, Interagency Resources Division.
15
There are four treatment approaches for historic properties. The amount of physical intervention
allowed in a historic property increases from preservation treatment to reconstruction treatment;
definitions provided in Appendix H. Preservation involves stabilization of existing materials,
rehabilitation conserves existing materials through maintenance, and restoration, returns existing elements
to a chosen period of significance. Reconstruction recreates historic condition based on existing
documentation.
Despite this comprehensive framework, the NPS's cultural landscape management strategy
primarily focuses on inventorying existing resources and the preservation of material elements, relying
heavily on historical records to quantify its findings. However, as scholars like Denis Cosgrove and
Dolores Hayden have noted, the 'as found' landscape does not always convey a complete narrative of the
past. Often, the visible remnants reflect the perspectives and influences of those in power, leaving other
historical narratives obscured and requiring active intervention to uncover.
To create an inclusive conservation framework that safeguards the places and stories significant
to all people, the cultural landscape framework should incorporate strategies that actively intervene to sift
through the layers, uncover, protect, and interpret a diverse array of agents and narratives inscribed in the
landscape. Chapter two introduces these layers through a first-person photo essay perspective and further
evaluates the layers through a landscape biography framework.
16
Chapter 2 Santa Cruz Island Landscape Biography
Santa Cruz Island, part of Channel Islands National Park, is a cultural landscape that encapsulates
the multifaceted history of California. It encompasses a variety of differing narratives, that of the
Chumash Indigenous community, the Spanish missionaries, the Mexican period in California, migrant and
immigrant workers, landowners, and Island Vaqueros, among others. This chapter introduces Santa Cruz
Island as a case study through a first-person photo essay, current management practices, and exploration
of the island through time, based on the landscape biography framework.
Figure 2.1 View of Ventura Harbor from boat to Santa Cruz Island. Source: Velazco February 2023.
17
Figure 2.2 Process of Arrival to the Island. Source: Velazco February 2023.
During this thesis research, I visited Santa Cruz Island three times in 2023. My first visit was a
day trip in February 2023. The second visit was an overnight stay in April 2023. The third trip was from
August 16 to August 18, 2023. On my initial visit, I aimed to experience the island firsthand before
conducting extensive historical research, to see what I could learn from the existing patterns on the land
and the available interpretive elements.
Upon arrival to the island, you are greeted by a park ranger who briefly introduces the island, it is
history as the Chumash site of emergence and historic ranch, and safety precautions to follow.26 As you
walk off the pier and onto a dirt path you are confronted with impressive views of Scorpion Valley. The
path is framed with historic ranching implements that are rusted over and neatly lined up in a row, making
it evident to the visitor that the tools are no longer in use and related to the landscape’s past use in some
way. As you walk along the path, there are caves and structures that provide clues as to the historic land
use on the ranch. Off the main entrance path are restrooms and a shaded canopy area with an island model
and wayside exhibits with written interpretation. The main pathway leads you to the visitor center and one
of the historic homes on the island. There are grapevines, fruit trees, and a well-cared for garden on the lot
surrounded by a picket fence. As you continue past the structures (visitor center, bunk house, blacksmith
26 The next paragraphs are based on my own interpretations when I first visited Scorpion Ranch in 2023.
18
shop) and pastures, you begin to see the first of many large Monterrey Cypress and Eucalyptus trees
acting as wind cover.
Figure 2.3 Santa Cruz Island - view of historic vernacular architecture. Source: Velazco 2023.
Beneath the large Eucalyptus grove are the campgrounds, a first stop for many island visitors.
East of the campground is a large windmill framing the pathway up the canyon. The further away you
walk from the main Eucalyptus Grove and campground area, the fewer trees you see, and the sun feels
inescapable. As you walk up the canyon, there are a variety of California native plant species, including
the large bright green lemonade berry, the largest evergreen shrub on the island's East end dotting the
landscape.
On my first visit, I was very intrigued by the vegetation on the island as I’ve always had an
interest in California native plants and ethnobotany. There were things I understood to be native to
California and things I identified as invasive or ornamental. This knowledge helped me clue in to the
elements that may have been brought to the island over time.
19
As I hiked the main loop, I photographed the things that interested me. I was particularly
impacted by the sensory contrasts between the shaded main Scorpion Ranch area, with its large Cypress
and Eucalyptus trees, and the exposed, windblown canyon tops offering stunning views of Anacapa Island
and the mainland.
Figure 2.4 Lemonade Berry Rhus integrifolia, one of the largest native shrubs on the east end of the island. Source:
Velazco 2023.
20
Figure 2.5 Grasses in the pastures off the main circulation pathway. Source: Velazco 2023.
Figure 2.6 Historic corrals, cypress, and lemonade berry. Source: Velazco 2023.
21
Figure 2.7 Vegetation on the trail to the campgrounds. Source: Velazco 2023.
Figure 2.8 Shade created by the trees lining the main pathway. Source: Velazco 2023.
22
Figure 2.9 Eucalyptus Grove in the campgrounds. Source: Velazco, 2023.
Figure 2.10 Looking back towards the campgrounds. Source: Velazco 2023.
23
Figure 2.11 Visible hillside erosion. Source: Velazco 2023.
Figure 2.12 Dry laid stone retaining wall. Source: Velazco 2023.
24
Figure 2.13 Viewshed towards Anacapa Island and invasive dry wild mustard stocks. Source: Velazco 2023.
The Nature Culture Divide
Santa Cruz Island is currently managed through a shared agency stewardship model. The east end
of the island totaling 14,000-acre acres is managed by the National Park Service as vernacular landscape
and Ranching District composed of component landscapes.
The NPS defines a vernacular landscape as a
a landscape whose use, construction, or physical layout reflects endemic traditions, customs,
beliefs, or values; expresses cultural values, social behavior, and individual actions over time; is
manifested in physical features and materials and their interrelationships, including patterns of
spatial organization, land use, circulation, vegetation, structures, and objects. It is a landscape
whose physical, biological, and cultural features reflect the customs and everyday lives of
people.27
The Santa Cruz Island Ranching District, was determined significant for the National Register of
Historic Places under criteria A, associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the
broad patterns of our history; and criteria C, embodying distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or
method of construction. The Statement of Significance completed by the NPS determines that Santa Cruz
27 National Park Service. NPS-28 Cultural Resource Management Guideline. Appendix A: Glossary.
https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/nps28/28appena.htm.
25
Island Ranching District is one of the earliest sustained ranches in early California history and “a rare
example of vernacular French Alps architecture on the West Coast.”28 The period of significance
identified in the Cultural Landscape Inventory is 1880 to 1952 when the ranch was initially laid out and
operated by the Caire family and then managed by the Gherini and Stanton families and their employees.
This east end of the island is open to the public and the most visited of all the islands in Channel Islands
National Park.
The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit, manages the remaining 62,000 acres of the island. The
Nature Conservancy’s mission to “preserve the plants and animals that represent the diversity of life on
Earth by protecting the land and waters they need to survive” guides their policy on managing the
landscape as a nature preserve, closed to the public. 29
The historic elements on the island are managed based on a series of documents by the National
Park Service. The Historic Structures Report (HSR) provides an in-depth historical analysis of all the
existing structures on site that should be cared for as cultural resources. The Cultural Landscape Inventory
(CLI) looks at the historic elements on the island through a multi-scalar perspective, from large scale
natural systems and features like the canyon topography and water sources, to smaller scale site features
such as fence lines and rock piles.
According to the Cultural Landscape Inventory, the ten ranches throughout the island were
developed in “protected wide canyons near potable water sources and surrounded by larger pasture
systems.” 30 The spatial organization on the eastern end of the island is maintained in this way to convey
the original intent behind the vernacular ranching land use. The buildings and structures visible upon
arrival to Scorpion Ranch embody the workmanship and use of native material employed by the island
craftsman and stone masons of the period of significance.
28 Kathleen Fitzgerald, Santa Cruz Island Ranching District, Channel Islands National Park Cultural Landscape
Inventory. CLI, National Park Service. 2004. 29 National Park Service. "Restoring Santa Cruz Island." Channel Islands National Park, National Park Service. Last
modified August 27, 2021. https://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/nature/restoring-santa-cruz-island.htm. 30 Kathleen Fitzgerald. Santa Cruz Island Ranching District, Channel Islands National Park Cultural Landscape
Inventory. CLI, National Park Service. 2004. 47.
26
In the CLI, the park assesses the location, historical development, significance, and eligibility of
landscape features for the National Register of Historic Places. Features that align with the chosen period
of significance and historical context are preserved as cultural resources. These are protected through
practices and policies that guide their future care and prevent damage from projects that may negatively
impact their condition. The park service strives to balance protecting the island’s natural and cultural
heritage with offering tourism and recreation opportunities. The large landscape restoration project
completed on Santa Cruz Island in 2006 highlights this challenge.
Domestic livestock were introduced to the island in the early 1800s, shaping its landscape and
functioning as a ranch. However, their grazing disrupted the native ecology and damaged archaeological
sites. From 1981 to 1998, The Nature Conservancy removed 36,000 sheep and 1,500 cattle from their part
of the island. In 1997, the National Park Service removed 9,270 sheep from the east end. In the late
1990s, both agencies collaborated on a comprehensive restoration effort. This included reintroducing bald
eagles, breeding the Santa Cruz Island fox in captivity, relocating golden eagles, and removing sheep,
cattle, and feral pigs. 31
Santa Cruz Island Landscape Biography
The concept of landscape biography gives a comprehensive view of the natural processes and
human actions within a landscape from a broad and interdisciplinary perspective. A landscape biography
documents changes in physical elements and structures but also delves into the relationships, interactions,
and underlying causes of these changes. It includes a historical perspective on the cultural and social
influences on the landscape, viewing it through time layers that are still evident today. This approach
emphasizes the importance of narratives that enhance the understanding of the landscape's heritage,
values, and meanings, raising awareness of the landscape as a historical and cultural entity. 32 Using
31 National Park Service, Environmental Impact Statement for Santa Cruz Island Restoration Plan, Channel Islands
National Park, 2002, 112-113. 32 Marc Antrop, Veerle Van Eetvelde, “Landscape Perspectives: The Holistic Nature of Landscape” Landscape
Series 23, 2017.
27
elements from a landscape biography, this section explores historical records and visual patterns on Santa
Cruz Island to trace cultural and environmental shifts over time.
Millennia
The Channel Islands are within a distinct geological feature along the California coast. Over
millions of years, tectonic plates of the Earth's crust moved along fault lines, exerting pressure on the
coastlines of Mexico and California. This geological activity led to the current coastal layout, the
Transverse ranges, an east-west alignment of the coast south of Point Conception. This movement also
created the Channel Islands archipelago with basins and elevated ridges.33
Figure 2.14 Analysis of Slope, Elevation, and Aspect at Santa Cruz Island created using DEM model and
Grasshopper software, Source: Velazco.
The Islands are located within the Southern California Bight, a unique and highly productive
ecosystem due to the upwelling from larger climate and tidal forces interacting with the coastal alignment.
Northern chilled waters collide with warm southern seas, typical of oceanic conditions in Baja and along
33 Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. “Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary 2016 Condition Report.”
U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of National Marine
Sanctuaries, Silver Spring, MD. 448 2019. 33.
28
the Southern California coast. The convergence of these water masses near the Channel Islands impacts
climate and nearshore marine biodiversity, increasing the amount and diversity of intertidal species.34
Figure 2.15 Map depicting large tidal influence on the Channel Islands, Santa Cruz Island outlined in orange.
Source: Velazco.
Past research suggests that human occupancy on Santa Cruz Island existed as early as 13,000
years ago. Archaeological studies on the island have provided information about the lifestyle and
resources available to the people occupying the land during the Holocene. In 2013, Gusick completed
fieldwork and excavation on three early middens, finding samples that carbon date to 8013 cal BP. 35 This
research studied faunal remains found on the island, most from intertidal species like the California
34 National Park Service, “Prisoners Harbor Coastal Wetland Restoration Plan: Draft Environmental Impact Report”
Channel Islands National Park, April 2009. 35 Calibrated years before the present.
