47 Fun Facts About Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara's Mediterranean climate and south-facing coastline have earned it what nickname?

Santa Barbara is marketed as the American Riviera; its east-west coastline faces south and is backed by mountains, echoing the sheltered, sunny shore of the French Riviera.

Which mountain range rises steeply directly behind the city?

The east-west range tops 4,000 feet, gets a dusting of snow about once every three years and hides the Los Padres National Forest behind it.

Which Native people lived in at least five villages on the site of Santa Barbara?

The Chumash lived along the channel for millennia; the village of Syuxtun stood near today's waterfront at the foot of Chapala Street, and their sewn-plank canoe was the tomol.

Which Spanish explorer sailed up the Santa Barbara Channel in 1542 and anchored briefly off the future city?

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, sailing for Spain, entered the channel in October 1542 and anchored off the Chumash coast; the name Santa Barbara was not attached to the channel until 1602.

Where does Mission Santa Barbara, founded in 1786, fall in the sequence of California missions?

Mission Santa Barbara was the tenth of the 21 California missions, dedicated on 4 December 1786 by Padre Fermín Lasuén, who had succeeded Junípero Serra as head of the chain.

By what nickname is Mission Santa Barbara known?

Mission Santa Barbara is called the Queen of the Missions for its twin-towered, Roman-temple facade, rebuilt in stone after the 1812 earthquake and dedicated in 1820; its archive-library holds records from across the chain.

Which American officer's battalion took Santa Barbara without bloodshed on 27 December 1846?

John C. Frémont's California Battalion crossed the rain-soaked San Marcos Pass and entered Santa Barbara unopposed on 27 December 1846; the town formally became American with the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Why do some downtown intersections have doglegs?

Salisbury Haley laid out the grid in 1851 and got the block sizes wrong, so streets don't quite line up.

Stearns Wharf, built in 1872, was named after a local businessman in which trade?

John Peck Stearns ran a lumber yard and built the wharf in 1872 to land timber and passengers who had previously been rowed ashore through kelp and breakers; it became the longest deep-water pier between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Which president visited Santa Barbara in 1891, the first sitting president to do so?

Benjamin Harrison stopped in Santa Barbara on his April 1891 transcontinental tour, the first sitting president to visit; the railroad had reached the town from Los Angeles in 1887 and Charles Nordhoff's writing had sold it as a health resort.

The Summerland Oil Field, just east of the city, holds what distinction?

Summerland hosted the world's first offshore oil drilling: from 1896 H. L. Williams and others built piers hundreds of feet into the Pacific to sink wells beneath the seabed.

Which silent-film studio ran a large lot at State and Mission streets from 1912 to 1921?

Flying A Studios, the American Film Manufacturing Company, filmed on two blocks at State and Mission Streets from 1912 to 1921, turning out roughly 1,200 films, of which only about 100 survive.

Which aerospace giant began life in Santa Barbara, testing a seaplane off the waterfront in 1918?

Lockheed began as the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company, founded in Santa Barbara in 1916 by Allan and Malcolm Loughead; their F-1 flying boat flew in 1918, and the brothers later respelled the name to match its pronunciation.

How many people died in the magnitude 6.3 earthquake of 29 June 1925?

It struck at 6:44 a.m., before the streets filled, and the rebuilding cemented the Spanish Colonial style the city is known for.

Which 1929 building is called 'the most beautiful public building in the United States'?

The William Mooser Company designed it in a Spanish-Andalusian castle style; its Sunken Gardens host summer movie nights.

Which downtown theater, built in 1924 and restored in 2008, is the Santa Barbara Symphony's home?

The Granada Theatre opened on State Street in 1924 inside an eight-storey office block, the tallest building downtown; a full restoration reopened it in 2008 as home of the Santa Barbara Symphony and Opera Santa Barbara.

Which oil field west of the city did a Japanese submarine shell in February 1942?

The submarine I-17 fired about 16 shells at the Ellwood Oil Field on 23 February 1942, the first foreign attack on the US mainland in World War II; they did roughly $500 of damage to a pier and pump house.

The 1969 oil spill came from a blowout on Platform A, operated by which company?

Union Oil's Platform A blew out on 28 January 1969, releasing an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 barrels that fouled the coast from Goleta to Ventura; the disaster helped spur NEPA, CEQA and the first Earth Day in 1970.

Outraged locals responded to the 1969 spill by forming a group with what acronym?

It stood for Get Oil Out; the spill was the largest in US waters at the time and remains the largest ever off California.

Which Santa Barbara festival, founded in 1924, is held every August?

Fiesta, officially Old Spanish Days, has run each August since 1924; Flower Girls throw roses to the crowds at Fiesta Pequeña on the Mission steps, and its historical parade is among the largest equestrian parades in the country.

Which rule applies to every entry in Santa Barbara's Summer Solstice Parade?

Entries may carry no written words, logos or banners; the parade, held on the Saturday nearest the June solstice since 1974, also bars motorized vehicles and live animals, and ends at Alameda Park.

The I Madonnari festival, held each Memorial Day weekend at the Santa Barbara Mission, features what kind of art?

Chalk drawings on asphalt, in the Italian street-painting tradition, are made in front of the mission and washed away by the first rain.

Santa Barbara's giant Moreton Bay fig grew from a seedling given in 1876 by whom?

An Australian seaman gave the seedling to a local girl in 1876; she planted it on State Street, and after she left, her friend moved it in 1877 to its present spot beside what is now the Amtrak station.

The Santa Barbara Bowl, the city's outdoor concert amphitheatre, seats roughly how many people?

