Santa Barbara County, officially the County of Santa Barbara (), is a county located in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria.

Santa Barbara County comprises the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Most of the county is part of the California Central Coast. Mainstays of the county's economy include engineering, resource extraction (particularly petroleum extraction and diatomaceous earth mining), winemaking, agriculture, and education. The software development and tourism industries are important employers in the southern part of the county.

History

The Santa Barbara County area, including the Northern Channel Islands, was first settled by Native Americans at least 13,000 years ago. Evidence for a Paleoindian presence has been found in the form of a fluted Clovis-like point found in the 1980s along the western Santa Barbara Coast, as well as the remains of Arlington Springs Man found on Santa Rosa Island in the 1960s. For thousands of years, the area was home to the Chumash tribe of Native Americans, hunter-gatherers who lived along the coast and in interior valleys leaving rock art in many locations, including Painted Cave.

Europeans first contacted the Chumash in AD 1542, when three Spanish ships under the command of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo explored the area. The Santa Barbara Channel received its name from Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno when he sailed along the California coast in 1602; his ships entered the channel on December 4, the day of the feast of Santa Barbara. Spanish ships associated with the Manila Galleon trade probably made emergency stops along the coast during the next 167 years, but no permanent settlements were established.

The first land expedition to explore California, led by Gaspar de Portolà explored the coastal area in 1769, on its way to Monterey Bay. The party traveled the same route on the return to San Diego in January 1770. That same year, a second expedition to Monterey again passed through the area. The DeAnza expeditions of 1774–76 followed Portola's trail.

thumb|left|250px|[[Mission Santa Barbara from Mission Park, Santa Barbara]]

The Presidio of Santa Barbara was established in 1782 (4th of 5 in California), followed by Mission Santa Barbara in 1786 – both in what is now the city of Santa Barbara. The presidio and mission kept Vizcaino's denomination, as did the later city and county – a common practice which has preserved the names of many of the 21 California Missions. Other missions in Santa Barbara County are located in Santa Ynez and Lompoc.

European contacts had devastating effects on the Chumash people, including a series of disease epidemics that drastically reduced Chumash population. The Chumash survived, however, and thousands of Chumash descendants still live in the Santa Barbara area or surrounding counties. A tribal homeland was established in 1901, the Santa Ynez Reservation.

Following the Mexican secularization of the missions in the 1830s, the mission pasture lands were mostly broken up into large ranchos and granted mainly to prominent local citizens who already lived in the area. 604 of these land grants were later confirmed by the state of California, with 36 in Santa Barbara County.

Santa Barbara County was one of the 27 original counties of California, formed in 1850 at the time of statehood. The county's territory was later divided to create Ventura County in 1873.

Geography

thumb|right|South Coast of Santa Barbara County, view looking northeast, showing, from left to right, [[Isla Vista, California|Isla Vista, Goleta, Hope Ranch, Santa Barbara. All the mountains except for the most distant in the right rear are in Santa Barbara County.]]

thumb|Coast of Santa Barbara and rugged back country. Courtesy: [[NASA Earth Explorer.]]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (27.8%) is water. Four of the Channel Islands – San Miguel Island, Santa Cruz Island, Santa Rosa Island and Santa Barbara Island – are in Santa Barbara County. They form the largest part of the Channel Islands National Park (which also includes Anacapa Island in Ventura County).

Santa Barbara County has a mountainous interior abutting several coastal plains on the west and south coasts of the county. The largest concentration of population is on the southern coastal plain, referred to as the "south coast" – meaning the part of the county south of the Santa Ynez Mountains. This region includes the cities of Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Carpinteria, as well as the unincorporated areas of Hope Ranch, Summerland, Mission Canyon, Montecito, and Isla Vista, along with stretches of unincorporated area such as Noleta. The Gaviota Coast is a rural coastline north of Goleta. This last undeveloped stretch of Southern California coastline consists of dramatic bluffs, isolated beaches and terraced grasslands. North of the Santa Ynez range in the Santa Ynez Valley are the towns of Solvang, Buellton, and Lompoc; the unincorporated towns of Santa Ynez, Los Olivos and Ballard; the unincorporated areas of Mission Hills and Vandenberg Village; and Vandenberg Space Force Base, where the Santa Ynez River flows out to the sea. North of the Santa Ynez Valley are the cities of Santa Maria and Guadalupe, and the unincorporated towns of Orcutt, Los Alamos, Casmalia, Garey, and Sisquoc. In the extreme northeastern portion of the county are the small cities of New Cuyama, Cuyama, and Ventucopa. As of January 1, 2006, Santa Maria has become the largest city in Santa Barbara County.

