Cedros Island (''Isla de Cedros'', "island of cedars" in Spanish) is an island in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

belonging to the state of

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. The dry and rocky island had a population of 1,350 in 2005 and has an area of which includes the area of several small nearby islands. Cedros Island is mountainous, reaching a maximum elevation of . The economy is based on commercial fishing and salt production. Cedros has a distinctive flora and the traces of some of the earliest human beings in the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

. The ocean around the island is popular with sport fishermen. There was human presence of the island already about 11,000 years ago. The Native American inhabitants when the island was first visited by Spanish explorers in the 16th century called it Huamalgua, the "Island of Fogs." The native inhabitants have been given the name Huamalgueños by modern day scholars. They were relocated to the mainland of Baja California by

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionaries in 1732 and ceased to exist as an identifiable people.

Geography

Cedros Island is located in

Ensenada Municipality Ensenada is a municipalities of Mexico, municipality in the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, state of Baja California. It is the fourth-largest municipality in the country, with a land area of in 2020, making slightly smaller than the state of ...

, off the west coast of the

Mexican state A Mexican State (), officially the Free and Sovereign State (), is a constituent federative entity of Mexico according to the Constitution of Mexico. Currently there are 31 states, each with its own constitution, government, state governor, a ...

, from which it is separated by Sebastián Vizcaíno Bay. It is northwest of Punta Eugenia in Mulegé Municipality - the westernmost point of the state of

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur, is a state in Mexico. It is the 31st and last state to be admitted, in 1974. It is also the second least populated Mexican state and the ninth-largest state by ...

mainland. It also lies north of Isla Natividad (off Punta Eugenia, and also part of Mulegé Municipality) from which it is separated by the Canal de Keller, and some from

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. The island has an area of , being the fourth-largest island in Mexico (following

Tiburón Island Tiburón Island is the largest island in the Gulf of California and the largest island in Mexico, with an area of . It is uninhabited and it was made a nature reserve in 1963 by President Adolfo López Mateos. Etymology is Spanish language, Spa ...

Isla Ángel de la Guarda Isla Ángel de la Guarda, (Guardian Angel Island) also called Archangel Island, is a large uninhabited island in the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) east of Bahía de los Ángeles in northwestern Mexico, separated from the Baja Peninsula, Baja ...

, and

Cozumel Cozumel (; ) is an island and municipality in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen. It is separated from the mainland by the Cozumel Channel and is close to the Yucatán Channel. The ...

). It has a maximum length of approximately , and a maximum width of about . Between Cedros Island and Isla Natividad runs the 28th parallel north, which defines the border between the Mexican states of

and

. The Islas San Benito to the west, about west and in area, are administratively part of Cedros Island. The ''Isla de Cedros'' was named by early Spanish explorers who mistakenly associated the large amounts of

redwood Sequoioideae, commonly referred to as redwoods, is a subfamily of Pinophyta, coniferous trees within the family (biology), family Cupressaceae, that range in the Northern Hemisphere, northern hemisphere. It includes the List of superlative tree ...

and cedar

driftwood Driftwood is a wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea, lake, or river by the action of winds, tides or waves. It is part of beach wrack. In some waterfront areas, driftwood is a major nuisance. However, the driftwood provides ...

arriving with the California current for local

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

s visible on the crest of the island. The two main elevations are Cedros hill, located at the south-center of the island, and Pico Gill to the north.

Climate

Cedros Island has a desert climate, BWh in the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system and BWab (desert, hot summers, warm winters) in the

Trewartha climate classification The Trewartha climate classification (TCC), or the Köppen–Trewartha climate classification (KTC), is a climate classification system first published by American geographer Glenn Thomas Trewartha in 1966. It is a modified version of the Köp ...

. Most precipitation occurs during the winter. The only weather station on the island is located on the southeastern coast. The northern and western parts of the island are several degrees cooler because the cold waters surrounding the island cause heavy fog and clouds, especially during spring and summer. The condensation from the fog permits lusher vegetation to flourish, similar to the "fog oases" ( lomas) of the arid Pacific Coast of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. Precipitation is also greater at the higher elevations of the island, reaching possible annual totals of . Rarely, heavy rains caused by unstable tropical air masses and chubascos cause flooding.

