Lost: The Pre-Crash On-Island Time Line

I found myself a little unclear about the on-island pre-crash time line on Lost, so I visited Lostpedia and patched together a list.  I don’t have any grand theories to spin; I’m just trying to clarify things a bit.

1970s

• The DHARMA Initiative is created (according to the Swan Orientation Film).
• The Swan Station was built.
• “The Incident” occurs “not long after the experiments began”.
• Ben and Roger Linus arrive on the island with the DHARMA Initiative. Ben meets Richard Alpert, a member of the “hostiles,” and eventually starts to work with them.

1975

• The Sri Lanka Video, featuring Alvar Hanso, is made.  (Not really on-island but too relevant to omit.)

1980

• The orientation films for the Swan and the Pearl are produced.

1981

• December 7th – H.G. (Hanso Group) Delegation inspection

1984

• October 28th – “Suspected shutdown date” (recorded on the blast door map).

1985

• AH/MDG incident as recorded on blast door map.

1987

• Hanso Foundation funding of the DHARMA Initiative ends, as per the Hugh McIntyre interview. The truth of this is uncertain.
• December 21st – A likely date for the Purge, since Ben did not have Alex at the time.

1988

• Sam Toomey and Leonard Simms hear the Numbers being broadcast without encryption while stationed in the South Pacific.
• Danielle Rousseau and her crew run aground on the Island after hearing the Numbers transmission.

2001

• Desmond arrives on the Island and begins pushing the button with Kelvin Joe Inman.
• September 5th – Juliet arrives on the island.

Of course, all the credit for the work here goes to the contributors at Lostpedia.  I’ll take the blame for any mistakes.  At any rate, I’ll assume that the time line is correct rather than second guess it as I go.

Now, there’s a big -BIG – gap between the arrivals of Danielle on the one hand, and Desmond and Juliet on the other.  What was going on during that time?  For one thing, Kelvin arrived on the island.  Since he was in Iraq during the First Gulf War, he wasn’t present during the Purge.  He must have arrived after 1991.  However, the Hanso foundation stopped funding DHARMA in 1987.  If Kelvin really was a member of DHARMA, as he claimed, then DHARMA must have another source of funds.  At any rate, Radzinsky was almost certainly there before Kelvin, so he needs a start date too.  I’ll continue to play around with this time line as we learn more.