Castle Rock National Wildlife Refuge
| Castle Rock National Wildlife Refuge | |
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IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
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Castle Rock
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 Map of the United States
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| Location | Del Norte County, California, United States |
| Nearest city | Crescent City, California |
| Coordinates | 41°45′42″N 124°14′58″W / 41.76178°N 124.24952°WCoordinates: 41°45′42″N 124°14′58″W / 41.76178°N 124.24952°W |
| Area | 14 acres (0.057 km2) |
| Established | 1979 |
| Governing body | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |
| Website | Castle Rock National Wildlife Refuge |
Castle Rock National Wildlife Refuge is 0.5 miles (0.80 km) offshore from Crescent City in northern California. This coastal rock covers approximately 14 acres (57,000 m2), and rises steeply 335 feet (102 m) above sea level. The refuge provides an important sanctuary for the Aleutian cackling goose and nesting seabirds.
Tolowa people foraged on, but did not live on the island, their village sites were on the headlands near Castle Rock and towards Point St. George where the intertidal zone provided shellfish and seaweed.
The Tolowa hunted sea lions from 30 feet (9.1 m) to 40 feet (12 m) long sea-going canoes at St. George Reef and Castle Rock. They also hunted and ate sea otters, sea lions, whales, harbor and fur seals as well as birds, eggs and juvenile birds with the most common midden bird bones being from immature cormorants. In May, men would collect eggs to be eaten as well as blown empty and used to make decorative garlands. There are no known archaeological sites on the island.
White settlement in 1850 was followed by decimation of natives; only about 300 were still alive six years later. The island was claimed by the U.S. Government at the end of the 1800s, but from 1900 to 1920, it was being grazed by a private sheepherder with a cabin constructed for his use. Egg collectors and oologists visited from around 1917 to the 1960s. Private owners who planned to quarry rock for harbors and jetties bought Castle Rock from the U.S. Government in 1937. They also considered mining guano or building a tourist attraction on the island.
The island was proposed for protection following the rediscovery of the Aleutian cackling goose, which was thought to be extinct but was found to be using the island in the spring of 1975. At that time, the entire population of the species used the areas as a spring staging ground for their northward migrations. Castle Rock remained in private ownership until 1979, when the United States Fish and Wildlife Service purchased it from The Nature Conservancy to conserve habitat for marine mammals and seabirds.
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Wikipedia