Santa Catalina Island: Its magic, people, and history

Santa Catalina Island: Its magic, people, and history by William Sanford White, Steven Kern Tice. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780965979375.

We have explored the history of Avalon by recalling the stories of the visionaries who built it, and the energetic folks who influenced its growth. We have visited the islands beaches, canyons, and mountains on a journey made of memories and reinforced with antique photographs. Together we have walked the narrow, sometimes steep, streets of Avalon in sunshine, in fog and in rain. It has been our good fortune to become friends with many of Avalons senior residents, men and women in their eighties and nineties whose knowledge of a golden era we want to preserve. Throughout this book we have featured stories of people that have been interviewed personally. In closing, we want to quote individuals that have been known only through reading their words. Nearly a century ago, and after his personal memories of Avalon spanning twenty-five years, Professor Charles Frederick Holder wrote " the soft winds (and) radiant days of summer all year around made a deep and favorable impression, that time has only increased." He concluded that "There is something in (that) soft wind that speaks of contentment and rest." And in just recent time, a fifth grader at Avalon Elementary School named Elizabeth Alvizar wrote a short essay on "The Remaining Influenced of the Wrigleys." In part, she wrote: "I know that Mr. William Wrigley, Jr. saw how great this island was and wanted to keep it wonderful for kids like me." That really is what this book is about, saving the islands treasures for this and all future generations... generation who will fall in love with it as we have.