29
mussel (Mytilus californianus), Acorn Barnacle (Balanus spp.), Black Abalone (Haliotis cracherodii), and
Pismo clam (Tivela stultorum).36 Vegetation was also found in the archaeological record with grassland
species such as chia (Salvia columbariae) and red maid (Calandrinia menziesii) providing edible seeds,
roots, and bulbs for subsistence. At the time of this report, there are over 3,000 archeological sites
associated with the Chumash culture on Santa Cruz Island, and the Chumash people maintain a close
connection to the area.
The original inhabitants of California represent a diverse population, divided by territories,
customs, and languages with 135 separate dialects.37 Among the indigenous communities, the Island
Chumash people, who occupied Santa Cruz Island for millennia, can be characterized by their
sophisticated resource management practices, maritime skills, and intricate trade networks.
The profound Chumash connection to the land and ocean is deeply rooted in their cultural beliefs,
reflecting a unique concept of belonging. Their worldview perceives humans as integral parts of the
intricate web of nature, where the land, ocean, and all living beings are interconnected. This belief has
shaped their resource management practices for generations. In the 2019 Channel Islands National Marine
Sanctuary Condition Report, contributing Chumash tribal members and elders describe the Chumash
belonging to Santa Cruz Island:
The Chumash belonging to Santa Cruz Island is one of reciprocity. There is no ownership of the
land and oceans of their ancestral homeland, it is a sense of belonging to a place. The Šmuwič word
“kyis’skamin”, one of the many Chumash languages spoken along the coast of Santa Barbara,
meaning our ocean, translates to an interdependence and mutual state of belonging. The people
belong to the ocean just as much as the ocean belongs to the people. This reciprocal relationship
generates a sense of responsibility and stewardship to the oceans and lands that we occupy. 38
36 Amy Gusick, "The Early Holocene Occupation of Santa Cruz Island." In The California Channel Islands and their
Archaeological Contribution, University of Utah Press. 2013. 40-59. 37 “The First Peoples of California | Early California History: An Overview | Articles and Essays | California as I
Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California’s Early Years, 1849-1900 | Digital Collections | Library of Congress,”
web page, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, accessed August 7, 2023,
https://www.loc.gov/collections/california-first-person-narratives/articles-and-essays/early-california-history/firstpeoples-of-california/. 38 Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary 2016 Condition Report. U.S.
Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of National Marine
Sanctuaries, Silver Spring, MD. 448. 2019, 192.
30
At the heart of Chumash resource management lies traditional ecological knowledge—insights
accumulated over centuries of observation and coexistence with nature. Passed down through generations,
this ecological wisdom informs their land management practices aligned and in reciprocity with nature.
The Chumash fishing techniques encompass traditional skills such as crafting nets, making lines
and hooks, and constructing boats. The gathering and preparation of diverse materials—California native
dogbane, milkweed, cherry bark, and shells for crafting hooks, along with the transformation of driftwood
from redwood logs to construct tomols depends on a deep understanding of the landscape and its cycles to
maintain a sustainable supply.
An illustrative instance of how their resource management is influenced by knowledge of local
ecology is their approach to abalone harvesting. Through a deep understanding of the abalone’s
reproductive cycle, they designed their harvesting practice to work with the abalone’s reproductive cycle,
which involves the distribution of eggs through the water. The Chumash gather abalone in narrow strips
and leave behind large clusters of abalone to ensure appropriate conditions for regeneration. This
approach creates a sustainable harvesting practice that ensures continuation of abalone populations
through time.39
Centuries
The written record documenting early California originates from settlers and explorers dating
back to the early sixteenth century. Upon European contact in California, written records depict a vibrant
ecosystem rich in natural resources. Titus Fey Cronise summarizes in his 1868 The Novel Wealth of
California:
No country in the world was as well supplied by Nature, with food for man, as California, when
first discovered by the Spaniards. Every one of its early visitors has left records to this effect—
they all found its hills, valleys, and plains filled with elk, deer, hares, rabbits, quail, and other
animals fit for food; its rivers and lakes swarming with salmon, trout, and other fish, their beds
and banks covered with mussels, clams, and other edible Mollusca; the rocks on its sea shores
39 Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. 2019. Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary 2016 Condition Report.
U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of National Marine
Sanctuaries, Silver Spring, MD. 448. 2019, 200.
31
crowded with seal and otter; and its forests full of trees and plants, bearing acorns, nuts, seeds and
berries. 40
While the incredibly diverse topography, flora, and fauna impressed the outsiders, the direct
relationship between the wealth of the environment and Indigenous management was
overlooked.41Recent literature from native communities and academics makes clear the many ways native
Californians were shaping the region, intentionally creating the environment for their culture to thrive.
Between Cabrillo's initial expedition in A.D. 1542 and Spanish settlement in A.D. 1769, multiple
European voyages had direct contact with the Chumash. These voyages, including Cabrillo in A.D. 1542-
43, de Unamuno in 1587, Cermeño in 1595, and Vizcaíno in 1602-1603, may have presented
opportunities for the spread of Old-World diseases, weakening the established large Chumash
population.42 In Tending the Wild, Kat Anderson recounts Cabrillo’s trip through Chumash territory:
As he sailed along the traditional Chumash territory, extending roughly to the Santa Clara River,
Cabrillo noted that the land was thickly populated. Indians who came aboard the ships pointed out
the many Chumash towns— Xuco, Bis, Sopono, Alloc—which he renamed in Spanish. Up the
coast at present-day Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, Goleta Point, and Gaviota, Cabrillo and his band
found the country “filled with people” and the villages well supplied with abundant acorns, grass
grains, cattail seeds, fish, and maguey probably Yucca whipplei 43
These interactions created many opportunities to transfer epidemic diseases due to proximity and
contact. By the time Portola and the Franciscan missionaries arrived, the Chumash populations were
already weakened.44
40 Titus Fey. Cronise. The natural wealth of California; comprising early history; geography, topography, and
scenery; climate; agriculture and commercial products; geology, zoology, and botany; mineralogy, mines, and
mining processes; manufactures; steamship lines, railroads, and commerce; immigration, population and society;
educational institutions and literature; together with a detailed description of each county. San Francisco, New York,
H.H. Bancroft & Company, 1868. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/04003612/. Quoted in Tending the Wild. 2005.
13.
41 David Hornbeck. California Patterns: A Geographical and Historical Atlas, Mayfield Publishing Co. Palo Alto,
CA, 1987. 128. 42 J.M. Erlandson, et al. Cabrillo, the Chumash, and Old-World Diseases. Journal of California and Great Basin
Anthropology, 17(2). 158 Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3k52f936. 43 Kat, Anderson. Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural
Resources. United Kingdom: University of California Press, 2005.13. 44 Erlandson et al, “Cabrillo, the Chumash, and Old World Diseases.” Journal of California and Great Basin
Anthropology, 17. 1995. 2. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3k52f936.
32
In 1769, Spain began to colonize California. Led by Junipero Serra in 1769, they created mission
churches, presidios, and settlements along the California coast. The Spanish introduced three fundamental
frontier institutions that had a transformative impact on California. Initially, the mission and presidio were
established to generate a foothold, and once that goal was achieved, the pueblo was introduced.
Despite this, the Spanish pueblo experienced limited growth due to its economic system rooted in
the principles of mercantilism. This approach aimed to maintain colonial economies in a state of
dependence that would complement economic growth in Spain. Trade was restricted to official channels
between Mexico and California, and the California frontier was perceived more as a self-contained
strategy rather than a source of trade goods and raw materials to benefit the Spanish treasury.45
According to settler scholar of anthropology and museum studies Elizabeth Kryder-Reid, the
reshaping of the cultural landscape, specifically natural systems such as waterways, forced the Indigenous
peoples into a dependent relationship with the missions and restructured the traditional ways of life.
The Chumash villages of Santa Cruz Island were large enough that the Franciscans considered
building a mission on the island, but by 1807 the population was nearly decimated. According to Biennial
Mission reports, by 1822 all the remaining Chumash people had left Santa Cruz Island for the mainland.46
The Chumash population destabilization left a tangible mark on the island, reshaping the island's cultural
landscape.
Under New Rule
One of the first mandates in the California Territory after Mexico’s independence in 1821 was to
secularize the missions, removing the Spanish power from the landscape.47 After mission secularization,
eight million acres of farm and grazing land along the California coast became available. The Mexican
government offered free land to Mexican citizens and immigrants willing to become citizens. Mexico's
45 David Hornbeck, California Patterns: A Geographical and Historical Atlas,1987. 3. 46 Frederic Caire Chiles, California’s Channel Islands, University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, 1947. 47 Lee Panich, Tsim D Schneider, eds. Indigenous Landscapes and Spanish Missions: New Perspectives from
Archaeology and Ethnohistory. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2014. Accessed October 22, 2020. ProQuest
Ebook Central.
33
strategic use of ranchos to encourage settlement, a system to imprint cultural and economic values onto
the land, shaped the future of California's land and society.48 News of the potential for large land grants
and the possibility to capitalize from ranching made its way to New England creating a surge of EuroAmerican immigration to California, starting a new wave of transformation in the region.49 The original
decree for secularization, drafted by California governor Jose Figueroa specified that:
the Indians were to receive land, livestock, and other goods, in fact they received little of the
mission’s wealth. By 1846 there were more than five hundred ranchos. The owners, called
rancheros, presided over the lands that were often enormous in extent. Many of the rancheros
were descendants of Spanish and Mexican soldiers and settlers, but some were American or from
European countries. Some Mission Indians held a few ranchos, but they were few compared to
those who lost title to mission lands originally promised to them. 50
Many Native individuals left the mission to work “in nearby rancheras, ranchos, and other
missionized indigenous lands.”51 Mexico implemented new colonization laws and opened California to
trade to stimulate settlement and agricultural development throughout the state. The establishment of free
trade and demand for hide and tallow in New England ports created a popular and prosperous need for
ranching.
In 1834, Mexican governor Juan Bautista Alvarado granted Andres Castillero ownership of Santa
Cruz Island. Andres Castillero was a soldier in the Mexican army. After Mexico gained its independence
from Spain, successful army soldiers were rewarded, in Castillero’s case, with a land grant of his choice.
The Age of Extraction
The concept of Manifest Destiny played a crucial role in shaping the racial hierarchies in
California. Manifest Destiny was a belief held by many Anglo-Americans that they were destined to
expand across the North American continent and bring their civilization, government, and religion to the
48 David Hornbeck, California Patterns: A Geographical and Historical Atlas,1987. 58. 49 David Hornbeck, California Patterns: A Geographical and Historical Atlas,1987. 3. 50 Kat, Anderson. Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural
Resources. United Kingdom: University of California Press, 2005. 80. 51 Lee Panich and Tsim D. Schneider, eds. Indigenous Landscapes and Spanish Missions: New Perspectives from
Archaeology and Ethnohistory. University of Arizona Press, 2014. 6.
34
less-developed regions. This belief system justified the westward expansion of the United States and the
colonization of new territories.
The most explicit political expression of Manifest Destiny in California was the U.S. invasion of
sovereign Mexican territory during the Mexican American War of 1846-1848. This war resulted in the
acquisition of large territories, including California, by the United States.52 With the discovery of gold in
1848, thousands of people, many immigrants from various parts of the world, rushed to California
seeking economic opportunities. The idea of “striking it rich” and achieving success through hard work
and entrepreneurship became ingrained in the state's cultural ethos. California's history during the mid
nineteenth century was marked by rapid social and demographic changes, particularly with the influx of
diverse immigrant populations. While the landscape level changes were large during the Spanish and
Mexican rule, they were minor compared to the change brought to the landscape by the Gold Rush.
During this time, the California landscape was commodified and extracted from for economic
gain. To fully capitalize and exploit the landscape, Historian Alfred Crosby writes that the settler had to
“Europeanize the flora and fauna.” 53 For context, throughout the state by the mid to late 1800s, much of
the California Central Valley had transitioned to mechanized, single-crop farming linked to global
markets. By 1870, more than 11 million of California’s 100 million acres were under cultivation, a figure
that rose to over 28 million acres by 1900. The state's cattle population had surged to over 3 million by
1862, while the number of sheep peaked at 5.5 million by 1875. By the end of the nineteenth century,
most of California’s perennial bunchgrass grasslands had been converted to annual, non-native grasses.
