DUNKLE, Meryl Byron
DUNKLE, Meryl Byron (1888-1969), California botanist who began collected on Santa Catalina Island in 1928 while he was employed as principal of the Santa Catalina Island School in Avalon (1923-1932). Dunkle went on to collect extensively on all eight California Channel Islands. He organized an annual flower show in Avalon and served as president of the American Begonia Society. Dunkle was the field botanist for the Los Angeles County Museum Channel Islands Biological Survey from 1939 to 1941.
He and his wife, Ada, had two sons, Theodore and Robert, and a daughter, Kathryn (Sylvester).
» Contributions from the Los Angeles Museum Channel Islands biological survey, number 26 Flora of the Channel Islands" in Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 39:133-134, 1940; Contributions from the Los Angeles Museum Channel Islands biological survey, number 27 Flora of the Channel Islands National Monument [Anacapa and Santa Barbara islands] Bulletin, Southern California Academy of Sciences 41(3):125-137, 1942
» Plant Ecology of the Channel Islands of California Publications of the Allan Hancock Pacific Expedition 13(3):247-386, 1950.
San Clemente Island
4/2/1939 NMNH plants
July 22, 1934 [SBNP]: “Scientists sail for San Nicolas. The story of Juana Maria, the Indian woman who lived alone on San Nicolas Island for 18 years, is recalled with word that an expedition sailed from San Pedro yesterday for the Santa Barbara Channel to seek the home of the ‘female Robinson Crusoe of the Pacific.’ The story of Juana Maria is one of the most curious in all the history of this region. When the Indians were removed from the island to the mainland following an epidemic in 1835, Juana Maria was left behind. The story has it that she left the boat to find her baby and the boat sailed without her. The baby died, but Juana Maria lived there alone for 18 years, catching fish and birds for her food. She was taken off the island by the late Captain Nidever of Santa Barbara, a sea otter hunter and trapper, who brought her to his Santa Barbara home, but she died soon after. The expedition is led by Arthur Woodward, director of history and anthropology at the Los Angeles museum, and includes Captain C. H. Groat, Don Meadows, Jack Von Bloeker, Meryl B. Dunkle, Lloyd Martin, George Kanakoff, Russell Spring and Jewel Lewis.”