Population and settlements

It constitutes one of the 24 subdivisions (''delegaciones'') of the

municipio A ' () or ' () is an administrative division in several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. It is often translated as "municipality." It comes from ''mūnicipium'' (), meaning a township. In English, a municipality often is define ...

of Ensenada. The 2005 census showed a total population of 1,350 persons. The

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

"seat" is Cedros, also known as Isla Cedros or Cedros town ("Pueblo Cedros"), on the southeast coast. The town was founded by fishermen in 1922, and in 2010 the town had a population of 747 people. The local economy is dependent on fishing, and largely associated with ''Pescadores Nacionales de Abulón'', the

lobster Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...

and

abalone Abalone ( or ; via Spanish , from Rumsen language, Rumsen ''aulón'') is a common name for any small to very large marine life, marine gastropod mollusc in the family (biology), family Haliotidae, which once contained six genera but now cont ...

fishing

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

based on the island. The second town is Puerto Morro Redondo (in short, El Morro), close to the southeastern point of the island, El Morro. It is a "company town," built by the joint

Mexican Government The Federal government of Mexico (alternately known as the Government of the Republic or ' or ') is the national government of the United Mexican States, the central government established by its constitution to share sovereignty over the republ ...

and

Mitsubishi Corporation is a Japanese general trading company ( ''sogo shosha'') and a core member of the Mitsubishi Group. For much of the post-war period, Mitsubishi Corporation has been the largest of the five great ''sogo shosha'' (Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Itochu, S ...

to house the workers of the salt-

transshipment Transshipment, trans-shipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination. One possible reason for transshipment is to change the means of transport during the journey (e.g. ...

facility on the island. Salt from the

salt evaporation pond A salt evaporation pond is a shallow artificial salt pan designed to extract salts from sea water or other brines. The salt pans are shallow and expansive, allowing sunlight to penetrate and reach the seawater. Natural salt pans are formed thr ...

s of Guerrero Negro on the Baja California peninsula is taken by barge to a deepwater salt dock near Puerto Morro Redondo, at the south end of Cedros Island, where it is loaded onto ships for export. There is regularly scheduled air service to the island from Ensenada, departing every Monday and Wednesday, and landing at an airstrip at the south end, adjacent to the "company town," while a road leads to "Pueblo Cedros". Open launch rides across the channel between Cedros and the mainland can also be arranged at the Abarrotes Ramales store in Bahia Tortugas, but travellers opting for this transport should be prepared to have a flexible schedule with several extra days in case of inclement weather conditions in the Channel. The remaining settlements are smaller. Jerusalem is just west of El Morro, but on the western side of the airport, with regularly arranged residential units. It is frequently considered part of El Morro. Lomas Blancas, a mining town with 17 buildings, is located between Cedros town and El Morro. San Agustín, a typical fishing village with about 20 buildings, is located northeast of the southwestern point of the island, Cabo San Agustín. La Colorada, on the southwest coast, with about 10 buildings, is north of San Agustín. Wayle, 15 buildings on the western side of the southern bight ''Bahía del Sur'', is northeast of San Agustín. The mining town of Punta Norte (about 25 buildings) is located on the northeast coast, southeast of the northern end of the island, which is also called Punta Norte. to the southeast is Los Crestones mine. List of settlements and locations: #Cedros, #Puerto Morro Redondo, #Jerusalem, #Lomas Blancas, #San Agustín, #La Colorada, #Wayle, #Punta Norte,

Archaeology

The long-held theory that the first human beings in the Americas arrived by land through an ice-free corridor in western Canada has been called into question by archaeological discoveries along the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

coastlines of North and South America. Many scientists now believe that the earliest inhabitants arrived by boat, and findings on Cedros Island bolster that theory. The

Clovis culture The Clovis culture is an archaeological culture from the Paleoindian period of North America, spanning around 13,050 to 12,750 years Before Present (BP). The type site is Blackwater Draw locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, where stone too ...

, which began about 11,200 BCE, is the earliest universally acknowledged evidence of man in the Americas; but the remains of ancient people dating to earlier than 10,000 BCE have been found on Cedros Island. Cedros Island was attractive to humans because of its rich marine environment and its relative abundance of water compared to most of the desert coastline of Baja California. The early people of Cedros Island fished, gathered

shellfish Shellfish, in colloquial and fisheries usage, are exoskeleton-bearing Aquatic animal, aquatic invertebrates used as Human food, food, including various species of Mollusca, molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish ...

