Nightshade

Santa Catalina Island, commonly known as Catalina Island, is a rocky island located about 22 miles of the coast of Southern California. Part of the Channel Islands archipelago, Catalina is approximately 22 miles long and eight miles across at its widest point. The island is known for its rugged beauty, clear waters, and Mediterranean climate, which have made it a popular tourist destination for over a century, despite its relative isolation from the mainland. Most of the island’s 4,200 full-time residents live in the city of Avalon, the island’s primary harbor. The tension between mainland Californians and Catalina Island locals is an important thread in Nightshade, which takes place almost entirely on the island.

Catalina Island was originally inhabited by the Tongva, an Indigenous people who called the island “Pimu” and used it as a base for an expansive trade network that stretched along the California coast. In 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo claimed the island for the Spanish, naming it “San Salvador.” The island was renamed “Catalina” in 1602 when another Spanish explorer, Sebastian Vizcaino, landed safely on the island on St. Catherine’s day. In the late 18th century, Russian fur hunters began trapping sea otters on the island, decimating the local Indigenous population.