54
The Santa Cruz land grant by the Mexican government to Castillero was upheld by the U.S.
Supreme Court in 1857 after the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Castillero transferred the legal title to his
agent William Eustace Barron and in 1858 the island was listed for sale. Initial attempts to sell failed so
52 Tomas Almaguer Racial Fault lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California (Berkely:
University of California 1994 1-2) 1-30. 53 Quoted in Kat M. Anderson, Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's
Natural Resources. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. 97. 54 Kat, Anderson. Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural
Resources. United Kingdom: University of California Press, 2005. 97-99.
35
Barron hired Dr. James Barron Shaw to establish a sheep ranch, hoping it would attract more interest in
the property. Shaw “bought one thousand head of sheep in Los Angeles and herded them to Santa Barbara
for shipment to the island. Ranch facilities were built and by the end of the decade Shaw had established a
well-recognized sheep ranch on the island with a herd of more than twenty-four thousand.”55 He also
brought horses, cattle, and pigs to the island.
The island was surveyed in 1856 noting Dr. Shaw’s residence and corrals in the central valley,
eight buildings on the main ranch, two at Prisoners Harbor, a house on the east end near Scorpion Harbor,
and on the west end near Christy Ranch. The survey showed twelve buildings on the island in these
various areas developed by Barron.
56
Initially, the sheep operation was profitable. Frederic Caire Chiles cites a New York Times article
that published annual revenue from the island at $76,000 with $48,000 in profits. However, a two-yearlong drought severely impacted the operation resulting in dry pasture and thin sheep. According to Robert
Glass Cleland in The Cattle on a Thousand Hill, seventy thousand sheep were killed for their pelts instead
of being processed for the meat operation. This may have led Barron to sell the island in 1869.
William Barron sold the island to ten men who formed the Santa Cruz Island Company. One of
those men was Justinian Caire. Caire, originally from the French Alps, immigrated to the U.S. in 1851
and founded the Justinian Caire Company which sold “chemicals, gold-mining supplies, and winery
supplies.”57 After working in the U.S for ten years, in 1880 Caire purchased all ten shareholdings from
the Santa Cruz Island Company with the dream of establishing a diversified working landscape.58
The landscape transformations that ensued following Caire’s purchase marks the beginning of the
period of significance for the National Park Service’s vernacular ranching district on Santa Cruz Island.59
55 Frederic Caire Chiles. California’s Channel Islands University of Oklahoma Press: Norman 1947. 102. 56 D.S. (Dewey), Livingston. Island Legacies: A History of the Islands within Channel Islands National Park.
Historic Resource Study. Department of the Interior. National Park Service. Channel Islands National Park,
California. 2016. 413.
57 Frederic Caire Chiles, California’s Channel Islands, University of Oklahoma Press: Norman 1947. 104. 58 Kathleen Fitzgerald, Santa Cruz Island Ranching District, Channel Islands National Park Cultural Landscape
Inventory. CLI, National Park Service. 2004. 59 A full list of identified features contributing to the cultural landscape is found in the Cultural Landscape Inventory
completed by the National Park Service in 2004 and 2003.
36
Figure 2.16 Map of Santa Cruz Island with NPS established place names, NPS Management shown in green
including underwater resources within a one-mile radius around the island. Dataset: Channel Islands National Park,
mapped by Velazco.
37
Chapter 3 Amplifying Quieter Narratives
Stories are the indispensable tools that we human beings use for making sense of the world and
our own lives. They articulate our deepest values and provide the fables on which we rely as we
confront moral dilemmas and make choices about our every action … [S]tories provide the
interpretive compass with which we navigate our lives.60 —William Cronon
The Santa Cruz Island Ranching District is the most recent and powerful narrative on the island
with implemented strategies for its preservation. This ranching operation continued for more than a
century. My research aimed to build upon the work already done by the NPS and emphasize the
contributions of groups whose roles in shaping the landscape are significant but not easily recognizable.
This chapter explores these identified quieter narratives and potential conservation and interpretation
strategies.
Revealing Change– a Design Toolkit for Cultural Landscapes
In Revealing Change in Cultural Landscapes: Material, Spatial and Ecological Considerations,
Landscape Architect Catherine Heatherington looks at landscapes through the lens of change over time
and considers “the experiential and intangible aspects, such as memory, imagination, and anticipation.”61
Heatherington outlines a list of strategies designers use to visualize some of the more intangible elements
important to a cultural landscape which influence the public’s perspective and experience of place. These
strategies bring attention to historical elements and assist the designer in telling a story about the
landscape. While the NPS cultural landscape approach emphasizes features that exist on the landscape
that tell a story [Figure 3.1], Heatherington’s approach proposes design interventions that designers and
heritage practitioners can use to visualize changes that have occurred on the landscape through time. The
strategies are: negotiating, retaining (and repurposing), exposing (and concealing), adding (and
subtracting), extending (and withdrawing), doing little, mythologizing, working with forms, working with
natural processes, making juxtapositions and time edges, foregrounding topography, creating palimpsests,
framing, taking the relational approach, and using plant and material palettes. [Figure 3.2]
60 William Cronon, “Caretaking Tales.” In The Story Handbook: Language and Storytelling for Land
Conservationists, edited by H. Whybrow, 87–93. San Francisco, CA: Trust for Public Land. 2002. 61 Catherine Heatherington. Revealing Change in Cultural Landscapes: Material, Spatial and Ecological
Considerations. Abingdon, Oxon; Routledge, 2021. 2.
38
Figure 3.1 NPS Cultural landscape characteristics and features. Source: NPS.
39
Figure 3.2 Design strategies to show change over time. Source: Heatherington.
40
Strengths in a Design-Based Conservation Approach
Strategies that emphasize change over time may allow a landscape to represent multiple
narratives rather than focusing on one static interpretation. The strategies enable a landscape to evolve in
response to shifting cultural, environmental, and social contexts. This allows the cultural landscape to
remain relevant and adaptable, meeting the needs of current and future users while preserving its historic
character. By embracing ongoing changes through time, diverse stories that resonate with a broader range
of experiences and perspectives may be both understood and conserved. Heatherington’s strategies are
illustrated in her book through a series of case studies. A powerful case study used in the book to illustrate
the strategies is Monte San Michele, Carso in the Karst Plateau, Italy.
Monte San Michele, Carso
Historical Background
Monte San Michele, located on the Karst Plateau, is a historic landscape important for its
significance during World War I. The Karst Plateau (Carso) is a limestone border region stretching across
southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy. Monte San Michele overlooks the lower Isonzo valley and
the Gorizia plain in what is now northern Italy.
During World War I, the sixty-mile-long Isonzo River marked the border between Austria and
Italy, running north to south at the northern tip of the Adriatic Sea, flanked by mountains on both sides.
This landscape was a crucial in the Battles of the Isonzo, where Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces
clashed from June 1915 to November 1917, over a span of more than thirty months. The Carso caves
provided shelter, and the area's geographic features gave soldiers strategic advantages—either by
occupying higher ground on the mountainside or being trapped in lower areas with minimal cover and no
means of escape. In the 1930s, monuments were erected to honor the soldiers who fought in these battles.
Site Condition
In 2007, the Province of Gorizia put out a call for project designs Carso 2014+ requesting the
design of an:
41
open-air museum where elements of history (from the trenches still present to the memorials built
in 1920 and 30s) and remembrance (of the bloody battles and the refusal of the local population
to fight) could be integrated with the natural environment of the Carso Mountains through a
network of pathways and interventions to connect the territory, memories, and populations.62
According to Bassanelli and Postiglione, there is a tension between the desire to erase painful
sites and the memories associated with them, while also feeling that the remnants, while painful,
contribute to the fabric of local personal and collective identity. They write:
There must be another possibility, a third space: a space to develop a different design process
regarding the tangible and intangible patrimony generated by the conflicts that can combine to
have a therapeutic effect and be a catalyst for the emergence of museums.63
Treatment
Studio Bürgi developed a site design for the design competition. Their design was chosen and
implemented in 2017. When describing the approach, the designer Paolo L. Burgi said:
Given such a situation, it was decided to leave the area as it was, without altering its existing
condition, and to redesign its perimeter and simplify the overall context to highlight the
individual historical elements and at the same time unify them in one vision…the project
develops… a network of paths punctuated by several minimal interventions aimed at stimulating
individual observation and enhancing feelings of disorientation, memory, and surprise aroused by
a visit in this historically charged region.
62 Michela Bassanelli, Gennaro Postiglione. Carso 2014+ a case study. Conflict Archaeological Landscape.
Presented at the International Conference “Museums and Difficult Heritage”, Helsinki Congress Paasitorni 2011.
63 Bassanelli, Postiglione. Carso 2014+ a case study. 2011.
42
Figure 3.3 Plan showing three main intervention areas: Museo San Michele, Belvedere di Castellazzo, and
Redipuglia, Source: Studio Burgi.
The designers use various techniques identified in Heatherington’s Toolkit. They self-identify as
using a do-little approach. This approach mixed with retaining, exposing, concealing, and extending
along with making juxtapositions and time edges brings attention to specific historical narratives the
designers wanted to amplify.
Retaining, Exposing, Concealing
During the war, the Karst was a barren exposed rocky landscape with little place for the soldiers
to hide. Decades after the battles ended, plants began to re-colonize the area. The designers negotiated
where to remove and retain the plant material to best interpret their intended storytelling.
43
Making Juxtaposition and Time Edges
A formal pathway made of light-colored concrete was introduced to the site, cutting through the
old karst landscape, which is stark and barren, and the newer, vegetated area. As visitors walk along this
path, they can engage with both the trenches and the desolate environment while also experiencing the
contrast of the lush, vegetated surroundings. This juxtaposition highlights the passage of time and the
potential for healing that time brings to landscapes once scarred by battle.
Figure 3.4 Juxtapositions and time edges, Source: Studio Burgi.
44
Figure 3.5 Trenches in the landscape, Source: Studio Burgi.
Figure 3.6 Pathway to Belvedere de Castellazo. Source: Studio Burgi.
45
Additionally, the designers created a pathway through two karstic stones towards a sweeping
view. This brings the visitor into physical contact with the karst stone landscape, while also increasing the
effect that the views outwards produce once you exit the pathway. Postiglione and Bassanelli call this
method a type of “military architecture, a typical war-time technique: the realization of a trench between
the Karstic walls.”64 The designers appropriate the same typology used throughout the site during the War
but give the typology a different function, used to create excitement for what is to come and highlight
natural beauty in the area.
Sacrario Militare of Redipuglia, Military Memorial
The Military Memorial of Redipuglia is the largest cemetery in Italy and one of the largest in
Europe. It was built to honor the 100,000 soldiers who lost their lives during World War I. Designed by
architect Giovanni Greppi and sculptor Giannino Castiglioni under the Mussolini Fascist Regime, the
memorial took ten years to complete and was inaugurated in 1939.
Figure 3.7 Il Sacrario di Redipuglia on inauguration day, September 19, 1938 (Il Sacrario di Redipuglia, 1939). Il
Sacrario di Redipuglia (1939): Milano, Officine grafiche Rizzoli.
64 Michela Bassanelli, Gennaro Postiglione, “Carso 2014+ as a case study,” Conflict Archaeological Landscape
2011.
46
The memorial is built in military formation with the commander at the base and their generals at
the sides. Behind them are twenty-two terraces with bodies of identified soldiers with presente (present)
inscribed on the terraces. Flanking the terraces are common tombs with the bones of 60,000 unidentified
soldiers.
Figure 3.8 Source: The Terraces in the Memorial, Source: Gavin Stamp, Italy Il Sacrario Di Redipuglia Source:
https://c20society.org.uk/war-memorials/italy-il-sacrario-di-redipuglia.
Studio Burgi implemented a contemporary collective area for reflection near the existing War
memorial. Their design includes the planting of a new cypress grove that adds to and extends the
vegetation that already exists and is in direct conversation with the formal row of cypress trees planted in
neat rows as part of the memorial in the 1930s.