, and hunted

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

sea lion Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear flaps, long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, short and thick hair, and a big chest and belly. Together with the fur seals, they make up the family Otariidae, eared seals. ...

s, and

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s. Ancient spear points and shell fishhooks found on Cedros are similar to those found in a semi-circle of the Pacific coastline from

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. The fishhooks made of shell found on Cedros Island indicate a marine, sea-going culture some 6,000 years before similar cultures are known to have existed on the coast and islands of California.

Earliest fishhooks in the Americas

The discovery of the earliest fishhooks in the Americas was reported from Cedros Island in 2017. They date to about 11,000 B.P. The people making these fishhooks were fishing for deepwater species, which indicates that they were using boats. Similar fishhooks have also been reported from Isla Espíritu Santo, also in Baja California.

History

; Spanish colonial period In 1539, when the Spanish expedition led by Francisco de Ulloa landed on the island, it encountered several villages with populations at each estimated in the hundreds. Finding it difficult to reach the remaining natives on the island, the

missionaries practiced Indian reductions and brought them all to Misión San Ignacio Kadakaamán, in San Ignacio on the Baja California mainland in 1732. Hunters seeking

s and

sea otter The sea otter (''Enhydra lutris'') is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between , making them the heaviest members of ...

s worked out the island between 1790 and 1850. ;20th century

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

and

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

mining took place near Punta Norte between 1890 and 1914. The fishing village and cannery at Puerto Cedros were established in 1920. The fishing cooperative was founded in 1943, and the deepwater salt dock at the south end of the island was built in 1966. The island was mapped in detail by Mexican and U.S. geologists during the 1970s.

Natural history

Cedros Island is at most some long in N-S direction and wide in the northern half; the southern end is some wide in a NW-SE direction. The island consists of a variety of sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks, including part of an

ophiolite An ophiolite is a section of Earth's oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle (Earth), upper mantle that has been uplifted and exposed, and often emplaced onto continental crustal rocks. The Greek word ὄφις, ''ophis'' (''snake'') is ...

complex and high-pressure, low temperature

blueschist Blueschist (), also called glaucophane schist, is a metavolcanic rock that forms by the metamorphism of basalt and similar rocks at relatively low temperatures () but very high overburden pressure, pressure corresponding to a depth of . The b ...

s. Most of the rocks are of Mesozoic age, though some late

Cenozoic The Cenozoic Era ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, insects, birds and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three g ...

strata crop out near the town in the southeastern corner of the island. Its highest peak, Monte Cedros, has an elevation of .

Flora

The most common vegetation for more than 90 percent of the land on the island is desert scrub of many different species. The lower elevations, especially the south, receive very sparse rainfall. However, the northern and western parts of the island are often shrouded in fog, and some plants have adapted to receiving moisture from fog. The fog, plus the slightly greater rainfall at higher elevations, has permitted the existence of

Monterey pine ''Pinus radiata'' (synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''Pinus insignis''), the Monterey pine, insignis pine or radiata pine, is a species of pine native to the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California and Mexico (on Guadalupe Island and Ced ...

forests at elevations of to where the influence of the fog is most intense. The pine forests are scattered and only cover 0.46 percent of the total area of the island. The pines grow to a height of up to . California juniper are also found at similar altitudes, covering 0.05 percent of the land area. At the highest elevations of the island, above and mixed in with the pine forests,

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

vegetation is found. The chaparral averages in height and consists of several woody species including Quercus cedrosensis, the Cedar Island live oak. Chaparral covers 2.4 percent of the land area of Cedros Island. Vargas or El Aguaje de Vargas is the most important spring, with a flow of 180 drums of 200 L or 55 US gal every 12 hours; springs on the island are usually marked by groves of palm trees.

Fauna

Large

colonies are found on the rocks on the west side as well as the anchorage on the north end. There are feral

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

s on Cedros. Unlike on other islands in the region (notably

Guadalupe Island Guadalupe Island () is a volcanic island located off the western coast of Mexico's Baja California peninsula and about southwest of the city of Ensenada in the state of Baja California, in the Pacific Ocean. The various volcanoes are extinc ...

