President Roosevelt Establishes Channel Islands National Monument

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Proclamation 2281 on April 26, 1938, designating Anacapa and Santa Barbara Islands as Channel Islands National Monument under authority granted by the Antiquities Act. The proclamation identified the islands' scientific significance, citing the presence of Pleistocene elephant fossils, ancient tree remains, volcanic formations, and ongoing coastal erosion processes as warranting federal preservation. Management responsibility was assigned to the superintendent of Sequoia National Park. Advocacy for federal protection began in 1932 when the Bureau of Lighthouses proposed transferring the islands to the National Park Service. Biologist Theodore D. A. Cockerell of the University of Colorado provided critical scientific documentation between 1937 and 1938, characterizing the islands as possessing significance comparable to the Galapagos archipelago due to their endemic species and isolated ecosystems. His publications and specimen collections helped persuade the Park Service to accept the land transfer and pursue monument status. The initial designation encompassed only the two smallest islands in the eight-island Channel Islands chain. San Miguel, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa Islands remained excluded from federal protection due to private ownership and U.S. Navy operational control. This limitation would shape subsequent expansion efforts over the following four decades, culminating in the establishment of Channel Islands National Park in 1980.