Thread by @RetroCoast

🧵Abalonia: the island nation that never was.

Cortes Bank lays 100 miles off the coast of #California. It's rich with abalone and rises nearly to the ocean surface.

In 1966 a group of investors tried to sink a freighter on it and claim it as the new nation of Abalonia. #1960s

Lying 100 miles offshore, Cortes Bank sits in international waters- outside the jurisdiction of the USA.

The group planned to establish a cannery, a runway- even a casino.

They would get rich harvesting the bounty of Cortes Bank in their new island nation!

They brought a mothballed World War II freighter named the Jalisco out of storage in #SanFrancisco Bay and had her towed out to Cortes Bank.

Many investors had put their life savings into the project- and even mortgaged their houses.

Photo: the Jalisco under tow

Barges were loaded with boulders to drop on Cortes Bank, filling out the new island nation.

They even contracted with the City of #SanDiego to haul trash out to Cortes Reef and dump it to create the needed backfill.

Photo: Boulders loaded on a barge for the Cortes Bank project

But as the Jalisco was being maneuvered into place, a rogue wave 20 feet high lifted her up and smashed her on Cortes Bank, sinking her.

The crew ended up in the water & nearly drowned.
It was as if the great reef was protecting herself.

Photo: Jalisco sinking on Cortes Reef

The investors took a bath- literally and figuratively- and the project ended.

The FBI investigated. The US government quickly moved to claim Cortes Bank to prevent a repeat.

But what a dream it was- in the #1960s when everything seemed possible!

Photo: Cortes Bank today