Toyon Bay
Toyon Bay is located on Catalina Island off the coast of California. Originally inhabited by a group of natives called Pipi Mari, and the Torqua, after whom a nearby spring is named. In the early 1900s, it was the site of a boys' boarding school. During World War II, the boys were evacuated and the facility was turned into an Office of Strategic Services training camp. Chinese and American men were trained in guerrilla warfare for use behind Japanese lines in China. The Office of Strategic Services was the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency. After the war, it saw time as a boarding school, a singing camp, resort in the 1950s and was later abandoned.
In 1979, it was purchased by Guided Discoveries, Inc. and has since been run as the Catalina Island Marine Institute, a marine science facility for school children and summer campers.
