San Nicolas Island is the most remote of California's Channel Islands. It is part of Ventura County. The 14,562 acre (58.93 km² or 22.753 sq mi) island is currently controlled by the United States Navy and is used as a weapons testing and training facility, served by Naval Outlying Field San Nicolas Island. The uninhabited island is defined by the United States Census Bureau as Block Group 9, Census Tract 36.04 of Ventura County, California. Although the island is officially uninhabited as of 2000 U.S. Census, it is estimated that the number of military and civilian personnel on the island numbers at least 200 at any given time. The island has a small airport and several buildings, including telemetry reception antennas. San Nicolas Island serves as a detachment of Naval Base Ventura County. In addition to Port Huaneme and Point Mugu, San Nicolas Island is military owned and operated. Official updates regarding the island and it's inhabitants, to include contact information and biographies, can be found at the CNIC NBVC Website. The most famous resident of San Nicolas Island was the "Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island", christened Juana Maria; her birth name was never known to anyone on the mainland. She was left behind (explanations for this vary) when the rest of the Nicoleños were moved to the mainland. She resided on the island alone for 18 years before she was found by Captain George Nidever and his crew in 1853 and brought back to Santa Barbara. She died seven weeks later, her system unprepared for the different nutritional and environmental conditions on the California mainland. Her story was the basis for Scott O'Dell's Newbery Medal-winning 1960 novel Island of the Blue Dolphins.