On one hand, the project aims at restoring the cypress hill’s integrity, on the other, it provides a
shady, quiet area to visitors who approach it from Belvedere after they descend the war
memorial’s steps. In suggesting the existence of a future beyond memory, it inspires a serene
attitude that is not just of remembrance but also of hope due to the area’s expanse, its view on the
landscape and the colors of vegetation. – Studio Burgi
The Italian cypress tree, often associated with eternal life, is commonly planted in cemeteries.
The designers enhanced the existing cypress grove with a naturalistic planting style, not only increasing
shade and visitor comfort but also adding layers of meaning to the singular narrative presented by the
47
Sacrario Militare of Redipuglia. By establishing a space where people can gather beneath the cypress
trees, the site becomes a place that accommodates a multiplicity of narratives.
Figure 3.9 Perspective for the Cypress Grove. Source: Studio Burgi.
In the next section I test out Heatherington’s strategies at Santa Cruz Island. Informed by the
extensive historical research conducted by NPS, I look at three significant “quieter” historical narratives
at Santa Cruz Island and identify ways to employ her design strategies to tell these stories.
48
Delphine’s Grove: Woman’s Histories and Cultural Heritage through Vegetation
Management
Delphine’s Grove is a circular Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) grove dating back to
the early nineteenth century. The grove is on the island's east end a short walk from Scorpion Harbor and
within the National Park Service Ranching District.
Historical Background
Historically, the valleys near the coasts where most of the ranches were established were native
grasslands, making it an ideal place for raising livestock in the minds of the ranchers. While the island has
native trees, including the endemic Santa Cruz Island Ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus
asplenifolius), Island Cherry (Prunus ilicifolia lyonii), and a variety of Oaks, the most common being the
Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) found in north facing slopes and valley bottoms where the water table
is high, the areas where the ranches were established were often devoid of trees. [Figure 3-10]
In the initial years as sole landowners, Caire laid out a plan for the island consisting of the
existing Main Ranch in the island’s central valley and nine support ranches throughout, including:
Portezuela Ranch, Campo Punta West, Rancho Nuevo, Rancho Sur, China Ranch, Christy Ranch,
Scorpion Ranch, and Smugglers Ranch. Of the nine out ranches, Christy, and Rancho del Este (later to be
known as Scorpion Ranch) were already minorly developed.
65
65 Kathleen Fitzgerald, Santa Cruz Island Ranching District, Channel Islands National Park Cultural Landscape
Inventory. CLI, National Park Service. 2004. 2.
49
Figure 3.10 Vegetation survey and data source compiled into GIS and complete by Channel Islands National Park in
2007, mapped by Velazco.
50
Figure 3.11 Section cut showing Delphine's Grove, Velazco.
Figure 3.12 Delphine's Grove, surrounded by an orange circle, shown in plan view, Velazco.
51
In 1880, the Caire family initiated a tree planting project on the island led by the eldest daughter,
Delphine Caire. Delphine, an avid and talented gardener, grew the seedlings for the initiative.66 Tree
species such as Eucalyptus, Monterey Pine, Monterey Cypress, Italian Stone Pine, Locust, Acacia, Pepper
tree, and Oleander were introduced to the island.67 Additionally, an olive grove and vineyard were
established at Smugglers Ranch.
The Caire family were recent French/Italian immigrants, where Eucalyptus and Cypress thrived
in the similar Mediterranean climate. To shield the newly established ranch areas from strong coastal
winds, Eucalyptus groves were planted as windbreaks to the west and southeast of the ranches. Gardens
and orchards, including fruit and nut trees like peach, apricot, fig, apple, pear, and walnut, were planted
near specific ranch complexes. The first of the Italian stone pines, planted at the edge of the Main Ranch
compound grew from a seed brought from Italy by Albina Caire, Delphine’s mother.68
Figure 3.13 Italian Stone Pine at the Main Ranch, 1932. Source: Santa Cruz Island Foundation.
66 Frederic Chiles Caire, A history of California’s Channel Islands. University of Oklahoma Press, 2015. 120. 67 Helen Caire, Santa Cruz Island: A History and Recollections of an Old California Rancho. Arthur H. Clark
Company, 1993. 83. 68 Frederic Chiles Caire, A history of California’s Channel Islands. University of Oklahoma Press, 2015. 120.
52
Figure 3.14 Delphine and Justinian Caire, 1880. Source: Santa Cruz Island Foundation.
Figure 3.15 Delphine and Albina on the pier with Santa Cruz Island behind them. Source: Descendants of Frederic F.
Caire. NPS Historic Resource Study.
53
Figure 3.16 Delphine's Grove, documented by NPS in 1994 and author in August 2023.
Site Condition
Delphine’s Grove has an area of 6763 feet in circumference or .15 acres with a direct viewshed to
Anacapa Island, emerging from the center of the grove. In 2003, the Grove was documented to consist of
thirty-six of the original forty-two cypress, though some were in poor condition.69 The landscape’s
character-defining features are the circular grove, Monterrey cypress vegetation, Smugglers Road running
parallel to the Grove and circling around it, it’s existing topography on the cliffside of the east end of the
island creating the nearby watershed, and views towards the ocean and Anacapa Island.
A portion of Delphine’s Grove and area around it was damaged in the Scorpion fire of May 2020,
many of the trees are now fire scarred. [ Figure 3.17] The grove represents one of the growing difficulties
with protecting natural cultural resources that have been damaged by or are under threat due to climate
change. The Grove represents a potential site for interpretation of women’s histories as well as
opportunities as a cultural resource rehabilitation post wildfire.
69 National Park Service, Caire Gherini Ranch Historic District, Cultural Landscape Inventory, 2003.6.
54
Figure 3.17 USGS 7.5 Topographic Map 2021 / Aerials from google from 2002-2021.
In August 2023, I visited Santa Cruz Island with Andrew Gorski, Supervisory Exhibits Specialist
at Channel Islands National Park, and fellow Heritage Conservation graduate student Sam Malnati. My
goal was to document Delphine’s Grove through LiDAR scanning to get a full understanding of the
current condition and the spatial dimensions within the grove. LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging)
scanning is a popular tool used in historic preservation, specifically in the preservation of buildings and
structures. It allows for the digitization of spatial information to document a structure’s physical
dimensions and qualities. However, the tool was not as successful when documenting Delphine’s Grove,
due to the lack of walls for the lasers to bounce off and the impact the sun’s rays had on the lasers. While
the scanner was not able to completely grasp the spatial dimensions throughout the site, it did create a
documentation of the area with a series of 360-degree images that convey spatial qualities and materiality.
55
Figure 3.18 Matterport scanning fire damaged tree at Delphine's Grove, Velazco 2023.
Figure 3.19 Imagery exported from Matterport scans, Velazco 2023.
56
Treatment
To elevate Delphine’s Grove and the changes that have occurred over time, three strategies from
Heatherington’s design approach were selected: working with natural processes, framing, and taking a
relational approach.
Working with natural processes
The Grove is composed entirely of Monterey cypress trees, which are native to California but
were not originally found on Santa Cruz Island before Delphine Caire's intervention. The oldest surviving
trees in the grove are over a century old Monterey cypress thrive in cool coastal environments and, under
optimal conditions, can live for more than three hundred years.70Although the trees were not irrigated
upon planting, they likely benefited from the moisture provided by coastal fog. Also, the grove is near a
seasonal creek and watershed, channeling water from the canyon tops to the ocean. [Figure 3.20]
Figure 3.20 Watershed near Delphine's Grove, Velazco 2023.
70Amwoga Khalwale, Monterey Cypress Tree: Characteristics, Lifespan & Cultivation, American Gardener. 2021.
https://americangardener.net/monterey-cypress-tree/.
57
Figure 3.21 Delphine's Grove visible from the trail to Smugglers Ranch, watershed shown through orange arrows.
Velazco 2023.
Monterey cypress is a fire-adapted species with serotinous cones, which benefit from the heat of a
fire to open and release seeds. Fires create ideal conditions for new tree growth. As you walk through the
grove, you can observe both old fire-damaged cypress and young, regenerating trees. [Figure 3.23, 3.24]
This contrast highlights the natural processes of succession and the cyclical nature of the ecosystem.
58
Figure 3.22 Images depicting materiality at Delphine's Grove, Velazco 2023.
Figure 3.23 Fire damaged cypress at Delphine's Grove, Velazco 2023.
59
Figure 3.24 Young cypress growing in Delphine's Grove post fire, Velazco 2023.
Figure 3.25 Growth from below fire damaged cypress tree, Velazco 2023.
Framing
Historic records reveal that Delphine’s Grove served as a critical wayfinding landmark, guiding
travelers from the ocean to Scorpion Ranch, while also perfectly framing Anacapa Island within its
60
viewshed.71 [Figure 3.26] The visual impact of the grove is powerful, and preserving this view is
essential. Enhancing visitor engagement and deepening the understanding of the grove’s significance can
be achieved through a historical virtual tour centered around Delphine Caire’s narrative, as outlined in
appendix B.
Figure 3.26 Viewshed from Delphine's Grove. Channel Islands National Park Trails Dataset. Mapped by Velazco,
2024.
Relational approach
Human nature drives us to care more deeply about things with which we have a personal
connection. Delphine’s Grove offers a unique opportunity for small-scale interventions that can have
significant impacts. By implementing a virtual tour QR code and an interactive citizen science station, we
71 National Park Service, Caire Gherini Ranch Historic District, Cultural Landscape Inventory, 2003, 6.
61
can monitor the Grove's growth and changes over time. These tools not only engage the public with the
grove’s story but also enhance the data available for its future conservation and management.
Allowing the cypress trees to adapt naturally over time, while documenting these changes through
images, will both preserve the grove’s integrity and support the natural succession of trees originating
from the original Caire period plantings. Additionally, trimming the grass around the grove and
establishing a footpath through the watershed to the grove's center would enhance visitor interaction and
enable them to experience the natural systems affecting and sustaining the grove.
The Grove presents a unique opportunity to explore the management of historic vegetation and
examine the effects of climate change. Combining existing archival imagery of the grove with data
collected through citizen science can effectively illustrate the long-term impacts of shifts in land use and
overall climate.
62
Figure 3.27 Design Strategies at Delphine's Grove, Velazco 2024.
Figure 3.28 Rendering showing citizen science set up and QR code for virtual tour, Velazco 2023
63
Corrida Trail: Revealing Vaqueros on Santa Cruz Island through Trail Design and
Interpretation
Figure 3.29 Graphic created using a picture of extant fence line off proposed Corrida trail and historic image
courtesy of descendants of Frederic F. Caire, Vaqueros herding sheep at La Playa 1900s.
Historical Background
The long period of ranching and agricultural use has shaped the pastoral landscape of Santa Cruz
Island, reflecting its management by Barron, Caire, and Stanton. This historical overview draws primarily
from the Historic Resource Study (2015) and Cultural Landscape Inventory (2004) developed by the
National Park Service.
During the Castillero Period in the 1800s, William Barron and the Vaqueros managed the island,
introducing sheep into the landscape. By the 1880s, Caire’s ranch on Santa Cruz Island functioned
similarly to the large ranches of the Mexican era. Sheep roamed freely in the island’s vast mountainous
pastures, with no fences to contain them. Vaqueros, who were either from Santa Barbara, Mexican, or
Californio, managed the herds and were skilled in the ranch lifestyle. Historian John Gherini, a
descendant of the Caire family, notes that the island’s ranching success was largely due to these skilled
64
workers who had seasonal residences on the island and managed the sheep operations from 1853
onward.72 Many pastures, fields, and structures on the island have Spanish names, reflecting the
Vaqueros’ influence.
Over time, native pastures were over-grazed and replaced with exotic species such as Sweet
Clover (Melilotus alba), Elephant Grass (Pennisetum purpureum), Filaree (Erodium cicutarium), and
various bromes (Bromus spp.), which the Caires introduced to improve the pastures. 73 Corrals and a
series of fence lines were established to aid Vaqueros and the natural topography in moving the sheep
throughout the canyons. The annual roundup, known as the corrida, typically occurred in the spring
(March and April). Sheep shearing, or trasquila, was done in the spring and fall. During these times,
sheep were herded to the ranches, where shearing sheds and corrals were constructed to manage them
throughout the process.
