Adapting to Life Alone on the Island: Chapter 14

Cave entrance. Tan rock with shrubs surrounding it. — Recently excavated cave on San Nicolas Island. Courtesy of Steve Schwartz.

Karana spends five days at home recovering from her leg injury. When she runs out of water, she leaves for the spring to collect more. Because she is still unable to walk, Karana crawls through brush to get to the spring. The pack of wild dogs tries to attack her. Karana has a bow and arrow and spear with her, but the dogs disappear before she is able to take aim.

She arrives at the spring, drinks and fills her basket with water, then heads to a nearby cave for protection against the wild dogs. Karana stays in the cave for six days while her leg heals. The rock walls of the cave had been decorated with figures cut in the stone by her ancestors.

Karana decides to make the cave into another shelter, and she returns with food and wood when she is well.

After she finishes setting up the cave, Karana returns to where the sea elephants live. There she finds the remains of the larger male, and she takes four of his large teeth to grind into spear points. She now has two new spears to hunt the wild dogs.

Fact Check: Rock Art

Are there caves on the island? Do they have rock art?

What do we know?
There are numerous caves on San Nicolas Island (SNI). Most are active sea caves, while Cave of the Whales, which does have rock art, is in the intertidal zone where it can get wet during high tides. One of the rock art panels in Cave of the Whales fell from the cave walls and was taken by archeologists to a museum in Los Angeles for protection. This rock art is now in the collections of the Autry Museum of the American West. Additional rock art still remains in the cave.

A cave on SNI that a US Coast and Geodetic Survey in the late 1800s called the “Indian Cave” was long buried by drifting sand, and its location had been lost. In 2012, archeologists rediscovered the site of this cave and began removing sand from its opening. So far no rock art has been found within that cave, which was likely used by the Lone Woman and her people. However, historic inscriptions have been found just outside the cave—two 1911 dates with initials have been carved into the sandstone wall to the left of the cave entrance. This cave, today referred to as the Lone Woman’s cave, is currently the largest known dry cave on SNI.

What is the evidence?
Primary source: Find out more! Look at this photo of a rock art panel in Cave of the Whales.

Secondary source: Archeologist Steve Schwartz describes his discovery of the Indian Cave in Voices from the Field.

Secondary source: Patricia Sauers provides more information about Steve Schwartz’s exciting discovery in an article published for the Navy magazine Currents.

Photos & Multimedia

Video: The Significance of Channel Islands Archaeology (3:14) Learn about the extensive human history of the Channel Islands and the significance of the recent cave discovery.
Historic map: A map with compass bearings provided an important piece of evidence in the search for the cave the Lone Woman lived in. A label on the map read Indian Cave. Can you find that location on the map?
Historic documents: When Steve Schwartz also found the field notes that went with the 1879 map, he was finally able to locate the cave after a 20-year search.
Photo: To excavate the cave, archeology students from California State University, Los Angeles, removed approximately 40,000 five-gallon buckets of sand. Courtesy of Steve Schwartz.
Photo: So far the cave is 75 feet deep, 10 feet high, and 15 feet wide. Use a tape measure to see how large this is. Do you think you could live in a cave this size? Courtesy of Steve Schwartz.

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