Catalina Island

Eight decades ago, William Wrigley Jr. added amenities to the tiny harbor community of Avalon that transformed Catalina Island into a storied getaway for movie stars and the early power brokers of Los Angeles: steamships, hotels and a landmark "casino" building featuring a theater and a ballroom. In the 1960s, development slowed as big spenders and tourists gravitated toward newer resorts -- Disneyland, Palm Springs, Lake Arrowhead -- blossoming on the mainland.

In the end, the Great White Steamer was a great white elephant. The island town of Avalon didn't want the SS Catalina, which for 50 glorious years ferried about 25 million people to its shores. Neither did the Port of Los Angeles, or harbors in San Diego, Vancouver and Honolulu. And, finally, neither did the Port of Ensenada. That's why Mexican demolition workers are putting an end to a three-decade campaign to preserve the once-proud steamship by cutting the 302-foot vessel apart for scrap.

As rescue crews on Friday discovered the bodies of three people in the wreckage of an Orange County-based tour airplane that crashed in the rain on a remote Catalina Island hilltop, questions emerged about the pilot's qualifications to handle charter flights. A search-and-rescue team found the burned bodies after a helicopter spotted the downed plane on a hilltop area near Mt. Orizaba, southwest of Catalina's Airport in the Sky, said Sgt.

The wild fox population on Santa Catalina Island is so robust that biologists said Tuesday they may seek to have the small animals taken off the federal endangered species list next year.

In the wee hours one morning in 2006, the trawler Infidel sank off the southern end of Santa Catalina Island, taking several tons of squid and a 9,000-pound fishing net down with it. The Infidel came to rest on its keel, about 150 feet under the sea. But in the turbid currents, the fine-mesh hemp and polypropylene net -- 40 feet high, several hundred feet long and made to last thousands of years -- wrapped itself around the wreck and became a deadly snare for marine life.

An Indiana man charged with starting the Santa Catalina brush fire in May will face two felony counts of recklessly causing a fire, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said Tuesday. Gary Dennis Hunt, 49, will be brought to Los Angeles this week by arson investigators, and his arraignment is tentatively scheduled for Monday in Long Beach. Hunt was arrested Saturday in Indiana and waived extradition to Los Angeles.

From a breezy country club veranda overlooking the rooftops in the seaside resort village of Avalon, Robert Gonzalez waited anxiously Saturday for his name to be called by Mexican officials renewing his passport. Gonzalez, a 21-year-old construction worker and restaurant waiter who grew up on Santa Catalina Island, estimated he was saving hundreds of dollars by using the service provided by Mexican Consul General Juan Marcos Gutierrez-Gonzalez and 26 staffers who set up shop here for a day.

Three people were killed and three others were injured, two critically, when a sightseeing helicopter crashed Saturday morning near Two Harbors on the remote west side of Santa Catalina Island, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies said. The helicopter, registered to the sightseeing company Island Express, crashed about 9:30 a.m. near the Little Red Schoolhouse's baseball diamond, a short distance from the town's only hotel, the Banning House Lodge, Deputy Denise Fuchs said.

"You know parking's tough in L.A.," writes Keith Johnson, "when Parking Enforcement resorts to valet parking in order to get a spot" (see photo). Added Johnson: "Not sure if they were eating or citing." Chances are you haven't had to fill up your gas tank on Catalina Island lately, and you can count yourself lucky, as a snapshot from resident Bill Agresta illustrates (see photo). Worst bargain in L.A.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is cracking down on what officials describe as a small but disturbing gang problem on Santa Catalina Island. Sheriff's deputies assisted probation officers in a sweep across the island July 2, making five arrests. Most were members of the Brown Pride Locos. "Catalina is a very safe place, but there is a gang issue here," said Lt. Ed Cook, who is based on the island. "They aren't doing drive-by shootings or walk-by shootings. But gang members . . .