50 Fun Facts About Santa Barbara

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

Its stretch of coast is the longest south-facing section on the US West Coast outside Alaska, which is why the sun sets over the ocean to the west of a south-facing beach.

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?

At least 25,000 of them lived in the region; the village of Syukhtun stood where the Los Baños pool is now, and their plank canoe was called a tomol.

Which Spanish explorer sailed through the channel in 1542 and anchored briefly off the future city?

The name Santa Barbara came 60 years later, when Vizcaíno christened the channel and one of the islands in 1602.

Mission Santa Barbara was founded on 4 December 1786. Where did it fall in the sequence of California missions?

It was dedicated by Padre Fermín Lasuén, who succeeded Junípero Serra as head of the mission chain, and it is still run by Franciscans.

By what regal nickname is Mission Santa Barbara known?

Rebuilt grandly after the 1812 earthquake, it is the best preserved of the missions and holds the archives of many of the others.

The 1812 tsunami that destroyed the first Santa Barbara Mission carried a ship how far up Refugio Canyon?

Water reached as high as present-day Anapamu Street; the Mission was rebuilt by 1820 in the grander form that stands today.

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

The town became American with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and promptly turned into a haven for gamblers and bandits.

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?

Before John Peck Stearns built it, passengers and cargo had to be rowed ashore through the kelp and breakers; it was the longest deep-water pier between LA and San Francisco.

Which president in 1891 became the first of five sitting presidents to visit Santa Barbara?

The railroad had reached the town from Los Angeles in 1887, and Charles Nordhoff's writing had already sold it as a health resort.

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

Derricks and piers marched out into the surf from the 1890s, starting a fight over offshore drilling that the region has never really finished.

What was the world's largest silent-film studio, based in Santa Barbara before Hollywood?

It ran on two blocks at State and Mission from 1910 to 1922 and turned out roughly 1,200 films, of which about 100 survive.

The Loughead Aircraft Company, which tested seaplanes off East Beach, grew into which aerospace giant?

The brothers eventually changed the spelling of the company name to match how everyone pronounced it.

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.

The Spirit of the Ocean fountain, a man and woman emerging from the sea, stands in front of which landmark?

The building's open-air clock tower gives the best free view of the red-tile roofs downtown.

Which oil field west of the city did a Japanese submarine shell in 1942, the first wartime shelling of the US mainland?

The 16 shells did about $500 of damage to a catwalk, but panic sent residents fleeing and land values to historic lows.

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

Up to 100,000 barrels fouled the coast from Goleta to Ventura and helped bring about NEPA, CEQA and, months later, the first Earth Day.

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 annual August festival, a 1920s tourist draw, was originally called 'Old Spanish Days'?

Flower Girls under 13 throw roses into the crowds during Fiesta Pequeña and the parades.

What is the main rule of the Summer Solstice Parade, which draws up to 100,000 people?

Floats and costumes range from whimsical to outrageous, and the route ends at Alameda Park.

The I Madonnari festival, held on Memorial Day weekend at the Mission, features what art?

The ephemeral works are washed away by the first rain, in the Italian street-painting tradition.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is held in which usually quiet month?

It runs about ten days at the 2,000-seat Arlington Theatre and draws more than 50,000 people in the off-season.

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

A local girl planted it on State Street; her friend moved it to its current spot by what is now the Amtrak station a year later.

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 New Noise music conference has held its main party there since 2009.

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

The campus, on the site of a wartime Marine air station, joined the UC system in 1944 and counts 11 Nobel laureates among its people.

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.

What does the name Rancho del Cielo mean in English?

The 688-acre spread is now run by the Young America's Foundation, which also operates a museum about it on lower State Street.

Which wealthy unincorporated town beside Santa Barbara had a $7.5 million median home price in 2024?

It was evacuated five times in four months over the winter of 2017–18 for the Thomas Fire and the mudflows that followed.

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

Born Katheryn Hudson, she moved constantly as her parents planted churches before the family settled back in the city.

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

It ran from 1984 to 1993, won 24 Daytime Emmys and became the longest-running TV series in Russia, airing there until 2002.

Which surfing documentary by Santa Barbara local Bruce Brown put the sport on the map?

Three-time world champion Tom Curren and ten-time champion Kelly Slater are among the surfers who have called the town home.

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?

It began on 4 December, wasn't fully contained until January and destroyed 1,050 structures, mostly 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 was long known for a giraffe with what unusual feature?

The 30-acre zoo by the ocean opened in 1963 on the old Child Estate and breeds California condors.

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

The city deliberately capped growth in 1975 at a 'built-out' population of about 85,000 to match its water and traffic capacity.

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

Franciscan Juan Crespi later tried to rename the site 'Laguna de la Concepción' in 1769, but the earlier name stuck.

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

The city has a knack for chains: Sambo's was founded there in 1957 and The Habit Burger Grill began in nearby Old Town Goleta.

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

Peterson's creation came out of the upper State Street restaurant and 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?

The business was eventually bought by FedEx and rebranded as FedEx Office.

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

The city limits stretch out into the ocean and back inland in a strip designed to keep the airport inside the city boundary.

Which 1990 wildfire incinerated more than 500 Santa Barbara homes in only a few hours?

It was driven by an intense Sundowner wind event; the 2008 Tea Fire and 2009 Jesusita Fire later destroyed 210 and 160 homes respectively.

What kind of disaster in 1907 remains the deadliest in Santa Barbara County history, killing 37?

The exact cause of the crash in the north of the county is still unknown; by contrast the 1925 earthquake killed 13.