West of the West: Tales from California's Channel Islands – Settlers

Sunday, January 19 at 7 pm on KPJK TV in the South Bay. Features four tales about how the Channel Islands were settled by people of European descent. One account includes Tim Vail, a fourth-generation rancher on Santa Rosa Island who shares a personal history of his family’s involvement there while lamenting the end of their cattle operation after a century. Also chronicled are the maritime dangers posed by the Channel Islands and its waters holding the wrecks of more than 500 vessels. Catalina, the most widely known of the Channel Islands and the only one still privately owned, was developed by William Wrigley, Jr. who purchased the island sight unseen in 1919. Its glory years of movie stars, the Chicago Cubs, and big band dancing, as well as its struggles to stay relevant today are chronicled by Wrigley’s great-grand-daughter Alison Rusack.