One historian described the experience of the Vaquero:
Upon arrival at Prisoners Harbor the vaqueros traveled to the main ranch on a wagon (later a
truck) where they settled into a bunk house and claimed their equipment: saddles, bridles, spurs,
reata, chirrión, and knife, as well as being assigned a horse. Before dawn the vaqueros ate
breakfast in the island mess hall and then reported to the stable where they readied their mounts.
The vaqueros rode out in groups towards the different areas of the island, first on roads then on
trails leading deeper into the sheep ranges. As a group progressed, single riders began to drop off
to their appointed posts, to wait for the call of the lead man or the advancing sheep. The lead man
traveled the farthest, as the vaquero who started the roundup. When ready, he shouted: he and his
men had surrounded a band of sheep and, with “whoops, cries and cracks of chirrións,” closed in
on the sheep. The experienced horses followed the sheep and cut them off when they tried to
break. Hour upon hour the pursuit and driving continued, up one cañada and down another, across
one ridge to a farther one. More sheep join the band, the semi-circle of vaqueros behind them
always increasing and closing in. The ranges, usually lying in a great spell of silence, echo with
the voices of the men, hoofbeats, cracks of chirrións, rushing trotters and the bleating of sheep.
Eventually the vaqueros herded the sheep into a punta manga or wing fence made of piled brush
which funneled the herd into a tighter group and towards the corral, be that at the Main Ranch,
Christy or Scorpion where shearing was done. 74
72 John, Gherini. Santa Cruz Island: An Illustrated History, Volume 1. SCI Company 2016. 229. 73 Kathleen Fitzgerald. Santa Cruz Island Ranching District, Channel Islands National Park Cultural Landscape
Inventory. CLI, National Park Service. 2004. 48. 74 D.S. (Dewey), Livingston. Island Legacies: A History of the Islands within Channel Islands National Park.
Historic Resource Study. Department of the Interior. National Park Service. Channel Islands National Park,
California. 2016. 509-510.
65
Figure 3.30 Sheep shearing on the pier at Prisoners Harbor, circa 1900. Source: Descendants of Frederic F. Caire,
NPS Historic Resource Study.
Figure 3.31 Vaqueros herding sheep at Prisoners Harbor. Source: Descendants of Frederic F. Caire, NPS Historic
Resource Study.
Site Condition
While the island may have once had dozens of Vaqueros and thousands of sheep roaming the
land, the landscape has not had livestock on it for more than twenty years and a series of native plant
restoration projects have allowed the native woody vegetation to begin to re-establish habitat throughout
66
the island.[Figure 3.32] However, there are many remaining features on the landscape that can help tell of
the Vaquero’s influence.
Extensive fencing systems composed of split redwood fence posts, utility poles, tree branches,
and X wing type fences divide the property into fields and pastures around the Caire-Gherini Ranch
Historic District, as documented in the 2003 Cultural Landscape Inventory. [Figure 3.33, 3.35, 3.36]
There are also archaeological remains of sacateras (hay barns) found throughout the district.75 [Figure
3.34]
Figure 3.32 Vegetation change through the years. Source: Kreidler, Nissa & Beltran, Roxanne & Vuren, Dirk &
Croll, Donald. (2012).
75 National Park Service. Caire Gherini Ranch Historic District. Cultural Landscape Inventory 2003.15-22.
67
Figure 3.33 Example of existing fence lines within the Caire-Gherini Ranch Historic District. Source: NPS CLI
2003.
Figure 3.34 Remains of sacateras at the Caire-Gherini Ranch Historic District. Source: NPS CLI 2003.
68
Figure 3.35 Caire Gherini Historic District Features Site Plan. Source: NPS CLI 2003.
69
Treatment
The legacy of Vaquero culture on Santa Cruz Island can be preserved through various features
that tell the story of this unique cultural landscape. Interpretative trails could be developed to showcase
historic elements from various time periods, illustrating the evolution of ranching methods and the lasting
impact of the Vaqueros. The proposed Corrida Trail offers a means to honor Vaquero contributions by
allowing visitors to walk the same paths they once did, integrating their experiences into the broader
narrative of landscape transformations across the island. This proposed trail incorporates three of
Heatherington’s strategies: highlighting topography, retaining features, and juxtapositions.
The Historic Resource Study and CLI identify key historic routes that remain on the island from
the historic ranching district period of significance. Using this information, I developed a trail that
integrates the historic trails and features. The Corrida Trail takes the main ranch road from Scorpion
Harbor and begins walking in the valley. As the trail loops around, the elevation shifts up the cliffside to
the pastures. The trail continues parallel to one of the existing sheep wings. [Figure 3.36] This sheep wing
can be interpreted as a more recent development in ranching methods, moving from using the natural
cliffside topography to technological advances meant to facilitate the process and get as many sheep
down to the ranch as quickly as possible.
70
Figure 3.36 Winged fencing on the east end of the island. Source: John Gherini.
Figure 3.37 A 1945 postcard depicting the Scorpion Ranch pasture on the east end of the Island. Note Anacapa
Island in the background. Source: John Gherini Photo Collection.
71
Highlighting topography
The natural canyon ridgelines and valleys determined the Vaqueros route throughout the island.
The Corrida Trail harnesses this existing topography, moving on the ridgelines and through the valleys,
witnessing the trails that the Vaqueros once took, moving sheep from place to place.
Retaining features
Throughout the canyon are extant features that aided in this process. The Corrida Trail moves
along existing fence lines and parallel to wings, corrals, ranches, and historic barn foundations. [Fig 3.38]
Juxtapositions
The existing pastoral landscape on the island references the past ranching land use. Since
livestock has not been on the island for twenty years, many of the native plant species are returning and
the overgrazed landscape is going through natural succession. To bring attention to this process, the park
could pick a significant pasture area to maintain, keeping the grass mowed to simulate livestock grazing.
This mowed area, near extant historic fence lines, in comparison to the native shrubs growing around it,
would allow visitors to visually see the impacts that colonial land uses had on the island. [Figure 3.40]
72
Figure 3.38 The Corrida Trail with historic fence line and feature location shown. Source: Velazco and NPS Historic
Resource Study.
73
Figure 3.39 Sunset Views from the Corrida Trail. Velazco, 2023.
Figure 3.40 Image on the Corrida Trail showing vegetation succession and historic pasture. Velazco 2023.
74
Prisoners Harbor Restoration: Revitalization of Chumash Heritage through Historical
Ecology
Figure 3.41 Filling the wetland at Prisoners Harbor around the 1880s. View is looking northeast towards ocean.
Courtesy of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
Figure 3.42 Map showing approximate location of Island Chumash Historic Village Sites. Source: Islapedia mapped
by Velazco.
75
Historical Background
The Chumash village of Xaxas, located at the mouth of Cañada del Puerto at Prisoners Harbor,
was a major trade port and departure point for cross-channel travel. It was occupied for over 3,000 years,
known for its proximity to chert quarries ideal for micro-drill and shell bead production. The site is
known to be the last occupied village on Santa Cruz Island and is part of the Santa Cruz Island
Archeological District, listed in the National Register.76
At the mouth of Cañada del Puerto, is also the historic location of the largest coastal wetland on
the Channel Islands. Coastal wetlands are a rare habitat composed of freshwater streams, coastal lagoons,
and riparian woodland. The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service estimate California has lost more than 90% of
its historic coastal wetlands.
In the early 1880s, the wetland and creek were channelized with infill from the surrounding hills,
a ranch was established at Prisoners Harbor with various buildings and infrastructure, including a pier,
stone and adobe house, warehouse, well, windmill, and a narrow-gauge railroad. Over time, many
structures were either destroyed or removed, leaving only the warehouse, look-out, and remnants like the
stone well, corrals, and eucalyptus trees.
Prisoners Harbor restoration, undertaken by the NPS and the Nature Conservancy, is an
intervention that privileges habitat restoration and natural resource biodiversity. The project extends over
sixty acres of land owned by both the NPS and The Nature Conservancy and includes about four acres
near the shore and nearly one mile of stream habitat in the valley.
In 2011 the park, with island partner The Nature Conservancy, restored the filled wetland by
removing 10,000 square yards of fill, created two open-water ponds, reconnected the associated
creek with its floodplain, and planted 15,000 native plants. Restoration of the wetland at Prisoners
Harbor removed eucalyptus trees that outcompete native vegetation, use a lot of water, and create
a fire hazard. The restoration also replaced a thick mat of invasive Kikuyu grass with 15,000
native wetland plants of high wildlife value and exposed groundwater that had been buried for
over 100 years. The resulting improved habitat quality attracted many bird species rarely found in
the park, along with the endemic island scrub-jay and Santa Cruz Island fox. With the installation
76 National Park Service, Channel Islands National Park Prisoners Harbor Restoration Project Draft Environmental
Impact Statement, 2009, 92.
76
of interpretive corrals, two trails, a viewing deck, and three interpretive signs, visitors now have
many opportunities to view wildlife and experience the rich history at Prisoners Harbor.77
Figure 3.43 Prisoners Harbor Restoration Plan, Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Source: National Park
Service.
77 National Park Service. “Crystal Clear: Prisoners Harbor Coastal Wetland Restoration.” Channel Islands National
Park. https://www.nps.gov/articles/prisoners-harbor-coastal-wetland-restoration.htm.
77
Site Condition
The project underwent stringent regulatory compliance practices, including an environmental
impact report that provided interested agencies and parties with three project alternatives with varying
measures of changes at the project site. The area will be open to the public; therefore, the desired size of
the restored wetland was analyzed by comparing wetland value and habitat function based on buffer
zones and distance from human disturbance. While the project’s intent was to restore habitat function, it
can be said that they were also, intentionally, or unintentionally, removing the colonial traces that
impacted the landscape and privileging the precolonial archaeological site. This was not made evident in
the language used to convey the project; the framing was always the restoration of an important and
depleted habitat.
The term restoration in natural resources suggests going back, returning to a former state and
restorationists often use historical ecology to confirm baseline conditions at a site. In North America, this
baseline is often the pre-Columbian era. However, pre-Columbian landscapes were often actively
managed and shaped by Indigenous peoples. Without similar active input, these baseline levels may not
function in our continuously changing landscape.78
Is there potential for further engagement with the Chumash heritage of the area while still
maintaining strict protection of archaeological resources? The restoration project erred on the side of
caution by protecting the archaeological Chumash village site by creating a berm with wood chips and
natural fill from the eucalyptus removal creating a barrier to mitigate any unintentional disturbance and
future erosion impacts of the archaeological resources.
78 Marion, Hourdequin, and David G. Havlick (eds), 'Introduction: Ecological Restoration and Layered
Landscapes', in Marion Hourdequin, and David G. Havlick (eds), Restoring Layered Landscapes: History, Ecology,
and Culture (New York, 2015; online edn, Oxford Academic, 19 Nov. 2015), https://doi
org.libproxy2.usc.edu/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190240318.003.0001.
78
Treatment
When considering the project in terms of strategies delineated by Heatherington, the park
engaged in negotiating time layers, adding (and subtracting), use of material palettes, and working with
natural processes.
Negotiating time layers
Historic photographs and maps were used to trace changes over time at the historic wetland site.
It was determined that in the early 1800s the site was channelized, and non-native tree and plant species
were planted to support the ranching operation. Three main landform changes through time were mapped.
The Chumash village site period, the Caire period, and the Stanton period. Elements from the Caire and
Stanton period (such as corrals, warehouses, stone retaining walls) were removed and the landscape
function was restored to its hypothesized pre 1800s function.
Figure 3.44 1892 survey over 2002 imagery Source: National Park Service Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
79
Figure 3.45 Map of Prisoners Harbor in 1934. Note ranching features i.e. fields and corrals. Source: U.S Coast &
Geodetic Survey. National Archives. and NPS Historic Resource Study.
Adding (and subtracting)/use of material palettes
The dredge material that filled the wetland was removed, along with non-historic eucalyptus trees
identified by their location, trunk size, and nonnative flora. Native plant species were selected based on
case studies of similar wetlands, existing soil types, and local native plant communities. Additionally,
images were used to reconstruct historic corrals in the designated area, referencing the ranch-era
structures that had been removed.
