Local History Treasures

Santa Barbara is a captivating, inviting community that is located in a natural, beautiful setting along California's Pacific coast. The city is located 90 miles north of Los Angeles and 100-miles south of San Luis Obispo The temperate climate and refreshing ocean breezes, very similar to the Mediterranean, have distinguished this area as, "the jewel of the American Riviera." The landscape includes mountainous terrain, preserved forests and wilderness...

"From the Chumash legends of the Dolphins and the Whispering Tree to the ghostly sightings at Sedgwick Reserve, hauntings abound here. In beautiful La Conchita, nightfall reveals dark secrets to anyone who will listen. Sightings of mysterious apparitions are common along Creek Road, considered one of the most haunted highways in California. In the 1800s, Summerland was home to spiritualists who held sǎnces in the Big Yellow House. The Santa Barbara...

"This book was issued to commemorate the historic discovery of three lost caches of sublime landscape paintings of Santa Barbara and its environs by one of America's lost artistic geniuses of the ninetheenth century, Lockwood de Forest. With rare sensitivity and unflagging discipline, de Forest learned to record the light, the atmosphere and the contours of land and sea across an astonishing area of Earth. In 1902, he began wintering in Santa Barbara....

"A ground-breaking book about silent movies filmeeaking book about silent movies filmed on the fabled estates of Montecito, California. Nineteen movie studios traveled from the Hollywood area (plus two d on the fabled estates of Montecito, California. Nineteen movie studios traveled from the Hollywood area (plus two from Santa Barbara) to film more than 60 movies here." --online