The principal mountain ranges of the county are the Santa Ynez Mountains in the south, and the San Rafael Mountains and Sierra Madre Mountains in the interior and northeast. Most of the mountainous area is within the Los Padres National Forest, and includes two wilderness areas: the San Rafael Wilderness and the Dick Smith Wilderness. The highest elevation in the county is at Big Pine Mountain in the San Rafaels.

North of the mountains is the arid and sparsely populated Cuyama Valley, portions of which are in San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties. Oil production, ranching, and agriculture dominate the land use in the privately owned parts of the Cuyama Valley; the Los Padres National Forest is adjacent to the south, and regions to the north and northeast are owned by the Bureau of Land Management and the Nature Conservancy.

Channel Islands

The four Channel Islands in Santa Barbara County are Santa Barbara Island, San Miguel Island, Santa Rosa Island, and the large Santa Cruz Island. All of them contain native and endemic wildlife, like the island oak and Torrey Pine. All four have the deer mouse living on them, the three latter, the island fox, and the two latter, the island spotted skunk. There used to be skunks on San Miguel Island, but due to predation from marine life, birds, and foxes, the San Miguel Island skunk has gone extinct.

Climate

Santa Barbara County has a mild warm-summer Mediterranean climate. Along the coast, temperatures rarely exceed in the summer, but rarely dip below freezing in winter. In the interior, however, summertime temperatures can soar over . Above , temperatures can frequently fall below freezing during the winter months. The area experiences nearly all of its rainfall during the winter months, and rarely sees any rain at all during the summer months.

The area's dry, warm summers often lead to high wildfire danger in the fall. An example of this is the massive Thomas Fire, which started in Ventura County and rapidly spread into southern Santa Barbara County in December 2017. At the time, the fire was the largest wildfire ever to burn in California in terms of geographical size, but was topped only eight months later in the Mendocino Complex Fire in northern California. Heavy rainfall occurred the following January, causing massive mudslides and debris flows from the steep, fire-denuded hillsides. The community of Montecito was especially hard-hit. As of February 3, 2018, 21 are known dead and 2 are still missing.

Air quality

Air quality in the county, unlike much of southern California, is generally good because of the prevailing winds off of the Pacific Ocean. The county is in attainment of federal standards for ozone and particulate matter. In July 2020 the county was designated as attainment for the state ozone standard, but it still does not attain the state PM10 standard. the county's location plus the cities near it establishes the area's climate and meteorology influence how the pollution are diffused.

Adjacent counties

  • San Luis Obispo County (North).
  • Kern County (Northeast).
  • Ventura County (Southeast).

National protected areas

thumb|Transition zone (back dunes) in [[Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge]]

  • Burton Mesa Ecological Reserve
  • Channel Islands National Park (part)
  • Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary
  • Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge (part)
  • Los Padres National Forest (part)

Demographics

thumb|left|A k9 team at the 2017 Las Vegas K9 Trials.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office provides law enforcement for the unincorporated areas of the county, as well as several cities within the county. The cities that the Sheriff's Office provides police services for include Buellton, Carpinteria, Goleta and Solvang. In total the 640 full-time employees of the Sheriff's Office are responsible for of the county.

Founded in 1850, the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office is the oldest law enforcement agency in the state.

| 1,897 || 4.52

|-

! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" |   Homicide

| 5,937 || 14.14

|-

! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" |   Motor vehicle theft

! data-sort-type="number" | Violent crimes Enormous oil fields such as the Orcutt, Lompoc, Santa Maria Valley, and Cat Canyon fields provided jobs and a steady supply of oil, gas, and asphalt since the first oil discovery in the Solomon Hills in 1901. Protests have marked periodic resistance to the impact of oil drilling over the years. A protest in 1929 in Santa Barbara expressed the frustration of the wealthy who came here to get away from it all. The largest spill in California waters, credited as a spark for the modern environmental movement, coated the beaches and Santa Barbara Harbor with a thick crude in 1969. In recent years, major oil companies have left the area, turning over their oil leases to small independents, and decommissioning some leases areas that were no longer profitable. Concerns about the economy were foremost when, in 2014, Measure P was placed on the county ballot. If approve by the voters the measure would ban "high-intensity petroleum operations" in the county. In 2022, cauliflower was number two due to the weather and popularity of cauliflower rice.

