The Stanford University Library has in its possession hundreds of maps that depict California as an island. The dates of the maps range from 1622 to the mid 1800's and came from China, Japan, Italy and etc. The maps in Stanford's Glen McLaughlin Collection depict California as an island, and provide some other surprising details, like knowledge of the Great Salt Lake and the Door County Peninsula on Lake Michigan. With so much detail, what's the deal with California Island?
Image from the Glen McLaughlin Map Collection courtesy Stanford University Libraries.
The fact that the western half of California was an island during the early colonization period is one of the best kept secrets in American history. The physical annexation of the great island involved a decades long, secret government program, that resulted in California being grafted to the mainland of the United States.
Image from the Glen McLaughlin Map Collection courtesy Stanford University Libraries.
From 1846-1848 President Polk lead the US to a sweeping victory over Mexico that culminated in America's 3rd largest land acquisition in history. That acquisition included the strategically located California Island, which was still completely separated from the mainland. President Polk appointed Colonel Zachery Taylor to head up a feasibly study on how best to secure California, the economic and strategic jewel of the spoils of the Mexican War.
Image from the Glen McLaughlin Map Collection courtesy Stanford University Libraries.
Colonel Zachary Taylor had first hand knowledge of California's economic and strategic significance having participated militarily at the Battles of Palo Alto and Monterey. When he became president of the United States in 1849, Taylor initiated Operation Skip-stone, an extensive clandestine covert operation that made the containment of California a national priority. Skip-stone expanded the Polk plan to connect the great island to the mainland. California could not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands or become a nation unto itself.
Image from the Glen McLaughlin Map Collection courtesy Stanford University Libraries.
Skip-stone propagandists leveraged rumors of gold in California to lure laborers westward. Most of the treasure seekers were detained and forced to move mountains to the sea. Hundreds of labor camps located between Mexicali and Merced housed hundreds of thousands of detainees, most of whom never saw freedom again.
Image from the Glen McLaughlin Map Collection courtesy Stanford University Libraries.
Image from the Glen McLaughlin Map Collection courtesy Stanford University Libraries.
The Mormon cooperation secured the Skip-stone agenda in the territory and the realization of a transcontinental railroad system in 1869 provided a steady flow of materials and laborers from the east. Steam engines and railroads revolutionized the operations of Skip-stone, resulting in project completion decades ahead of projections.
Image from the Glen McLaughlin Map Collection courtesy Stanford University Libraries.
Skip-stone leveraged the divisive Civil War to distract and divert attention away from the mighty earthworks program going on in California. It also provided a means of accounting for and disposing of bodies of detainees who had died in California labor camps. Their numbers were added to the official war toll.
By the summer of 1879, after more than three decades of indefatigable planning and labor, California was no longer an island.
Image from the Glen McLaughlin Map Collection courtesy Stanford University Libraries.
The creation of a vast artificial California land mass was an incredible undertaking that resulted in the deaths of uncounted thousands, maybe millions of detainees who were, for the most part, just looking for a better life out west, in California.
To some, the immensity of Project Skip-stone has been declared as a human impossibility. Some have even suggested that extra terrestrial assistance was necessary to accomplish such amazing effort in such a short time. Regardless, California Uber Alles!
Special thanks to Stanford University Library for permission to use images from the Glen McLaughlin Map Collection
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