Schubert’s Harbor, San Clemente Island
Schubert’s Harbor, San Clemente Island
In the News~
September 2, 1891 [LAH]: “The sheep men have no lease to the island. A San Diego County Surveyor enthuses over the place. Land as good as found anywhere. The climate perfect. Ex-supervisor Oscar Macy was seen by a Herald Examiner reporter yesterday and asked about San Clemente Island. He stated that the Wool Growers’ company in which he was interested had no claim to the island beyond that of using it as a pasture. He did not think, however, that people would care to settle on it to any great extent. The San Diegan, of Monday, contains the following matter apropos: ‘A good deal of interest is just now being manifested in San Clemente Island, which lies forty miles off the coast due west from Del Mar. It has been supposed by most people that the island was personal property through the operation of a Mexican land grant, but a search of the records show that it is ordinary government land, and as open to entry by homesteaders as any other unsurveyed government land. The result of this discovery is that a number of people from Los Angeles have gone “west” to San Clemente and staked out homestead claims. There is also talk here of organizing a party for the same purpose. Last May County Surveyor Allen, acting as United States deputy surveyor, went to San Clemente with a force of men and ran lines for three light house reservations and for a road to connect them all. The land lays somewhat in the form of a pyramid, the north end tapering to quite a narrow point, and the south end or base being broader. A light house reservation was staked off at the two corners of the base or south end, and at the north end, called Schubert’s Harbor. Mr. Allen said today his surveyors showed the island to be 20 miles long and from 2 to 6 miles wide. Portions of it are plenty high enough to keep people out of the mud, the altitude in places reaching 1900 feet. The shore next to San Diego is almost a wall, the bluffs rising from the water at an angle of 45 feet up to about the highestthe highest elevation of the island. From the crest of this bluff the land slopes gently to the waters’ edge on the west. The southern third of the island is broken and full of canyons, of value only as reservoirs for water caught by winter rains. The northern two-thirds is fairly level, the slope being to the west and north. At the extreme northern end the land is sandy, but the middle belt is of adobe foundation, “and when I was there,” said Surveyor Allen, “was covered with fileria two feet high. There are in fact,” he said, “thousands of acres of as good land there as there is anywhere in the world, and the climate tempered by the ocean, is perfect.” Up to a short time ago, it was supposed no fresh water could be obtained except that which was caught in the canyons, but a well was then dug and reasonably good water was found. The absence of water is the chief obstacle to a residence and cultivation of the soil, however. Tom Gallagher has for over twenty years been the sole occupant of the land, which has been used as a free sheep pasture by the San Clemente Wool Grower’s Association. Indian mounds and relics found there make the place of historic interest.”