80
Working with natural processes
The whole watershed area was restored through the removal of non-native species and
modification of hydrology to reconnect ecological functions. Working within existing natural processes
ensures best case scenario for success of the project, with the expectation that if ecological functions are
well understood to the extent to recreate them, the existing natural systems should take over to create a
self-sustaining environment.
While the restoration at Prisoner’s Harbor has been successful in providing increased habitat for
selected species and recreating a historic ecosystem, there are opportunities for an interwoven approach
between natural and cultural heritage. In the next chapter I outline a framework that attempts to integrate
these elements - a living heritage strategy.
81
Chapter 4 “Age of the Abalone” A Living Heritage Strategy
The yearly tomol crossing at Santa Cruz Island is an example of living heritage practices already
happening at Santa Cruz Island. In 2004, the Chumash returned to Santa Cruz Island with the first of the
yearly tomol crossings after 130 years.79 The event is a partnership between the Chumash community, the
Chumash Maritime Association, Channel Islands National Park, Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary, and
the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum. During this event, the Island Chumash community engage in their
ancestral cultural practice of crossing twenty miles between the mainland and Santa Cruz Island. In 2004,
upon the return of the crossing, Superintendent Galipeau was quoted saying “It is exciting to see the
present-day Chumash community connect to their rich island heritage. As the tomol was used to connect
the islands and the mainland, this crossing will link past generations of Chumash with the present-day
Chumash community.”80
Abalone habitat and the practice of wild abalone harvest can be seen as a living heritage due to its
deep historical and cultural significance in California. Throughout the abalone’s long history in
California, the cultural landscape in which the creature lives has impacted its ability to withstand and
thrive.
The abalone is a relatively stationary creature with inherent qualities and sensitivities that have
made it a fluctuating fixture in the Californian cultural milieu for more than three centuries. Its population
and health stand as a marker for the shifting cultural landscapes that surround it. Channel Islands National
Park creates a stable environment to test out and examine theories about cultural impacts on the abalone
and landscape.
California is home to seven distinct species of abalone, each adapted to specific marine habitats.
The black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii) thrives in the intertidal zone. In slightly deeper, shallow open
waters, the green abalone (Haliotis fulgens) is found. Moving further below the surface, the flat abalone
79 Yvonne Menard, Chumash Community Returns to Limuw. National Park Service. September 1, 2004.
https://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/news/chumash-community-returns-to-limuw.htm Accessed May 2024. 80 Ibid.
82
(Haliotis walallensis) inhabits rocky substrates at depths of thirty to seventy feet. The pink abalone
(Haliotis corrugata), resides at depths ranging from twenty to one hundred feet, typically in rocky areas.
The pinto abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana) is found from the intertidal zone down to thirty feet. In the
colder, deeper waters along the northern coast, the red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) is found, it is the
largest and most commercially valuable of the species. Lastly, the white abalone (Haliotis sorenseni) is
the deepest-dwelling species, found at ocean depths of around two hundred feet.81
Historically, there were healthy populations of abalone within the park. Santa Cruz Island
functions as a representation of many of the main cultural shifts within the nineteenth and twentieth
century that impacted abalone populations. The implementation of National Park federal protections in
the mid twentieth century creates a stable environment to test for impacts and continue to trace changes
through time. Additionally, the National Park’s Service mission as a protector of natural and cultural
heritage makes Santa Cruz Island an excellent testing ground for alternative heritage conservation
strategies focused on living heritage.
The National Park Service Cultural Landscape Perspective focuses on storytelling and historical
traces within the landscape. In many cases, it deals with management issues relating to what is deemed
conservation of “natural resources” vs the conservation of “cultural resources.” By viewing the abalone as
both natural and cultural resource, it can serve as a powerful illustration of the issue of managing these
two resources as separate when they should be managed as interconnected.
Historical Background
Ann Vileisis’s beautifully written environmental history, Abalone: The Remarkable History and
Uncertain Future of California’s Iconic Shellfish, provides insights into the often tangled and
interconnected history of the abalone and natural and cultural factors that share in its landscape.
81 Rosanna Xia, "California's Endangered Abalone Species: A Recovery Plan," Los Angeles Times, 2019 accessed
August 3, 2024, https://www.latimes.com/projects/california-abalone-species-recovery/.
83
Abalone harvest is a traditional Chumash practice important to the pre-colonial way of life on
Santa Cruz Island. The Chumash use of abalone includes both spiritual and subsistence practices. One of
the Chumash myths surrounding the afterlife illustrates the key role abalone play in the culture, describing
the journey to the afterlife completing its cycle when the traveler reaches their destination point and their
eyes are replaced with abalone shells. Archaeological resources also illustrate the spiritual role abalone
plays, often finding whole abalone shells in burial grounds. 82
Santa Cruz Island has many archaeological sites of Chumash villages and shell middens. Within
the shell middens are layers of food waste, much of which are black abalone shells, indicating the
significance of abalone in the Chumash diet.83 The presence of these shells in large quantities suggests
that abalone was a staple food source, harvested regularly and consumed in substantial amounts.
In addition, red abalone shells were highly valued for their beauty and were commonly used in
Chumash art and jewelry. The shells were crafted into beads, pendants, and decorative items, which were
worn as personal adornments or used in trade. 84
Colonial and Early American Period
As discussed in the landscape biography, colonial settlers' arrival disrupted and destabilized the
Chumash way of life, and the impacts of this shift largely affected the ecological environment. While the
early settlers weren’t interested in abalone per se, their impacts affected two main players in the abalone’s
interconnected food web. The disruption of the Chumash way of life greatly minimized the amount of
people harvesting abalone, and the growth of the fur trade off the Pacific coast also destabilized the
marine mammal populations that ate abalone. By 1830, sea otters were completely eradicated from the
areas around Santa Cruz Island.
Historian Adele Ogden, who authored the classic account of California’s sea otter trade, tallied up
records from more than a hundred European and American ships engaged in the fur trade through
1830 and determined that about fifty thousand otter pelts were traded in just five decades. The
82 Ann Vileisis. Abalone : The Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California’s Iconic Shellfish. Oregon
State University Press, 2020. 25. 83 Ann Vileisis. A Storied Shell. In Abalone: The Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California’s Iconic
Shellfish. Oregon State University Press, 2020. 20.
84 Ibid., 20.
84
hunt would continue, but the haul of pelts would inevitably decline from thousands to hundreds,
and then to mere dozens, until California’s sea otters—with an estimated historic population of
nearly sixteen thousand animals—were almost entirely exterminated, too. 85
This destabilization caused an unnatural abalone population boom throughout all of California.
During the peak of abalone populations around the Channel Islands, red and black abalone were seen
stacked upon one another in the intertidal zone, a seemingly infinite number of abalone on the coast. 86
The Gold Rush
The discovery of gold in California in 1848 brought people from all over the world interested in
finding success through a mindset of natural resource extraction. Around this time, Chinese fisherman
who came to California, found the seemingly endless populations of abalone. Abalone had long had
significant cultural meaning, having been eaten in China as a source of qi or life force energy. Through
Abalone harvest, Chinese fishermen built a multi-million-dollar global industry from the ground up.87 The
first commercial abalone fishery in California, established in the 1850s, targeted green and black abalone.
According to Vileisis, their catch peaked in 1879 at 4.1 million pounds. 88
85 Ann Vileisis. Abalone : The Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California’s Iconic Shellfish. Oregon
State University Press, 2020. 38. 86 Theodora Mautz, Why Black Abalone? The Duality of Black Abalone in California. Channel Islands national
Park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Point Reyes National Seashore
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/sfanblog_why-black-abalone.htm. 87 Linda Bentz, and Todd J. Braje. “Sea of Prosperity: Foundations of the California Commercial Abalone Fishery.”
International Journal of Historical Archaeology 21, no. 3 (2017): 598–622. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45154361. 88 Ann Vileisis. Abalone : The Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California’s Iconic Shellfish. Oregon
State University Press, 2020.50.
85
Figure 4.1 Chinese abalone fishery on Santa Cruz Island, late 1800s. Source: Santa Cruz Island Foundation.
Historic abalone camps have been documented on many of the Channel Islands with features such
as:
Large black abalone shells, hearth features, wood planks, Asian pottery, opium paraphernalia,
bullet cartridge casings, and/or metal and glass fragments.89
More people would discover abalone, its popularity rising, and its population becoming scarce.
Benz and Braje cite the 1913 laws set in place to restrict the sale of abalone outside of California due to
Euro-American competition interests and dwindling abalone populations as “essentially ending Chinese
involvement in the industry.”90
89 Todd Braje, Eralndson Jon, Rick Torben. Red Abalone, Sea Otters, and Kelp Forest Ecosystems on Historic Period
San Miguel Island, California Prehistoric Marine Resource Use in the Indo-Pacific Regions Terra Australis 39 2013
Australian National University E Press. 90 Todd Braje, et al. Red Abalone, Sea Otters, and Kelp Forest Ecosystems on Historic Period San Miguel Island,
California Prehistoric Marine Resource Use in the Indo-Pacific Regions Terra Australis 39 2013.
86
Figure 4.2 Workers at Pierce Brothers abalone processing shop in Morro Bay. c.1933. Source: Pat Hathaway Photo
Collection, Monterey, CA.
Although a commonly known species, biologists and ecologists knew little about its breeding and
growth patterns. Throughout the 1980s, many scientists began to understand how external environmental
factors such as El Niño weather events and the physical closeness of abalone populations for broadcast
spawning could impact future abalone populations up to ten years in the future.91 The slowness of its
breeding habits and the quick growth of popularity created a situation that was impossible for the abalone
to keep up with.
Additionally, abalone regulations failed to account for the severe decline in abalone populations.
Instead of monitoring the populations of each of the seven abalone species individually, regulations
tracked the overall catch.92 This oversight allowed the decline of individual species to go unnoticed as
people shifted to harvesting other types. As a result, the critical status of abalone populations wasn't
recognized until it was nearly too late.
In 1983, a record-breaking warm water climate pattern called El Niño carried a new bacterium
into Southern California waters. This bacterium introduced a new disease in black abalone
91 Mia J. Tegner and Paul Dayton, “El Niño Effects on Southern California Kelp Forest
Communities,” Advances in Ecological Research 17 (1987): 243–275
92 Ann Vileisis. Abalone: The Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California’s Iconic Shellfish. Oregon
State University Press, 2020.
87
populations Withering syndrome killed off 99% of black abalone at Channel Islands National
Park, according to Marine Ecologist Steve Whitaker. Where park scientists had once found black
abalone stacked on top of each other four or five deep just a few years earlier, they could no
longer find even one.93
The overexploitation of abalone, combined with environmental changes such as climate change
and ocean acidification, has led to significant population declines. Diseases like withering syndrome have
further exacerbated this decline. In 2001, the white abalone was listed as endangered, the first marine
invertebrate to receive this protection. In 2009, the black abalone was listed due to withering syndrome
and overfishing.
Figure 4.3 Top Row- 1983 Black Abalone Condition and 1913 Abalone Drying Camps on the Channel Islands.
Source: Gary Davis and Santa Cruz Island Foundation. Bottom Row- Santa Cruz Island Coastal Condition. Source:
Velazco, 2023.
93 Theodora Mautz, Why Black Abalone? The Duality of Black Abalone in California. Channel Islands national
Park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Point Reyes National Seashore
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/sfanblog_why-black-abalone.htm.
88
Site Condition
Modern restoration projects focus on breeding programs, habitat restoration, and research
initiatives. Although abalone populations have not recovered enough to allow wild harvest and fisheries to
reopen, scientists see promising improvements. White abalone rearing projects and black abalone
populations around the Channel Islands are showing positive results.94 Additionally, research on the
specific needs of different abalone species has expanded successfully.
The long-term goals for abalone restoration include sustainability strategies that emphasize the
role of humans in abalone population success and habitat preservation. There is a great opportunity for
Channel Islands National Park cultural and natural resource programs to be involved in a way that
engages the public. A framework for managing a cultural resource, such as the abalone, can elevate the
process of living heritage by involving both historical key players and new visitors in its stewardship.
