It strikes me as odd that there has never been a mention on this forum of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, Juana Maria, who survived alone on this island for eighteen years (at least) after the removal by the Spanish of every other island inhabitant in 1835. Located once again in 1853 by George Nidever, she was taken to Santa Barbara, where she died after seven weeks on the mainland of "dysentery." most likely related to the abrupt change in diet she experienced. No one was ever found who could speak her language and communicate easily with her. Scott Odell's classic [/u]Island of the Blue Dolphin[u] has introduced generations of students to a romanticized version of her saga.

A good summary of her story can be found on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juana_Maria

There are questions about many of the details of her story, but it is clear that she lived alone for a very long time. A knife she was using at the time of her recovery is described as a piece of iron hoop set in a handle of rough wood- doesn't sound like a very good substitute for modern alloys, and not what any of us would wish to have for a survival experience of this duration. One source states that she carried a bone knife, somewhat like a dagger, used for defensive purposes. She also possessed a waterproof basketry canteen, and a skirt made from cormorant feathers. All of these items have now been lost.

Mulling over her tale, it struck me that, as far as i can tell, there is no record of anyone living alone for this long a period. Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, was stranded for four years. Any thoughts?

She was no hermit, but Dorothy Molter lived up here in the Minnesota Boundary Waters alone for 56 years with no electricity, telephone or utilities. She made a little money selling home made rootbeer to canoe travelers. Heres a link to a little more info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Molter

Unsurprising that she would die of 'dysentery' shortly after 'rescue'. Most water supplies in that day were contaminated with some small percentage of sewage. Infants in the area either died or adapted. Adults were immune to the established level of pollution.

Juana Maria, living well away from humans, and completely innocent to regular low-level exposure to human waste, was immunologically unprepared to deal with it.

The bone and iron hoop knifes are instructive of how effective even a simple, low-tech tool can be. Given a wonder alloy modern knife she would have recognized the advantages. But pig iron and bone work far better than no knife.

Just as a related heads-up, Santa Barbara has an excellent exhibit on Chumash Indian civilization in the SoCal area at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum, including quite a few artifacts. I read somewhere that the largest collection of Chumash artifacts was not in California, but oddly, in France.

Definitely not true at the present. A French archaeologist named de Cessac made a very nice early collection (1880s) which has some outstanding material, much of which is unavailable today, but excavations since that time have increased the quantity of Chumash material found, most of which is in local institutions. The Santa Barbara Museum of natural history houses a great deal of material, including the growing collection from Channel Islands National Park.

This later material at the museum has some notable material as well, such as the earliest human skeletal material from North America (Arlington Man from Santa Rosa Island). UCLA, UCSB, the University of Oregon, and the Los Angeles Museum of Natural history also house some really significant stuff. And more is coming in as research on the islands continues.

Juana Maria's cormorant skirt was presumably sent to the Vatican; if it ever was there, it is now lost. Her water bottle and some other artifacts went up in smoke in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Navy archaeologists have located the remains of her dwelling on San Nicolas.

That is an amazing tale of survival. She made do with what she had or what she could improvise from the natural resources available to her. She obviously didn't waste a thing (the wiki article mentioned some needles made from bone). Quite obviously, her skills were more important than the quality of her equipment.

And living alone for that long just goes to show there are always exceptions to the rule of threes.

Wow. Thats crazy. There was a Japanese soldier on the Island of Guam that when it was liberated in 1944 went into hiding and remained hidden until 1972, making him the last soldier in the war to surrender.

IIRC he was not totally alone, having gone into hiding with about a dozen other soldiers but most died pretty quickly. The last 3 separated after hiding about ten years together and they tried to hook up annually but he found them both dead in the early 1960s of starvation.

I lived on Guam for a bit, there was a very small museum for him, with some of this clothes and tools. He was a garment maker before being drafted so he made outfits from vines and coconut.

Lived in a tunnel in double canopy jungle, near a river living on shrimp, bananas, coconuts, roots and such. Was found by some local fisherman.

He had no idea the Japanese had surrendered. I recall he made a statement about the way airliners in the sky had changed. (Guam international airport located in the middle of the island, through the mid 1990s shared its runway with the US Navy. You'd see a 747 land, then a B-1 Bomber take off.)

Interesting. The military flew me to Korea in 1960 and we refueled in Guam. It was my first flight on a jet. This guy could have ended his isolation at any time, had he so chosen.

Weren't there holdouts on other islands in the Pacific as well?

There were, but none lasting as long nor one on such a populated island.

http://www.wanpela.com/holdouts/list.html