Father González Rubio made the following entry in the Mission's Book of Burials: "On October 19, 1853 I gave ecclesiastical burial in the cemetery to the remains of Juana Maria, the Indian woman brought from San Nicolas Island and, since there was no one who could understand her language, she was baptized conditionally by Fr. Sanchez." In 1928, a plaque commemorating her was placed at the site by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Juana Maria's water basket, clothing and various artifacts, including bone needles which had been brought back from the island, were part of the collections of the California Academy of Sciences, but were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Her cormorant feather dress was apparently sent to the Vatican, but it appears to have been lost. In 1939, archaeologists discovered Juana Maria's whale-bone hut on the northernmost end of San Nicolas, the highest point of the island. The location of the hut exactly matched the descriptions left by Nidever. In 2012, archaeologist Steven J. Schwartz reported finding a site that may have been Juana Maria's cave. In 2009, University of Oregon archaeologist Jon Erlandson found two Nicoleño-style redwood boxes eroding from a sea cliff, covered by a whale rib and associated with several asphaltum-coated woven water bottles, and threatened with destruction from winter storms. The site is located on the northwest coast of San Nicolas, where Juana Maria is believed to have spent much of her time. The boxes, salvaged by Erlandson, René Vellanoweth, Lisa Thomas-Barnett, and Troy Davis, contained more than 200 artifacts, including bird-bone pendants, abalone shell dishes and fish hooks, soapstone ornaments, sandstone abraders, red ochre, a Nicoleño harpoon tip, glass projectile points and metal artifacts, and several Native Alaskan toggling harpoon tips. In 2012, Navy archaeologist Steven Schwartz, working with Vellanoweth and his students from California State University, Los Angeles, found and uncovered the buried remnants of the long-lost Indian Cave, where Juana Maria may also have lived. Archaeological research at the cave has been halted, however, at the request of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, which claims cultural affiliation with the island's ancient residents. Scott O'Dell's "Island of the Blue Dolphins" was largely based on Juana Maria's story.