), they do not seem to have had a significant impact on the island ecosystem. This would be due to the fact that Cedros is on the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

close to the coast and, at least temporarily, it was connected to the mainland during the last ice age when

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

s were lower than today. Then, and as a consequence of this, there are native Cedros

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat ...

s, such as Cedros Island mule deer which on one hand compete with the goat population for food and presumably have kept it from increasing beyond

carrying capacity The carrying capacity of an ecosystem is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as the ...

, and on the other hand forced the native plants to keep their defenses against herbivores, unlike plants on islands without

megaherbivore Megaherbivores (Greek :wiktionary:μέγας, μέγας megas "large" and Latin ''herbivora'' "herbivore") are large herbivores that can exceed in weight. The earliest herbivores to reach such sizes like the Pareiasauria, pareiasaurs appeare ...

s, which tend to lack those defenses. Fish are abundant around Cedros Island. California yellowtail, a subspecies of yellowtail amberjack, are very plentiful in the waters around the island, as it is their breeding ground. These fish like to live in the kelp beds of the island. Other fish, such as calico bass and sheepshead are also very plentiful near the island.

Endemism

Cedros Island is home to a number of

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

that are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

or occur in very few places outside the island. These include: ;Animals: * Cedros side-blotched lizard, '' Uta stansburiana concinna'' - endemic * Cedros Island Bewick's wren, ''Thryomanes bewickii cerroensis'' - near-endemic * Cedros Island mule deer, ''Odocoileus hemionus cerrosensis'' - endemic * Cedros Island brush rabbit, ''Sylvilagus bachmani cerrosensis'' - endemic - * Cedros Island cactus mouse, ''Peromyscus eremicus cedrosensis'' - endemic - ;Plants:CMICD (2007) *''Cryptantha maritima'' var. ''cedrosensis'' - endemic *''Dudleya cedrosensis'' - endemic * '' Dudleya pachyphytum'' (Cedros Island Liveforever) - endemic * '' Eriogonum molle'' (Cedros soft buckwheat) - endemic * '' Ferocactus chrysacanthus'' - endemic * ''Harfordia macroptera'' ssp. ''fruticosa'' - endemic * '' Linanthus veatchii'' - endemic * ''Lotus cedrosensis'' - endemic * ''Mammillaria goodridgei'' var. ''goodridgei'' - endemic * ''Mammillaria goodridgei'' var. ''rectispina'' - endemic * '' Diplacus stellatus'' - endemic * ''Monardella thymifolia'' - endemic * '' Penstemon cerrosensis'' (Cedros Island penstemon) - endemic * ''Pinus radiata'' var. ''binata'' (Guadalupe Island Monterey pine) — near-endemic; ''possibly separable as var./ssp. ''cedrosensis'' and in this case endemic''. * ''Porophyllum cedrense'' - endemic * '' Quercus cedrosensis'' (Cedros Island oak) — near-endemic * ''

Rhus integrifolia ''Rhus integrifolia'', also known as lemonade sumac, lemonade berry, or lemonadeberry, is a shrub to small tree in the sumac genus '' Rhus''. It is native to the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges and the South Coast regions of Southern Califor ...

'' var. ''cedrosensis'' - endemic * '' Salvia cedrosensis'' (Cedros Island sage) - endemic * ''Senecio cedrosensis'' - endemic * ''Verbesina hastata'' - endemic *''Xylonagra arborea'' ssp. ''arborea'' - endemic

Footnotes

References

* (2007)
Plant accounts: Guadalupe Island
Retrieved 2007-OCT-10. * (2007):
Principales resultados por localidad 2005 (ITER)
' Principal results of the 2005 census by locality" n Spanish Retrieved 2007-OCT-10. * (2007): /nowiki>Google Earth satellite image of Cedros Island">Google_Earth.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Google Earth">/nowiki>Google Earth satellite image of Cedros Island Retrieved 2007-OCT-10. * Núñez Tapia, Francisco Alberto (2021): Ahoy, Red Rock! —American Mining Investors in Cedros Island, Baja California. Journal of the Southwest, 63 (1): 1–38. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/145/article/793297 * (1907): Birds Collected by W. W. Brown, Jr., on Cerros , San Benito and Natividad Islands in the Spring of 1906, with Notes on the Biota of the Islands. ''Condor (journal)">Condor Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua language, Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. One species, the And ...