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    Los Olivos
    Los Olivos
    Los Olivos
    Ebook172 pages53 minutes

    Los Olivos

    By Jim Norris

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    About this ebook

    Los Olivos was named for central Santa Barbara County wine country's other small fruit. The local fascination for vineyards is fairly new, but Los Olivos has thrived as a community since not long after Native American days. Los Olivos grew important enough to local trade and travel to become the inland terminus of the narrow-gauge Pacific Coast Railway, which zigzagged southeasterly from Avila Beach. The town was platted in 1887 by the West Coast Land Company and the railroad's owners. The dry-farming of grain and cattle ranches eventually drove the local economy in the surrounding Santa Ynez River Valley. Today Los Olivos thrives as a way station and gateway for tourists enjoying the beauty of the valley, the Santa Ynez Mountains, Los Padres National Forest, and nearby attractions, including the Mission Santa Ines, wineries, Solvang, and Santa Barbara.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439635988
    Los Olivos
    Author

    Jim Norris

    Jim Norris is an associate professor of history at North Dakota State University. He is the author of After the Year Eighty: The Demise of Franciscan Power in Spanish New Mexico.

    Read more from Jim Norris

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      Book preview

      Los Olivos - Jim Norris

      collection.

      INTRODUCTION

      Los Olivos has been a well-used California crossroads, situated as it is in the Santa Ynez River Valley of Santa Barbara County, functioning as a gateway to the San Rafael Mountains and the Sierra Madre in what became Los Padres National Forest. The many crossroads that have wended through town include Native American trails, the old El Camino Real, coastal stage routes, and the railway—all traveled by sea captains, gold miners, Fremont’s army march, immigrants, squatters, land speculators, sheepherders, dairymen, farmers, adventurers, cowboys, oil men, pioneers, highwaymen, sportsmen, explorers, artists, wine aficionados, hikers, bikers, and Sunday drivers. Historically they have all passed through this small community.

      With even a cursory glance, visitors perceive the immediate charm of Los Olivos. The nearby mountain vistas, national forest, wide streets, historic scenic buildings, friendly faces, excellent restaurants, horse ranches, and wineries all tell a visitor he is in touch with something unique and important.

      The human history dates back to bygone eras of the Native Americans, known in recorded history as the Inezeno Chumash. For approximately 9,000 years, Native Americans have occupied villages in the Santa Ynez Valley. Generally situated near a year-round water source, several of these villages were located near what is today’s Los Olivos: Xonxonata on Zaca Creek adjacent to the junction of Highways 101 and 154, Soktonokmu to the north in Birabent Canyon, and an unnamed and undocumented site south of town near an intermittently flowing spring east of Grand Avenue. The prevalent use of the word Chumash to represent this area’s Coastal California Indians is contemporary and originally identified the Northern Channel Island groups. According to anthropologist John Johnson in 1987, The Santa Ynez Valley Indians called this area ‘Samala.’ Friar Zephyrin Engelhardt of the Order of Friars Minor identified 47 villages associated with Santa Ines Mission records.

      Because of disease, the population of local Native Americans was drastically reduced, and few remained when the Santa Ynez Indian Reservation was established by the federal government. Studies conducted by anthropologist John P. Harrington, which were followed by those of John Johnson, Travis Hudson, Thomas Blackburn, and Jan Timbrook, have noted the complex religion, language, family, native plant use, material culture, tomal or boat construction, matrilocal organization, trade, art, and basketry of the Chumash. The success of the Chumash Casino today, the valley’s largest employer, has rapidly changed the economic and educational status of the 153 members of the local reservation. A possible 2,000 Santa Ynez Valley reservation members are all descendants of Margarita (Corrales-Cota) Bernal and her daughter, Rosa. An ongoing DNA study will hopefully answer questions about the migration paths of not only the Chumash, but possibly all Native Americans.

      After the Santa Barbara (1786) and Purisima (1787) Missions were established, the mission fathers realized they could not adequately serve the large Native American population along the Santa Ynez River. A suitable site, Alajulapu, on the bluff north of the river was selected, and in 1804, Mission Santa Ines, named for St. Agnes, was founded by Friar Presidente Estevan Tapis. The first church was a crude enramada, but eventually the local Native Americans built a succession of adobe churches and buildings. In theory, the land was to be held for 10 years, after which time the Christianized and educated Native Americans would be given the land and govern themselves. This never happened.

      Prior to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, ceding California to the United States, retired Mexican soldiers were granted coastal California ranchos of up to 11 leagues or about 47,000 acres. The large sizes of these ranchos seem excessive today, but there were few ranchers and no fences at that time. Early American and English sailors married into the rancho owners’ families, eventually creating a drastic cultural shift. Ownership gradually moved to the Americans, who continued the otter-fur, cattle-hide, and tallow trade following the maritime trade route of Boston, Hawaii, California, Pacific Northwest, China, and back to Boston.

      On December 21, 1846, Lt. Col. John C. Fremont, accompanied by his rag-tag army, marched from William Dana’s rancho in Nipomo, down Foxen Canyon to what is today’s Ballard. Bivouacking here while he searched for horses, Fremont then continued over the San Marcos Pass in a blinding rainstorm, sliding and tumbling down the Santa Ynez Mountains to today’s Goleta. Resting here, he gathered up his weather-beaten troops and, without firing a shot, captured Santa Barbara the following day. He then continued on to Los Angeles, where he helped write the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847, temporarily ending the Mexican-American War.

      While William Foxen is erroneously given credit for helping Fremont avoid an ambush at Gaviota, it should be remembered that Santa Barbara’s available solders were fighting in Los Angeles and that Fremont was familiar with the Santa Ynez Mountains, having previously crossed them. Fremont is noted as the Pathfinder, a sobriquet that should probably go to Kit Carson.

      During the second half of the 19th century, ranchers and settlers began populating the wilderness. Early Los Olivos families, many lasting into the 20th century and up to today, include Anderson, Ashabraner, Ballard, Barnes, Berg, Birabent, Bloodgood, Boyd, Brown, Calkins, Campbell, Carricaburu, Casserini, Columbo, Chamberlin, Cook, Cooper, Cox, Crawford, Davis, DeVaul, Downs, Eddy, Edgar, Fields, Fitzgerald, Fleenor, Fordyce, Fox, Fraters, Gott, De la Guerra, Hartley, Henning, Heyman, Hinton, Hutchison,

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