John Brownlee

The Island of California

One of the most common Californian doomsday scenarios posited by science fiction is that it will one day break off from the mainland into its own island. Strangely enough, though, in the history of cartography, a similar belief was held about California’s continental autonomy from the very beginning. In fact, California was named after a […]

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One of the most common Californian doomsday scenarios posited by science fiction is that it will one day break off from the mainland into its own island. Strangely enough, though, in the history of cartography, a similar belief was held about California's continental autonomy from the very beginning.

In fact, California was named after a popular romantic novel written in 1510, Sergas de Esplandian by Gardi Rodriguez de Montalvo.

...on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of the Amazons.

It was only until 200 years later that Father Eusebio Kino proved that the Californian peninsula is connected to the continent in the north.

The Island of California [Strange Maps]