The Administrative History of San Miguel Island: the National Park Service on San Miguel from 1963 to 2016

Abstract

In 2013, retired Park Ranger Mike Hill proposed writing the administrative history of the National Park Service (NPS) on San Miguel Island. An administrative history is the agency history of the NPS at a particular park, or in this case, on a particular island. Toward that end, 5 of the park rangers who have served as San Miguel Island Ranger gathered on that island in November 2013, along with former Superintendent Bill Ehorn and Chief of Cultural Resources Ann Huston. They reflected on years spent on San Miguel and recorded oral history interviews about those times. This paper traces the history of the National Park Service on San Miguel Island. A written agreement with the Navy in 1963 initiated NPS involvement in research and management on the island. That agreement opened the way for a further agreement in 1976 which placed park rangers on the island and opened the island to public visitation. Park facilities, visitor services, and resource management activities expanded over the following years. Visitor use came to an abrupt halt in 2014 when the U.S. Navy closed the island due to concerns over unexploded ordnance from practice bombing and missile tests. In 2016 the island was reopened. This paper draws upon 40 years of ranger station logbooks, oral history interviews from the 2013 San Miguel Ranger Reunion, and other NPS records.