This approach integrates narrative and ecology-based interventions to help restore keystone
abalone species. It emphasizes heritage as an active process—one that involves remembering and
bringing elements from the past into the present and future. Instead of being a passive collection of
individual relics, heritage becomes an interconnected web of elements, actively engaging with and
shaping our understanding of the past.
94 National Park Service. Black Abalone Regain Lost Ground. Channel Islands National Park. 2017
https://www.nps.gov/articles/black-abalone-regain-lost-ground.htm.
Lance Orozco, “Unique project off Ventura, Santa Barbara County coast to save endangered abalone. KCLU. 2023.
https://www.kclu.org/local-news/2023-11-02/unique-project-off-ventura-santa-barbara-county-coastlines-trying-tosave-endangered-abalone
Loyola Marymount University. Students Restoring Endangered Abalone. 2019.
https://newsroom.lmu.edu/campusnews/students-restoring-endangered-abalone/
NOAA. Divers Release Engangered Abalone into the Wild for First Time, Boosting Odds of Recovery. 2019.
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/divers-release-endangered-abalone-wild-first-time-boosting-oddsrecovery.
89
Treatment
Negotiating time layers
Seeking out and inventorying existing resources within Channel Islands National Park that bring
attention to the plight of the abalone on Santa Cruz Island is a necessary first step. Examples of resources
include Chumash middens with abalone shells, Chinese abalone fishing camps, and historical abalone
population markers in areas that once had abalone and are now empty. These middens and archaeological
sites serve as vertical time layers, showing changes in island landscape use through time.
Juxtaposition
Implementing visual ways to juxtapose historical black abalone populations with existing black
abalone populations in the intertidal area is a powerful way to show change over time. Additionally,
because Ocean warming was largely to blame for the spread of withering syndrome in Southern
California, finding ways to visualize these large-scale tidal forces can help people contextualize the
changes on a day-to-day basis. Sea temperature markers placed near tidepools can help make this
connection.
Relational Approach
UC Davis Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory is one of the programs that have successfully out
planted white abalone into the ocean. While it may be likely that out planting and monitoring partnerships
with researchers are already occurring throughout the island, it is beneficial to increase visibility of these
partnership, and any independent abalone research conducted through the park.
90
Figure 4.4 Red Abalone at Kelp Farming Operation in Carlsbad, CA. Source: Velazco.
Figure 4.5 White abalone from the Bodega Marine Laboratory. Source: Los Angeles Times.
91
An example of community engagement in abalone stewardship are successful school-based
lessons on white abalone captive breeding efforts and school programs focused on breeding their own
green abalone populations. The school program focuses on growing kelp to replenish southern California
kelp forests and monitors school-based green abalone breeding efforts to raise awareness about their life
cycle and needs. It is extraordinarily successful in providing hands on experience with abalone for the
younger generation that did not grow up with abalone carpeting the intertidal area.95
Visitor engagement programs such as an ‘Abalone Festival’ at the park after abalone breeding
periods and community-based events such as volunteer urchin mitigation or kelp forest monitoring can
also bring awareness to the interconnectedness of the natural environment and cultural resources on the
island.
Thinking larger scale, the implementation of an abalone reintegration lab on the island or off
Ventura harbor that focuses on keystone species such as kelp, California sheep head, spiny lobsters,
urchin, otters, and abalone is possible. This abalone re-integration lab may test ocean-based abalone
rearing models, providing habitat for young abalone that is free from predators. Potential sites for this
designed abalone rearing habitat may be off Point Conception, visible from Santa Cruz Island, or off the
island itself. A design project, proposing a Chumash Heritage park focusing on designed habitat for
abalone and narrative-based physical interventions re-enacting the Indigenous practice of abalone wildharvest and stewardship is provided in Appendix A.
The International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property
(ICCROM) Living Heritage Sites program identified continuity as the main consideration for living
heritage. There are four distinct levels of continuity:
1. Continuity of original function;
2. Continuity of community connections;
3. Continuity of cultural expressions (both tangible and intangible)
4. Continuity of care (through traditional or established means)
95 Sixth graders at Thurston Middle School grew kelp seedlings to replenish local kelp forests and are monitoring
abalone growing in a classroom tank, led by marine biologist Nancy Caruso. Jennifer Erickson, Growing Abalone
and Cultivating Ocean Stewards. Laguna Beach Independent, March 23, 2011 Growing Abalone and Cultivating
Ocean Stewards - Laguna Beach Local News (lagunabeachindy.com) Accessed August 2024.
92
When a heritage place maintains its original function and has a connected community, it does not
remain static but continues to change/add various tangible or intangible expressions. Change can
occur to existing tangible and intangible components...their purpose is not conservation as
material manifestations but to facilitate the functions... change must be recognized as an
inevitable phenomenon and the purpose of such heritage is not to be frozen in time and space but
to have a function in the lives of communities.96
The primary goal of living heritage is to promote continuity of care. In the case abalone as living
heritage, this can be accomplished through restoring the original use (abalone harvesting) or community
care (abalone stewardship), starting by supporting existing abalone rearing programs and re-establishing
abalone habitat within the park. By engaging historically significant populations and interested
community members, the primary goal of living heritage management is sustained. Through the
continuity of care of the abalone populations, the living heritage practice tied to many local communities
remains.
96 Gamini, Wijesuriya. “Living Heritage.” ICCROM, 2018.
93
Conclusion
Summary of Findings
The first chapter explores the cultural landscape perspective through theoretical developments in
the United States, specifically throughout mid to late twentieth century. The second chapter looks at Santa
Cruz Island through first-person intuitive photography, narrative, and landscape biography framework,
tracking the developments on the island through time. The third chapter explores design strategies to
elevate and amplify quiet yet important narratives on the island. It recommends design strategies focused
on visualizing existing historical layers and relics, remembrance as a physical process, and technological
implementations for storytelling and data tracking, such as citizen science and virtual tours. The fourth
chapter looks at living heritage practices and potential future interventions for Santa Cruz Island.
Intervening in a cultural landscape requires a careful balance between conserving its authenticity
and integrity and managing the power dynamics involved. When conservation design strategies are
applied, they physically alter the landscape, which shifts the role of the designer or heritage practitioner to
that of a new "author" of the landscape, influencing how the landscape is perceived and understood.
This shift can raise ethical concerns about whose perspectives are driving these changes.
However, in some cases, not making any changes can marginalize communities and perspectives further.
By acknowledging these power dynamics and conducting interventions with a research-based, sensitive
approach, practitioners can help conserve cultural landscapes while respecting their historical integrity
and reflecting the evolving nature of landscapes, narratives, and community understanding of history and
heritage.
Further Research
Further research may include the investigation of additional case studies of similar cultural
landscapes to compare with Santa Cruz Island. These case studies could investigate the existing
preservation and interpretation techniques used within the cultural landscapes and could be used to
implement similar conservation design strategies and interventions discussed in the third and fourth
94
chapter. These extended case studies would help evaluate the effectiveness of the design strategies and
examine how these strategies adapt based on different narratives and regions.
Underwater cultural heritage at Santa Cruz Island/Limuw represents an untapped resource with
immense potential. Future research should extend its focus to the cultural landscapes that lie beyond the
shoreline. By beginning with the abalone and the intertidal region, the park can explore and document
these submerged landscapes, identifying narratives and integrating design-based conservation strategies
as highlighted in this thesis.
A pitfall of this thesis research is the lack of community engagement and time in place. Santa
Cruz Island is a remote landscape making prolonged place-based research difficult. Further research
exploring ways to enhance community involvement in the excavation of cultural layers and narratives is
important for the conservation and interpretation of cultural landscapes. Research could focus on
methodologies for involving local communities in decision-making processes and ensuring their
narratives are adequately represented.
In 2015, the Northern Chumash Tribal Council submitted a marine sanctuary nomination for 134
miles of coastline off the Central California coast, north of the Channel Islands.[Figure 5.1]This proposed
designation aims to protect marine ecosystems, maritime heritage resources, and support ocean-dependent
economies, while highlighting the cultural values and connections of Indigenous communities in the
area.97 It embodies a living heritage model that promotes active engagement from a diverse array of
agencies and groups, with a strong emphasis on Indigenous co-management practices.98
A successful precedent for such collaboration is Papahānaumokuākea, which was established as a
National Marine Monument in 2006 under the Antiquities Act and designated a World Heritage Site in
2010. This monument conserves both the physical features above and below water and works closely with
97 “Proposed Chumash Heritage Marine Sanctuary,” NOAA, accessed September 1, 2024,
https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/chumash-heritage/. 98 “Potential Organizational Framework for Indigenous Collaborative Management,” Proposed Chumash Heritage
National Marine Sanctuary. Online Public Information Workshop by NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
2022.
95
Native Hawaiian communities to ensure that cultural traditions and practices are preserved. Native
Hawaiian cultural activities, conducted to perpetuate traditional knowledge, care for, and protect the
environment, and strengthen cultural and spiritual connections to the islands, are recognized and
safeguarded within the monument.99
Figure 5.1 Proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. Note existing Channel Island National Marine
Sanctuary on bottom right. Source: NOAA.
99 “Cultural Access for Native Hawaiian Practices. Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
https://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/new-heritage/access/
96
Figure 5.2 The National Marine Sanctuary System. Source: NOAA.
The history of the abalone in California influenced my decision to pursue a dual degree in
heritage conservation and landscape architecture. This journey has enabled me to perceive heritage as a
dynamic process and design as a strategic approach to strengthen community identity and foster a sense of
connection and belonging. As a landscape designer and preservationist, I view both documentation
techniques and design interventions as essential tools for integrating historical narratives and heritage
practices into the contemporary context.
Initially, I felt historic preservation served mainly as an impediment to development, to protect
beautiful old buildings and evoke nostalgia. However, my perspective shifted significantly after taking
heritage conservation courses. On the first day of my Fundamentals of Heritage Conservation class, my
professor defined the field as "Managed Change." This field, rather than opposing change, aims to ensure
that we consider the past as we progress into the future.
While I may critique certain aspects of the NPS Cultural Landscape Perspective, I deeply
appreciate and value the work and dedication to conserving cultural landscapes. The research and writing
97
of this thesis, coupled with insights gained from Santa Cruz Island, offered invaluable networking
opportunities that led to my first job after completing my graduate course work.
The last year with the National Park Service Historic Preservation Services and Cultural
Landscape Program in the Intermountain Region has been profoundly enriching. It allowed me to practice
and understand the NPS cultural landscape approach while exploring conservation minded design
interventions. This thesis reflects my evolving understanding and practice of heritage conservation,
focusing on preserving stories, honoring cultures, fostering identity, and connecting people to their
surroundings.
98
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Appendices
Appendix A:
Velazco, Daniela; Doshi, Nehali. Re-enacting Indigenous Ecologies and Practices. Arch 542 B
Landscapes Beyond Land. University of Southern California Design Studio, 2021.
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108
109
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111
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118
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Appendix B: Documenting Delphine,
APT Student Documentation Competition, September 2023
Process
Location: Channel Islands National Park
Santa Cruz Island
Santa Barbara Vicinity
Santa Barbara County, California
Delphine’s Grove is located on the Eastern End of Santa Cruz Island within the Historic
Ranching District at Channel Islands National Park. It is found .7 miles on Smugglers
Roads towards Smugglers Ranch from Scorpion Ranch on Santa Cruz Island. The
center of the grove is 450 feet off Smugglers Roads.
34.044757, -119.558399 (Center of the Site, Google Maps, WGS84)
Present Owner – Shared ownership of the island between the National Park Service and
The Nature Conservancy. Historic Ranching District is owned by the National Park
Service
Significance: Delphine’s Grove is a historic designed landscape established by Delphine Caire (1856-
1949) who influenced the island’s cultural landscape and legacy from the late
nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. The Caire family was involved in the island
ranching operations since Delphine and her father Justinian Caire’s first visit in 1880.
This ranching operation continued for more than one hundred years. Delphine Adelaide
Caire is the Caire family's eldest, child of Justinian and Albina Caire, born in San
Francisco in 1856 of Italian and French descent.
120
The Grove and greater Ranching District within Santa Cruz Island are a significant
example of the influence colonial and later subsequent waves of immigration, had on
the shaping of California landscapes.
