Tiburon, the Dying Empire

Tiburon, the Dying Empire A Trail of Graves Leads to This Isolated Isle Where Lives a Vanishing Tribe of Primitive Indians

Looking South toward Tiburon Island and the Gulf of California. The scene is between Seal Lion Bluffs and Rocky Point. Due to the configuration of the head of the gulf high tide is frequently 25 feet above low water mark. Tide at Guaymas, Sonora, is 30 inches. World travelers regard this part of the gulf as one of the finest fishing grounds in the world. The narrow high tide pool in the foreground has been used for centuries by the Papagos as a fish trap.

EARCH North America and you probably will not find a stranger place than Tiburon Island.

Its inhabitants, the Seri Indians, are as little known as their island empire, tucked away deep in the Gulf of Lower California.

Tiburon came to life recently when it was visited by two Arizonans. Figuratively speaking it came to life, for Tiburon is just about the last outpost of what is known as life. C. C. Ren and Joe Rosario of Ajo made the precarious journey to the isolated island at the behest of a New York animal collector.

It was by no means the first time white men had come face to face with the inhabitants of Tiburon. In 1540 some of Coronado's men visited the place and in 1894 and again in 1895, Dr. W. J. McGee, government explorer, led a small expedition among the Seris. Dr. McGee brought back all but little that is known of them.

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