County farmers began growing hemp after it was removed from a list of controlled substances along with other provisions of the Hemp Farming Act of 2018. These provisions were included in the 2018 Farm Bill which made hemp legal for agricultural uses. Cannabis and hemp plants have a similar look and smell making it hard to tell the difference.

Wine country

The first wine grapes in Santa Barbara county were planted by the missionaries associated with Mission Santa Barbara late in the 18th century. Since commercial viticulture rebounded in the 1960s, Santa Barbara County has become a prominent viticultural region. The 2004 Alexander Payne film, Sideways, set in the Santa Ynez Valley, brought additional attention to the county as a wine region, especially for its Pinot noir wines.

The region, also noted for its Chardonnay wines, is gaining a reputation for Rhone varietals including Syrah and Viognier.

The areas planted with wine grapes are mixed in with the rolling hills, ancient oak trees, oil fields, cattle ranches, and natural areas in the central part of the county. The county has more than 115 wineries cultivating with the vast majority of the vineyards in the Central Coast American Viticultural Areas: Santa Maria Valley AVA, Santa Ynez Valley AVA, Sta. Rita Hills AVA, Happy Canyon AVA, Los Olivos District AVA and Ballard Canyon AVA. The county continues to gain AVA recognition with Alisos Canyon AVA being the recent established AVA in 2020.

The Foxen Canyon Wine Trail features many wineries including Andrew Murray Vineyards, Fess Parker Winery and Firestone Vineyard. The Cambria Estate Winery, was featured in the 3rd episode of The Bachelor, an American reality television series, Season 15, on January 17, 2011.

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are common all long the trail while the southern part also has many Rhone style wines due to the warmer climate. In the North, Burgundy styles tend to predominate more due to the cooler maritime weather.

Cannabis

The county limited retail sales to eight establishments that will be distributed so they don't become clustered in any of the unincorporated communities. Under the legalization of recreational cannabis in California, companies must be licensed by the local agency and the state to grow, test, or sell cannabis and the county may authorize none or only some of these activities. Local governments may not prohibit adults, who are in compliance with state laws, from growing, using, or transporting marijuana for personal use.

In the first four months of the legalization of growing cannabis for recreational purposes in California, the county issued almost 800 permits for cultivators, the most of any county in the state. Taxes are based on the value of the crop sold whereas all other counties in California use the acreage of the farm.

The Carpinteria Valley became the densest concentration of cannabis farms in the United States in 2019. Farmers combined small permits for neighboring plots of land though as licenses for over 1 acre of land were not allowed until 2023. Most of these growing operations are in greenhouses. The owners of many greenhouses in the Carpinteria Valley, that were built as nurseries for flowers and other plants, have converted them to growing cannabis.

While the grow operations are outside the city limits of Carpinteria, city residents have complained about the smell of odor-intense terpenes given off by cannabis plants. The county contracts with a private industrial hygienist to ensure odor pollution is not occurring. The Sheriff's Department has a Cannabis Compliance Team that conducts background checks on cannabis growers and their employees and carries out raids on illegal operations.

A report in 2022 to the Board of Supervisors had 79 cannabis operations operating in the county. The county has a on outdoor cannabis.

Education

There are 20 independent school districts in Santa Barbara County, and the Santa Barbara County Education Office serves as an intermediate agency between those districts and the California Department of Education. During the 2013 school year, 67,701 students were enrolled in Santa Barbara County schools, kindergarten through grade 12.

There are also a number of private schools in the county. The Los Angeles Archdiocese operates two Catholic high schools and several elementary schools.

Arts and culture

In addition to 41 listings of National Register of Historic Place and 16 California Historical Landmarks, the county lists 50 County of Santa Barbara Landmarks.

The museums reflecting the city's rich cultural heritage and contemporary artistic scene. Notable among these is the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, which boasts an extensive collection of American, Asian, and European art. The Museum of Natural History offers immersive exhibits on regional wildlife and environments, along with a state-of-the-art planetarium. The Santa Barbara Historical Museum provides deep insights into the city's past with its extensive archives and artifacts.

