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San Nicolas Island is the most remote of California's Channel Islands. It is part of Ventura County.
The 22 mile²/14,080 acre (57 km²/5,698 hectare) island is currently controlled by the United States Navy and is used as a weapons testing and training facility.
History
San Nic or SNI was originally the home of the Nicoleños people.
The Nicoleños were evacuated in the early 19th century by the padres of the California mission system after a series of conflicts with Aleutian and Russian hunter-traders. Within a few years of their removal from the island, the Nicoleño people and their unique language became extinct.
Island of the Blue Dolphins
The most famous resident of San Nicolas Island was the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, also known as Juana Maria; her real name was never known to anyone on the mainland. Left behind (explanations for this vary) when the rest of the Nicoleños were moved to the mainland, she resided on the barren island alone for 18 years before she was found by a sea-otter hunter in 1853. Brought back to the Santa Barbara Mission, she died within weeks, her system unprepared for the different nutritional and environmental conditions in central California.
Her story was the basis for Scott O'Dell's Newbery Medal-winning 1961 novel Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Rocket experiments
Between 1957 and 1973 several U.S. military research rockets were launched from San Nicolas Island. The launchpad was situated at 33°15' N and 119°30' W.
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