Archaeologists Believe They've Uncovered the Island of the Blue Dolphins Cave
November 02, 2012
After a 20-year search, Navy archaeologist Steve Schwartz announced that he and his team are "90% sure" they've found the cave on San Nicolas Island inhabited by The Lone Woman for almost 2 decades. Her true story inspired Scott O'Dell's 1960 classic, Island of the Blue Dolphins.
"The Newberry Medal–winner was based on the true story of a Native American woman left behind when the rest of the Nicoleño tribe was evacuated from the channel islands by missionaries after the population was decimated by Russian fur traders; one story has it she returned to the island to search for her missing child. Juana Maria, taken at the Santa Barbara Mission. The Lone Woman passed into legend and was reportedly glimpsed throughout the next eighteen years by passing ships off the California coast."