It sits in a canyon at the base of the Riviera and hosts about 27 shows a season, booked exclusively by Goldenvoice.

Which stretch of lower State Street near the beach is known for breweries and wine-tasting rooms?

The Funk Zone is the former warehouse district between lower State Street and the beach; from the 2000s its sheds filled with wine-tasting rooms, breweries and galleries along the Urban Wine Trail.

What is the mascot of the University of California, Santa Barbara?

The Gaucho has been UCSB's mascot since 1934, when students chose it over the Roadrunner; the campus became part of the University of California in 1944.

UC Santa Barbara's oceanfront campus was built on the site of what?

It is the third-oldest campus in the UC system, after Berkeley and UCLA, and was the third host on the ARPAnet.

Rancho del Cielo, in the mountains above the city, was the vacation retreat of which president?

The 'Western White House' hosted Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II and Mikhail Gorbachev, and it's where he signed the 1981 tax cut.

Which Channel Island, visible from Santa Barbara, is the largest island in California?

Santa Cruz Island, at about 96 square miles, is California's largest island; it lies roughly 20 miles off Santa Barbara and is split between the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy.

Which unincorporated community between Santa Barbara and Summerland is known for its celebrity estates?

Montecito, unincorporated and wealthy, lies between Santa Barbara's eastern edge and Summerland; its estates include Ganna Walska's Lotusland garden and the 1925 Casa del Herrero, a National Historic Landmark.

Which pop star was born in Santa Barbara in 1984 to two Pentecostal pastors?

Katy Perry was born Katheryn Hudson in Santa Barbara on 25 October 1984; her parents Keith and Mary Hudson were travelling Pentecostal pastors, and she attended Dos Pueblos High School before leaving to pursue music.

The 1980s NBC soap opera Santa Barbara revolved around which wealthy family?

The Capwells were the soap's central dynasty; Santa Barbara ran on NBC from 1984 to 1993, won 24 Daytime Emmys and became a phenomenon in Russia, where it aired from 1992 to 2002.

Which surfing documentary by Santa Barbara local Bruce Brown is credited with putting the sport on the map?

The Endless Summer (1966) followed two surfers chasing summer around the world and took surfing into mainstream cinemas; Bruce Brown lived on a ranch near Gaviota and died in December 2017.

Which two Amtrak routes stop at Santa Barbara's State Street station?

The Surfliner runs San Diego to San Luis Obispo; the Coast Starlight goes all the way from Los Angeles to Seattle.

Roughly how far is Santa Barbara from Los Angeles by road?

San Francisco is about 325 miles the other way up Highway 101, and Channel Islands National Park lies 20 miles offshore.

What are the hot, dry downslope winds that raise autumn fire danger in Santa Barbara called?

One such wind drove the 1990 Painted Cave Fire, which destroyed more than 500 homes in a few hours.

Which 2017 wildfire burned nearly 282,000 acres across Santa Barbara and Ventura counties?

The Thomas Fire began on 4 December 2017 near Santa Paula, was not fully contained until 12 January 2018 and destroyed more than 1,000 structures, most of them in Ventura County.

Ganna Walska Lotusland, the 37-acre botanical garden with 3,500 kinds of plants, can be visited how?

The county limits visitors under a conditional use permit; the estate belonged to the Polish opera singer Madame Ganna Walska.

The Santa Barbara Zoo, opened in 1963 beside the ocean, was long known for a giraffe with what unusual feature?

A crooked neck on its giraffe made the zoo famous; the 30-acre grounds on the old Child Estate also breed California condors.

Roughly what was Santa Barbara's population at the 2020 census?

The 2020 census counted 88,665 residents in the city of Santa Barbara; its 1975 general plan had deliberately capped growth at a 'built-out' population of about 85,000 to match water and traffic capacity.

Which explorer gave the name 'Santa Barbara' to the channel and one of the islands in 1602?

Sebastián Vizcaíno's expedition reached the channel on 4 December 1602, the feast of Saint Barbara, and named it for her; the presidio and mission founded in the 1780s took the same name.

Which budget lodging chain was started in Santa Barbara in 1962?

Motel 6 opened its first property in Santa Barbara in 1962, charging $6 a night, hence the name; the city also spawned Sambo's (1957) and The Habit Burger Grill, begun in nearby Old Town Goleta.

Which fast-food breakfast item was invented by Herb Peterson at a Santa Barbara McDonald's?

Herb Peterson created the Egg McMuffin in 1972 at his upper State Street McDonald's, modelling it on eggs Benedict; Ray Kroc tasted it on a visit and it went on to anchor McDonald's breakfast menu worldwide.

Which 2,000-seat venue is Santa Barbara's largest indoor performance hall and home of its film festival?

The Granada is the tallest building downtown and the Bowl is an outdoor amphitheatre, but the Arlington hosts the festival's screenings.

Which copy-shop chain was founded by Paul Orfalea in Isla Vista, near UC Santa Barbara, in 1970?

Kinko's began in 1970 with a single copier in a tiny storefront in Isla Vista; Paul Orfalea's college nickname, from his curly hair, gave the chain its name, and FedEx bought it in 2004, rebranding it FedEx Office.

Roughly what share of Santa Barbara's official city area is water?

Water makes up about 54% of Santa Barbara's 42 square miles, since the city limits run out into the ocean and back inland in a strip that keeps the airport inside the boundary.

Which November 2008 wildfire destroyed about 210 homes in Montecito and Santa Barbara's foothills?

The Tea Fire broke out on 13 November 2008 near the ruins of the Tea Garden, an old Montecito teahouse, and destroyed about 210 homes; investigators traced it to a bonfire left by college students.