Two Harbors, California

Two Harbors, colloquially known as "The Isthmus", is a small unincorporated island village on Santa Catalina Island, California with a population of 298 (Census of 2000). It is the second center of population on the island, besides the city of Avalon.

Geography

Two Harbors is a small island village located approximately 37 km (23 miles) from San Pedro Harbor on Santa Catalina Island. On the Island's narrow isthmus, it is located about 16 km (10 miles) from the only city in the Island, Avalon. It is named for the two harbors separated by the 770 m section of land separating the leeward (northern) Isthmus Cove (aka Banning Harbor) and Catalina (or Cat) Harbor on the windward (southern) side, which together almost cut off the northwestern sixth (31.7 km²) from the main part of the island. 1.4 km northeast of Banning Harbor and 470 m northwest of the closest coastal point is Bird Rock, which is only 6312 m² in size.

It is mainly a resort village. It has only one restaurant, one hotel, and one general store. The village has about 150 permanent residents that live on the isthmus year-round. One notable feature is the little one-room schoolhouse where those who live on the isthmus can go to school without having to drive one hour.

History

The area where Two Harbors is located was originally referred to simply as the Isthmus of Catalina Island. By the 1860s, mining operations for silver, lead and zinc took place in the area. In 1864, during the Civil War, the Union Army sent 83 soldiers to both protect the area from Confederate privateers and survey the isthmus and adjacent Catalina Harbor for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a location for a future Indian reservation for "militant" tribes. [http://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi06b.htm] [http://www.visitcatalinaisland.com/twoHarbors/poin_civiWarBarracks.php] As a result, the Army built barracks on the isthmus. The barracks were later used to house visiting film crews in the 1920s and 1930s, a contingent of the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, and in 1951 became the home of the Isthmus Yacht Club.

An infamous Chinese ship, the "Ning Po", built in China in 1753 as a merchant ship before getting involved in over a century of war, rebellion and piracy before being sold and converted into a Southern California a tourist attraction in 1913, burned off the western shore in the late 1910s. [http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/58october/ningpo.htm] [http://www.visitcatalinaisland.com/twoHarbors/poin_ningPo.php]

Transportation

Two Harbors is served by ferry lines with regular daily service to San Pedro and Marina del Rey. A helicopter can also be chartered to the village. The Catalina Airport-In-The-Sky is 10 miles away to the east.

Most people generally walk, but shuttles are available and full-sized motor vehicles are available.

To get around the island from Two Harbors, one can get a bus that can take them anywhere on the Island, or one can hike.

Education

Primary and secondary schools

Two Harbors is part of the Long Beach Unified School District. Young children in Two Harbors attend the one-room school, Two Harbors Elementary School in Two Harbors. Older children attend the middle school and high school at Avalon.

Colleges and universities

The USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies is an environmental research and education facility run by the University of Southern California in Two Harbors. The campus consists of a 2,800 square-meter (30,000 square-foot) laboratory building, a dormitory housing, a cafeteria, a hyperbaric chamber, and a large waterfront staging area complete with dock, pier, helipad, and diving lockers. The facility was made possible by a donation from the Wrigley family and was named for Philip K. Wrigley.

External links

* [http://www.catalinaconservancy.org/ The Catalina Island Conservancy]
* [http://www.scico.com/ The Santa Catalina Island Company]
* [http://www.scico.com/twoharbors/ Two Harbors]
* [http://www.catalinaexpress.com Catalina Express]
* [http://www.catalinaferries.com/marina-del-rey-two-harbors.html Catalina Ferries]