Santa Cruz Island is the largest privately owned island off the Continental United States. The island encompasses 96 square miles or about 62,000 acres and is approximately 22 miles long. For comparison, it is over four times the size of Manhattan (22 square miles) or Bermuda (19 square miles), and is larger that the District of Columbia (61 square miles). It lies about 22-25 miles off the adjacent mainland coast of Santa Barbara, California. . In 1987, 9/10ths of the island passed to The Nature Conservancy with the death of its owner, Carey Stanton. The remaining 1/10th is owned by the Gherini family, the great grandchildren of Justinian Caire. In February 1997, the Gherini holdings will pass to the National Park Service for inclusion in the Channel Islands National Park.