Given that Baja California is an extremely long peninsula, it’s not unreasonable that explorers might think it was an island.

Ecologically speaking, California *is* an island in terms of species endemism. It’s probably only surpassed by Hawaii.

If Craigslist is the cheap-o version of Internet marketing, on the luxury end are the “virtual worlds” of Second Life

Maybe it can get a little complicated if used in a different way.

So why did early Euro explorers think California was an island?

1) Because the novel said so. Never underestimate the power of popular fiction to frame perceptions of reality.
2) Because fog common along the northern coast COULD have shrouded and obscured a passage (SF Bay was hidden from explorers for 200 years).
3) Because the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of Calif) and the spring-flooded San Joaquin Valley (mentioned above) sure make the mountainous coastal realm SEEM like an island, absent further exploration.

Biologically and geographically, the state is isolated from North America, as described in the seminal ecological study AN ISLAND CALLED CALIFORNIA by Elna Bakker. [Similarly, volcanic Lake County (north of San Francisco) is like an isolated island within the California ecolosphere.] And yes, tectonic motion will eventually make the area west of the San Andreas Fault a real physical island, but not in the manner described by Curt Gentry in his wonderful THE LAST DAYS OF THE LATE GREAT STATE OF CALIFORNIA. Not with a bang, but a whimper…

Yes, Baja California IS connected to mainland Mexico, but only by a narrow band of shallow Colorado River sediments. (A major highway parallels the US border now.) With the effective blockage of the Colorado, those sediments are no longer deposited west of Yuma. Global warming and rising sea levels could well see the erosion and drowning of that connecting strip, as the Gulf once more extends up to Palm Springs.

The same sea-level rise will also drown the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. The coastal Californias will then consist of a) a Northern Peninsula from Sausalito up to Whiskeytown, and b) the Longhorn Peninsulas from San Francisco down to Cabo San Lucas, connected to the mainland by the Transverse Ranges from Lompoc east to Las Vegas. From Redding to Sacramento to Fresno to Bakersfield, and the low Los Angeles basin, most of the major metro areas will drown. New ports will arise in the foothills. I can hardly wait. Heh heh.

Oh yeah, the writers of biblical texts had no idea of the existence or nature of California (or even of the Americas, Australia, etc) so biblical citations aren’t really applicable here.

Here seems some evidences of what I
just said:
1A. Zheng He’s map has a latitute
37 degree somehow SOUTH of todays map.
B. The southern cross stars in
the southern sky could be seen in Europe but not
anymore.
C. The tip of south America,
south africa, and india looks more
like some tailing evidences.
D. The four islands in the north pole disappeared.
E. There seems some historical events some leaders did not aware
the coming of the cold winter
and lose lot of troops possibly
because of that part of earth moving north from the middle of
the earth.
F. By comparing the maps of
1400 and 2000, it seems that the earth is moving north.
G. According to the thery of moving plates, long long ago
the land had only one piece called pangaea near the south pole.
2. I just found two passages in the
Bible which support my observation:
A. Genesis 10:25, the earth was divided.
B. Genesis 2:11 to 14. The first
river was east of California
with gold and precious red stones
(see also Genesis 10:29).
The second river was in Egypt.
The third and the fourth river
are still both in the middle east.
C. One could also have
Genesis 1:9.

It also seem to me that the earth
is
moving north.