Santa Rosa is located about 26 miles (42 km) off the coast of Santa Barbara, California in Santa Barbara County.
History
During the last ice age it, and the other three northern Channel Islands, were conjoined into Santa Rosae, a single island that was only five miles (eight kilometers) off the coast.
Archeologists have discovered the remains of 13,000 year-old Arlington Springs Woman, among the oldest human remains in the Americas, on Santa Rosa Island. Pygmy Mammoths (Mammuthus exilis) have also been excavated there.
Its previous owner, Vail & Vickers of Santa Barbara, had owned the island since 1902 and sold it for $30 million to the federal government in 1986. The company retained the right to lease the island until 2011, for ranching and game hunting operations. The last domestic cattle were shipped off the island in 1998 but Kaibab Mule Deer and Roosevelt Elk remain
Wildlife
A variety of the Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana var. insularis) grows exclusively on the island. If it were considered as a separate species, it could have once been one of the rarest pine in the world. However, the population has grown from about 100 trees in the early 20th century to over 2000 trees today. The Island Oak (Quercus tomentella) is native to the island.
External links
Santa Rosa Island (http://www.nps.gov/chis/sripage.htm) from the National Park Service
History of the island (http://www.west.net/~scifmail/rosahist.html) from the Santa Cruz Island Foundation
Island Packers often travels on the south side of the Santa Cruz Island coastline and returns from SantaRosa on the north side of Santa Cruz where a view of Painted Cave, the largest and deepest sea cave in the world, is afforded.
SantaRosa is the most historically interesting, and the most wide open of the larger islands for those who want to do some independent exploring.
California's natural splendor is what you'll discover on a trip to the islands where you may view cormorants, seals, sea lions and endangered California brown pelicans near a giant kelp forests shelter with more than 1,000 species of ocean life.
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