CHANNEL ISLANDS : 19th-Century Camp Discovered

A novice archeologist working on Santa Rosa Island has stumbled upon the first Chinese migrant labor camp to be found in the Channel Islands National Park.

Although officials have known for some time that Chinese laborers harvested abalone at remote spots across the Channel Islands in the mid- to late 1800s, Simi Valley resident Andrew Ovenden is the first person to find one of the camps.

Ovenden, a recent graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, said Tuesday that he was combing Santa Rosa’s west side for Chumash Indian artifacts last week when he discovered several Chinese ceramic pottery fragments and a number of abalone shells. He also found a fire pit that contained a number of copper nails used in 19th-Century shipbuilding.

The pottery finds have convinced experts that the site was used during the late 19th Century by Chinese laborers, while the nails might mean the workers were burning wood from a previously unknown shipwreck.

Channel Islands National Park archeologist Don Morris said Ovenden’s discovery is important because little is known about the camps, which were thought to have existed on most of the islands.

Earlier studies indicate that the Chinese abalone fishermen and their supplies were brought by ship to the islands. The laborers spent weeks harvesting black abalone from the intertidal zones, drying the meat and preparing it to be shipped back to Asia.