Transportation

Major highways

  • 25px U.S. Route 101
  • 20px State Route 1
  • 20px State Route 33
  • 25px State Route 135
  • 25px State Route 144
  • 25px State Route 154
  • 25px State Route 166
  • 25px State Route 192
  • 25px State Route 217
  • 25px State Route 246

Public transportation

Santa Barbara County is served by Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses.

The southern portion of the county is served by the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District.

In the North County, the cities of Lompoc, Santa Maria, and Buellton/Solvang have their own bus services.

Airports

  • Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, is located near Goleta, west of Santa Barbara.
  • Santa Maria Public Airport is located just southwest of Downtown Santa Maria.
  • Lompoc Airport is located on the north side of Lompoc.
  • Santa Ynez Airport is just southeast of Santa Ynez.

Commercial flights are available at Santa Barbara Airport and Santa Maria Public Airport.

Communities

Cities

  • Buellton
  • Carpinteria
  • Goleta
  • Guadalupe
  • Lompoc
  • Santa Barbara (county seat)
  • Santa Maria (largest city)
  • Solvang

Unincorporated communities

  • Ballard
  • Casmalia
  • Cuyama
  • Eastern Goleta Valley
  • Garey
  • Gaviota
  • Hope Ranch
  • Isla Vista
  • Los Alamos
  • Los Olivos
  • Mission Canyon
  • Mission Hills
  • Montecito
  • New Cuyama
  • Orcutt
  • Painted Cave
  • Santa Ynez
  • Sisquoc
  • Summerland
  • Surf
  • Toro Canyon
  • UC Santa Barbara
  • Vandenberg Space Force Base
  • Vandenberg Village
  • Ventucopa

Population ranking

The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2020 United States census of Santa Barbara County.

† county seat

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|-

!Rank

!City/Town/etc.

!Municipal type

!Population (2020 Census)

|- style="background-color:#FFFACD;"

| 1

|Santa Maria

| City

| 109,707

|- style="background-color:#FFFACD;"

| 2

|† Santa Barbara

| City

| 88,665

|- style="background-color:#FFFACD;"

| 3

|Lompoc

| City

| 44,444

|- style="background-color:#FFFACD;"

| 4

|Goleta

| City

| 32,690

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 5

|Orcutt

| CDP

| 32,034

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 6

|Isla Vista

| CDP

| 15,500

|- style="background-color:#FFFACD;"

| 7

|Carpinteria

| City

| 13,264

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 8

|Montecito

| CDP

| 8,638

|- style="background-color:#FFFACD;"

| 9

|Guadalupe

| City

| 8,057

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 10

|Vandenberg Village

| CDP

| 7,308

|- style="background-color:#FFFACD;"

| 11

|Solvang

| City

| 6,126

|- style="background-color:#FFFACD;"

| 12

|Buellton

| City

| 5,161

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 13

|Santa Ynez

| CDP

| 4,505

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 14

|Mission Hills

| CDP

| 3,571

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 15

|Vandenberg SFB

| CDP

| 3,559

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 16

|Mission Canyon

| CDP

| 2,540

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 17

|Los Alamos

| CDP

| 1,839

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 18

|Toro Canyon

| CDP

| 1,835

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 19

|Summerland

| CDP

| 1,222

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 20

|Los Olivos

| CDP

| 1,202

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 21

|Ballard

| CDP

| 768

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 22

|New Cuyama

| CDP

| 542

|- style="background-color:#FFFF99;"

| 23

|Santa Ynez Reservation

| AIAN

| 264

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 24

|Sisquoc

| CDP

| 191

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 25

|Casmalia

| CDP

| 147

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 26

|Garey

| CDP

| 72

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 27

|Cuyama

| CDP

| 37

|}

See also

  • List of museums in the California Central Coast
  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Santa Barbara County, California
  • List of school districts in San Luis Obispo County, California
  • List of school districts in Santa Barbara County, California
  • List of schools in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles
  • Santa Barbara County Courthouse
  • Santa Barbara County Fire Department
  • Santa Barbara County Probation Department

Notes

References

Further reading

  • Charles Montville Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, and Edwin M. Sheridan, History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California. In Two Volumes. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1917. Volume 1 | Volume 2
  • Yda Addis Storke, A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California... Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1891.
  • Official Santa Barbara County Property Tax Payment website
  • California Department of Fish and Wildlife – Burton Mesa Ecological Reserve website
  • County quick facts
  • Official Santa Barbara CITY website
  • Santa Barbara County Education Office