Harbor History Part I: Time Arrives on a Ship
By Lydia Rao
The indigenous Chumash resided in California for several millennia before the state became a Spanish territory. More than 150 villages stretched between Paso Robles and Malibu, with a total population estimated at 25,000. The largest village in the area was Syuxtun, which at the time was located at the foot of what is now Chapala Street. Syuxtun, meaning “where the trail forks,” was led by Chief Yanonalit. Other villages in the area were Mispu on the Mesa where SBCC is today, Amolomol at the foot of Mission Creek and Stearns Wharf, and Swetete near the Clark Estate. Deeply intertwined with the ocean, the Chumash traveled the channel in plank tomols to fish and trade, paddling as far as 100 miles south to Catalina Island. They were gracious hosts when the first Europeans approached from the sea, starting with Cabrillo in 1542 and Vizcaino 60 years later. In 1769 Portola’s scout noted on an overland expedition that Syuxtun held at least seven hundred individuals. However, relations soon soured with the Spanish establishment of the Presidio in 1782. Seven years later, when George Vancouver landed a skiff in the lee of Castle Rock to fill his water casks from the freshwater springs in Pershing Park, just adjacent to the village, the population numbered only 150.
Transportation at the time was on foot, by horse, or by ship. Local historian Walker Thompkins described Santa Barbara as a house with windows but no door, an apt description, as Santa Barbara is encapsulated by steep mountains to the north and Pacific Ocean to the south. Besides infrequent ships, people could only trickle in and out through the “windows,” via the overland routes of mountain passes or along the coast – tide permitting. The first stagecoach route; Lompoc via the Gaviota Pass, wouldn’t be established until 1859.
Under the Spanish, ships were the main source of cargo and supplies, but deliveries came only once a year. This was a lengthy amount of time to wait, and moonlight trading filled the need for supplies in the interim. This was facilitated by a lantern raised in the Sailor’s Sycamore, a tradition reported as far back as 1800. The tall tree, located today at the intersection of Milpas and Quinientos, gave Yankee ships a reference point for trading after dark. Santa Barbara’s only pirate, Hippolyte Bouchard used it in 1818, when he arrived in Santa Barbara after sacking Monterey. Fortunately, he discovered Santa Barbara was well defended and left shortly after. The sycamore stood as a makeshift lighthouse well past the Mexican Revolution of 1822, even though trade with foreign ships was now legal.
Many businesses were located along the waterfront, near the ships they did business with. This included hide and tallow warehouses, like the one built in 1829 by Boston company Bryant & Sturgis, erected at the foot of Chapala Street and coincidentally the first building in town to fly the American flag. The ship’s clerk Alfred Robinson lived in town and purchased hides and tallow, storing it all in the warehouse on the beach until ships arrived from Boston. The raw products, which would be transported back east to be turned into candles and leather, were traded for finished goods. Robinson married Anita de la Guerra in 1836 and Richard Henry Dana attended their wedding, which he recounted in Two Years Before the Mast.
Dana also described the storms, noting “[Santa Barbara] is so large and…exposed to the south-east and north-west winds, that it is little better than an open roadstead; and the whole swell of the Pacific ocean rolls in here before a south-easter, and breaks with so heavy a surf in the shallow waters, that it is highly dangerous to lie near to the shore during the south-easter season…between the months of November and April. This wind (the south-easter) is the bane of the coast of California. Between the months of November and April, (including a part of each,) which is the rainy season in this latitude, you are never safe from it, and accordingly, in the ports which are open to it, vessels are obliged, during these months, to lie at anchor at a distance of three miles from the shore, with slip-ropes on their cables, ready to slip and go to sea at a moment’s warning.”
Even though there was nowhere to dock, the Gold Rush brought an influx of steamship traffic. And with it arrived many of Santa Barbara’s notable figures, names like Stearns and Hollister. In 1851 the town’s surveyor arrived by ship, Captain Salisbury Haley. Until this point the waterfront had been sparsely populated, mostly beach, slough, marshland and rural fields. Now it would be laid out into even city blocks. But Haley, who had offered the lowest bid to map the street grid, erred when he used rawhide links in his survey chain. What was supposed to be a consistent unit of measurement became unpredictable as the leather links stretched and shrank from weather and humidity changes, leading to the uneven blocks we know today. In 1875, Mayor Mortimer Cook built a three-story office, which was converted to a clock tower. Though the clock struck 11 a.m. on November 4, the time wasn’t confirmed until a ship with a chronometer, the Hassler, visited over a month later, on December 8.
During this time, ships still had to anchor offshore, launching any goods or passengers in skiffs, which were rowed ashore, landing on the beach. Sometimes, the sailor doing the rowing would dump his passengers and cargo if they didn’t offer a tip by the time the little boat reached the breaking surf. Many visitors happily paid a quarter to not be dunked, but some found out the hard way. Lumber had to be dumped in the ocean and carried ashore by the waves, often washing up damaged. A partial solution came in 1868, with the first wharf built at the foot of Chapala Street, which the skiffs could row up to and unload. While it solved the problem of wet passengers and mail, the 500-foot pier was still too short to accommodate ships over 100 tons. John Peck Stearns solved that problem in 1872 with the completion of Stearns Wharf. The longest pier between San Francisco and San Pedro was finished on September 16, and, per Thompkins, “Santa Barbara had its door.”
This new door allowed access to Santa Barbara on a larger scale than ever before, and yet even with the influx in ship traffic, there was still no harbor. California had been a state for more than two decades, and two requests for a harbor had been made, with the first in 1853. In 1869 another proposal was put forth to Congress, asking for $100,000 to either dredge the estuary or build a breakwater, but Congress preferred Point Sal. The excuse was that the weather in Santa Barbara was too fair (except when it wasn’t). Santa Barbara would have to wait another four decades before the dream of a harbor was realized.
To view photos that capture some of the stories mentioned above, be sure to visit the museum to see the exhibit 170 Years of Harbor History, on display through January 22, 2024.
Some sources below for those inclined to read more:
Bookspan, Rochelle, et al. Santa Barbara by the Sea. 1982.
Dana, Richard Henry, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast. Harper & Brothers, 1840.
Graffy, Neal. Street Names of Santa Barbara. 2008.
Santa Barbara Then and Now. 2012.
Graffy de Garcia, Erin. Noticias: Safe Haven. Santa Barbara Historical Museum, 2010.
O’Neill, Owen H. History of Santa Barbara County, State of California. Harold McLean Meier. 1939
Tompkins, Walker A. Santa Barbara Yesterdays. McNally & Loftin, 1962.
Historical High Lights of Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara National Bank, 1970.
A Centennial History of Stearns Wharf. Santa Barbara Wharf Company, 1972.
Santa Barbara Past and Present. McNally & Loftin, 1975.