COLONISTS TO SAN CRISTOBAL ISLAND

 

Friends and family bid farewell
to the old motorship ALERT as it sails
from Seattle carrying the first load 
of colonists to San Cristobal Island 
in the Galapagos Archipelago. 
The leaders hope to have a cooperative 
colony of 500 people settled on the island
off the coast of Ecuador by autumn. 
Photo date May 1960.
Low-res scan of a gelatin-silver photograph 
from the archives of
the Saltwater People Historical Society©

A report the following spring. 

Seattle Times, 6 March 1961

"The Galapagos Island group is no place for a 'gringo,' according to Charles Harrison Jr, Kenmore, who was the last of the Seattle-area colonists to leave the islands with his family.
      Harrison, his wife, and two sons, Ronnie, 15, and Mike, 13, were glad to be back at their home today after nearly a year's absence.
      That year included six months of living 'like animals' on San Cristobal Island, where the colonization venture of a group of Pacific Northwest families fell flat.
      'It was HOT and uncomfortable with nothing to do to make a living. There was no organization and there never was––each family contributed $2,500 for the privilege of the so-called colonizing.
      A 'gringo' can't compete with the natives, who work for $1.50 a day. Sanitation conditions were rotten. There was no electricity the last two or three months and consequently no refrigeration.
      Most people arrived there almost broke–– We had money to get out. That's why we stuck it out as long as we did.
      San Cristobal is the only island in the group with fresh water, but you couldn't drink it without getting dysentery.'
      Harrison said the venture had cost him close to $10,000.
      'But we learned a lot. The youngsters learned to speak Spanish. They learned the ways of the natives there and learned to fish for stingrays and moray eels.
      But all the time they were there, although they were having a good time they said, they would rather be back in Seattle. They appreciate their home now."