Delphine was involved in the management of the island. As an avid gardener she
oversaw the planning and growth of the implemented vegetation, planting and caring
for the tree saplings from seed.
Delphine’s Grove itself is significant because it is a physical space designed by a
woman, whose large influence on the island is otherwise invisible.
Description: The landscape is composed of a circular grove of Monterrey Cypress (Cupressus
macrocarpa) trees on the hills east of Scorpion Ranch. The grove has an area of 6763
feet in circumference or .15 acres with a direct viewshed to Anacapa Island, emerging
from the center of the grove. The landscape’s character-defining features are composed
of the circular grove, vegetation, Smugglers Road, topography, watershed, and views
towards the ocean and Anacapa Island.
Condition
and Threat:
In recent years, due to climate change, we’ve seen more intense weather conditions in
California, such as longer and hotter droughts, heavy rainfall, and storms. This climate
change will influence how we adapt our documentation and cultural resource
management to the changing environment.
This grove represents one of the growing difficulties with protecting natural, and
cultural resources under threat due to climate change. In May 2020, a spark caused a
wildfire on the island while construction occurred at Scorpion Pier. The fire quickly
spread, covering 1,395 acres on the island. Delphine’s Grove was among the damaged
areas.
The fire was an accident caused by human use on the site. As a part of the National Park
System, Santa Cruz Island within the Channel Islands seeks to balance protecting its
cultural and natural resources while sharing its rich ecology and varied histories through
visitor stewardship and use. The area is currently closed to the public for re-vegetation.
Methodology My research explores Santa Cruz Island through three primary sources: visual and
document archives, maps/mapping, and in-person site visits. I consult previous cultural
landscape inventory reports, historic aerials and imagery, primary and secondary source
research, as well as on-the-ground field work to develop an understanding of the island
and its layered histories.
Documentation methods explored were Matterport Scans, 360-imagery cameras, openended ground-level exploration and observation, soundscapes, walking cartography, inperson measurements, and 3D modeling. The documentation was processed, and
interpretation methods involving new media techniques were explored.
121
Sam Malnati and Drew Gorski on-site
Tools: Documentation: RICOH360 THETA, Matterport, Lidar scanning using Polycam3D on the
iPhone, video, images, and sound recording on iPhone
Processing: ArcGIS, Adobe Creative Suite, Rhino360, Matterport3D model website to process
documentation, Openhaus.app
The Matterport Scanner camera uses infrared light to capture 3D data.
Documenting an outdoor space using this type of scanner was difficult due to the influence the
sun had on the infrared light the scanner used to capture the data. The lack of walls also made
it difficult for the software system to align the data, creating issues with the resulting floorplan
and dollhouse created from the scans.
As a workaround to the resulting data issues for the virtual tour, 360 panoramic images were
uploaded into the Matterport model. Tags and areas were input and selected manually in
Openhaus to assist in the desired storytelling.
122
Resulting scan and manually included 360 images from the site
Results: An Openhaus Virtual Tour was used to interpret the documentation and layer in storytelling
elements (oral histories, archival images, interpretive mapping, sound, video, photography,
drawings, and text) that illustrate the island’s natural and cultural history.
This creates a sensory experience for people to experience without needing to visit the
island. The documentation keeps a record of the Grove before elements are further changed
to clean up the site for re-vegetation and create a record of the Grove through time. The
documentation and narrative elements come together to create an experiential walk-through
of the grove that highlights Delphine’s impact and influence on the island.
Further documentation of the island can help visitors connect to the cultural and natural
heritage on-site and benefit user access equity, providing an experience many can access
with the use of a phone.
Tour link:
https://openhaus.app/view/d5Xp6l8pTdY/?cha=1555
123
Documenting Delphine Team
Daniela Velazco
Master of Heritage Conservation and Landscape Architecture Candidate, University of
Southern California, School of Architecture
Matterport Scanning Support:
Sam Malnati
AQYER, LLC
Master of Heritage Conservation and Urban Planning Candidate
University of Southern California, School of Architecture
Project Advisor:
Andrew Gorski
Supervisory Exhibits Specialist
Mediterranean Coast Network, Channel Islands National Park
Documentation Advisors:
TC-Doc Committee:
Julia Ausloos, Morgan Granger, Alan White
124
Appendix C: How to Define Categories of Historic Properties
National Historic Preservation Act Criteria U.S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service.
National Register Bulletin #15: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation. How to
Define Categories of Historic Properties
• Building: created principally to shelter any form of human activity, for example, a barn, house,
church, or hotel.
• Site: the location of a significant event; a prehistoric or historic occupation or activity; or a
building or structure, whether standing, ruined, or vanished, where the location itself possesses historic,
cultural, or archeological value, regardless of the value of the existing structure.
• Structure: a functional construction usually made for purposes other than creating human
shelter, such as tunnels, bridges, oil wells, or dams.
• Object: primarily artistic in nature or is small in scale and simply constructed. Although an
object may be moveable by nature or design, it is associated with a specific c setting or environment,
including sculptures, boundary markers, or statues.
• District: possesses a significant concentration, linkage, or continuity of sites, buildings,
structures, or objects united historically or aesthetically by plan or physical development, such as a
college campus central business district, fort, or sprawling ranch.
• Landscape: a geographic area (including both cultural and natural resources and the wildlife or
domestic animals therein), associated with a historic event, activity, or person or exhibiting other cultural
or aesthetic values (NPS 1990; NPS 1992).
Appendix D: NRHP Eligibility Criteria
National Register of Historic Places Criteria The National Register of Historic Places Eligibility
Criteria, as outlined in 36 CFR 60.4, state that “The quality of significance in American history,
architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures and
objects that possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association,
and that: are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our
history; or are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; or embody the distinctive
125
characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction; or that represent the work of a master, or that
possess high artistic values; or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components
may lack individual distinction; or have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in
prehistory or history. The regulations (36 CFR 60.4) also outline several additional criteria that affect
National Register of Historic Places eligibility for certain types of properties. Ordinarily cemeteries,
birthplaces, or graves of historical figures, properties owned by religious institutions or used for religious
purposes, structures that have been moved from their original locations, reconstructed historic buildings,
properties commemorative in nature, and properties that have achieved significance within the past 50
years shall not be considered eligible for the National Register. However, such properties will qualify if
they are integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria or have certain distinguishing characteristics.
Of the seven recognized categories, notable exceptions include: religious properties deriving primary
significance from architectural or artistic distinction or historical importance; a cemetery that derives its
primary significance from graves of persons of transcendent importance, from age, from distinctive
design features, or from association with historic events; or a property that achieves significance within
the past 50 years, if it is of exceptional significance.
Appendix E: Significance according to the NRHP
Significance
The National Register of Historic Places includes significant properties, classified as buildings,
sites, districts, structures, or objects. It is not used to list intangible values, except in so far as they are
associated with or reflected by historic properties. The National Register does not list cultural events, or
skilled or talented individuals, as is done in some countries. Rather, the National Register is oriented to
recognizing tangible properties that are relatively fixed in location. To qualify for the National Register, a
property must be significant; that is, it must represent a significant part of the history, architecture,
archeology, engineering, or culture of an area, and it must have the characteristics that make it a good
representative of properties associated with that aspect of the past.
126
The significance of a historic property can be judged and explained only when it is evaluated
within its historic context. Historic contexts are those patterns or trends in history by which a specific
occurrence, property, or site is understood and its meaning (and ultimately its significance) within history
or prehistory is made clear. Historians, architectural historians, folklorists, archeologists, and
anthropologists use different words to describe this phenomenon such as trend, pattern, theme, or cultural
affiliation, but ultimately the concept is the same.
The core premise of historic context is that resources, properties, or happenings in history do not
occur in a vacuum but rather are part of larger trends or patterns. If the property being evaluated
represents an important aspect of the area’s history or prehistory and possesses the requisite quality of
integrity, then it qualifies for the National Register. Historic contexts are historical patterns that can be
identified through consideration of the history of the property and the history of the surrounding area. In
accordance with the National Register Criteria, the historic context may relate to one of the four
Eligibility Criteria (A, B, C and/or D) listed previously.
Appendix F: Integrity According to the NRHP
Integrity is the ability of a property to convey its significance. To be listed in the National
Register of Historic Places, a property must not only be shown to be significant under the National
Register Criteria, but it also must have integrity. The evaluation of integrity is grounded in an
understanding of a property’s physical features and how they relate to its significance. Historic properties
either retain integrity (this is, convey their significance) or they do not. Within the concept of integrity, the
National Register Criteria identify seven aspects or qualities that, in various combinations, define
integrity. The seven aspects of integrity are Location, Design, Setting, Materials, Workmanship, Feeling
and Association. To retain historic integrity a property will always possess several, and usually most, of
the aspects. The retention of specific aspects of integrity is paramount for a property to convey its
significance. Determining which of these aspects are most important to a particular property requires
knowing why, where, and when the property is significant.
127
Seven Aspects of Integrity
U.S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service. National Register Bulletin #15: How to Apply the
National Register Criteria for Evaluation. “Section VIII: How to Evaluate the Integrity of a Property.
Accessed May 2023.” https://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb15/nrb15_8.htm.
Location
Location is the place where the historic property or district was constructed or the place where
the historic event occurred.
Design
Design is the combination of elements that create the form, plan, space, structure, and style of a
property or district.
Setting
Setting is the physical environment of a historic property or district, constituting topographic
features, vegetation, manmade features, and relationships between buildings or open space.
Materials
Materials are the physical elements that were combined or deposited during a particular period of
time and in a particular pattern or configuration to form a historic property or district.
Workmanship
Workmanship is the physical evidence of the crafts of a particular culture or people during any
given period in history or prehistory.
Feeling
Feeling is a properties or district’s expression of the aesthetic or historical sense of a particular
period of time.
Association
Association is the direct link between an important historic event or person and a property or
district.
Appendix G: Secretary of the Interior Treatment Approaches for Historic Places
Definitions
128
1. Preservation: the act or process of applying measures necessary to sustain the existing form,
integrity, and material of a historic property. Includes initial stabilization work, where
necessary, and ongoing preservation maintenance and repair of historic materials and
features.
2. Rehabilitation: the act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property through
repair, alterations, and additions while preserving those portions or features which convey its
historical, cultural, or architectural values.
3. Restoration: the act or process of accurately depicting the form, features, and character of a
property as it appeared at a particular period of time by removing features from other periods
in its history and reconstructing missing features from the restoration period.
4. Reconstruction: the act or process of depicting, by means of new construction, the form,
features, and detailing of a non-surviving site, landscape building, structure, or object for the
purpose of replicating its appearance at a specific period of time and in its historic location.
100
Charles A. Birnbaum and Capella Christine Peters, The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for
the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes.
Washington, DC: US Department of the Interior, NPS, 1996.
100 Definitions excerpted from Anne E. Grimmer and Kay D. Weeks, The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the
Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for Preserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring and Reconstructing
Historic Buildings, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, NPS, 1995, rev. 2017, 2-3.
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
The National Park Service (NPS), recognized as a pivotal force in cultural landscape preservation, defines its role as America’s storyteller through place, striving to protect significant sites and their associated stories. Despite its extensive framework, the NPS's cultural landscape approach predominantly relies on historical records to document and preserve existing material aspects of landscapes. This method often fails to fully represent historical complexity, as the visible remnants and documented histories frequently reflect the perspectives of dominant groups, leaving other narratives marginalized. To foster a more inclusive conservation practice, it is essential to adopt strategies that actively reveal a diverse range of histories. This thesis uses Santa Cruz Island, within Channel Islands National Park, as a case study to explore design-based conservation strategies that address multiple historical narratives embedded in cultural landscapes.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Velazco, Daniela
(author)
Core Title
Amplifying quieter narratives: strategies for cultural landscape conservation at Santa Cruz Island
School
School of Architecture
Degree
Master of Heritage Conservation / Master of Landscape Architecture
Degree Program
Heritage Conservation / Landscape Architecture
Degree Conferral Date
2024-08
Publication Date
10/02/2024
Defense Date
10/02/2024
Publisher
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University of Southern California
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