Goleta
Population: 30,850
It is no wonder that Goleta is also known as the “Good Land.” Minutes from downtown Santa Barbara and offering proximity to the ocean and mountains, traditional neighborhoods of single-family homes and condominium communities are spread widely across Goleta Valley, with larger properties and ranches dotting the foothills.
The county’s largest employer, the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) is situated right along the coast with beautiful views of the Pacific. Private business also flourishes here, with a multitude of high-tech, aerospace, and small companies making up an active community of commerce.
Goleta’s natural beauty balances the dynamic energy of business, technology, and higher education. There are beautiful parks, bluffs, and beaches as well as a fantastic nature preserve. Golfers can enjoy the stunning coastal Sandpiper course or the foothill location of Glen Annie. Goleta is also home to Bacara, a world-class resort that has become a favorite destination of the rich and famous.
Goleta is the neighboring town to Santa Barbara, about 12 miles west of Santa Barbara’s downtown. It encompasses many spacious, public parks from the coast to the mountains a few miles inland. Goleta Valley also houses Santa Barbara’s Municipal airport, which is known for making traveling relaxed and effortless.
Goleta’s perfect climate and rich soil of the region attracted many farmers from around the nation. The influx of people led to the planting of massive lemon orchards, which are celebrated during the California Lemon Festival every fall. In addition to the citrus farms, a plethora of fruits and vegetables are harvested from Goleta’s family-owned farms and sustainable gardens, which are served up in area restaurants and local farmers’ markets year round.
Goleta is a mecca for the outdoor enthusiast; local fishing, surfing, and hiking are just a small sample of the many activities available. Families enjoy the open landscapes and beautiful scenery here, from the Monarch Butterfly Preserve to the lesser-known lake Los Carneros. Goleta is also home to world-renowned golf courses such as The Sandpiper, Glen Annie, and Rancho San Marcos. If you’re looking for real estate in Santa Barbara County, Goleta truly has something for every walk of life.
Goleta History
The area in and around present-day Goleta was inhabited for thousands of years by the native Chumash people. They became known by the Spanish as Canaliños because they lived along the coast adjacent to the Channel Islands. One of the largest villages, S’axpilil, was north of the Goleta Slough, not far from the present-day Santa Barbara Airport.[14]
The first European visitor to the Goleta area was the Spanish mariner Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who spent time around the Channel Islands in 1542, and died there in 1543. In 1602, another sailing expedition, led by Sebastian Vizcaino, visited the California Coast. Vizcaino named the channel “Santa Barbara.” Spanish ships associated with the Manila Galleon trade probably stopped in the area intermittently during the next 167 years, but no permanent settlements were established.
The first land expedition to California, led by Gaspar de Portolà, spent several days in the area in 1769, on its way to Monterey Bay, and spent the night of August 20 near a creek (possibly San Pedro Creek) to the north of the Goleta estuary. At that time, the estuary was a sizeable open-water lagoon that covered most of what is now the city of Goleta and extended as far north as Lake Los Carneros (adjacent to Stow House).[15] There were at least five native towns in the area, the largest on an island in the middle of the lagoon. The soldiers called the island town Mescaltitlan, after a similar Aztec island town in Mexico.
The island retained the name Mescalitan Island (dropping the extra Aztec “t”) until it was bulldozed flat in 1941 to provide fill for the military airfield that is now Goleta airport. The Wastewater Treatment Plant of the Goleta Sanitary District is located on what used to be the island.[18]
Sometime after the De Anza expeditions, a sailing ship (“Goleta”) was wrecked at the mouth of the lagoon, and remained visible for many years, giving the area its current name. After Mexico became independent of Spain in 1821, most of the former mission ranch lands were divided up into large grants. The Goleta area became part of two adjacent ranchos. To the east of today’s Fairview Avenue was Rancho La Goleta, named for the shipwreck and granted to Daniel A. Hill, the first American resident of Santa Barbara. A 1840s claim map of the rancho shows the wrecked ship.[19]
The parts of Goleta to the west of Fairview Avenue were in Rancho Dos Pueblos, granted in 1842 to Nicholas Den, son-in-law of Daniel Hill. Rancho Dos Pueblos included the lagoon, airport, UCSB and Isla Vista, extending to the west as far as the eastern boundary of today’s El Capitan State Beach.
19th and 20th centuries.
The Goleta Valley was a prominent lemon-growing region during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was mostly agricultural. Several areas, especially the Ellwood Mesa, were developed for oil and natural gas extraction. In the 1920s, aviation pioneers started using portions of the Goleta Slough that had silted-in due to agriculture to land and takeoff. Beginning in 1940, boosters from the city of Santa Barbara lobbied and obtained federal funding and passed a bond measure to develop an airport on the Goleta Slough formally. The necessity for an airport – or at least a military airfield – became more apparent after a Japanese submarine shelled the Ellwood Oil Field in 1942. This was one of the few direct-fire attacks on the US mainland during WW II. The Marine Corps undertook completion of the airport and established Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara on the site of the current airport and the University of California, Santa Barbara campus.[20]
After the war, Goleta Valley residents supported the construction of Lake Cachuma, which provided water, enabling a housing boom and the establishment of research and aerospace firms in the area. With the growth in aerospace, Goleta’s character began to change from rural-agricultural to high-tech and remains so today.