The Lunch Box Journals

Heading north from Temecula the next major wine producing region in California is the Santa Ynez Valley on the far side of the mountains northwest of the Los Angeles. A geological feature that defines the border between Southern California and the Central California Coast are mountains that line the eastern and northern edge of the LA metropolitan area. North of LA the mountains split and the eastern branch reaches north to become the daunting Sierra Nevada. The western branch curves over to meet the Pacific Ocean before running north along the coast into Oregon. The legendary LA traffic is in full force so I go out of my way to circle around most of it by briefly crossing the mountains north of San Bernardino to touch the desert at Palmdale before turning west and heading to the ocean near Ventura. We then flirt with the coastline for a while before turning inland to our next destination, the small town of Buellton in the Santa Ynez Valley.

I avoid loitering in Santa Barbara, a great place to visit but from experience NOT a town that is easy to navigate in a motorhome, no matter how small. Streets are narrow, crowded and the town cloaks numerous hills. Beyond Santa Barbara it’s a sunny day driving along the coast on Highway 101.

Periodically I pass long lines of campers perched on the shoulder of the highway above the beach.

Off shore oil rigs rise out of the ocean.

North of Santa Barbara the road climbs through hills that rise from the ocean shores until I reach Gaviota, where the highway takes a severe turn through the coastal mountains into the interior.

A short ten miles takes me up and over a small range of mountains and rather quickly I descend into the Santa Ynez Valley.

The Santa Ynez River is only 92 miles long, rising in the mountains to the east and gentling descending down to the Pacific Ocean to the west. This configuration allows ocean moisture to reach inland into the valley, which is also protected from extreme weather by the Santa Ynez Mountains to the south and the San Rafael Mountains to the north.

Homebase for my visit to the valley is the small town of Buellton, situated where Highway 101 crosses the Santa Ynez River. The Santa Ynez Valley is one of my favorite places to visit because of a great combination of good weather, historical sites, unique towns and, of course, the vineyards. I start my visit by driving towards the ocean, approximately 27 miles to the west. The massive Vandenberg Air Force Base straddles both sides of the lower river valley. The valley floor itself is mostly in private hands but all of the land for tens of miles north and south is on the military reservation and not open to the public. This includes the beaches. Near the end of the road the view from a hill shows a county park, Ocean Park, on the left and the unattainable ocean rippling beyond a railroad trestle.

I park and walk under the railroad trestle only to find that access to the beach is forbidden. This is as close as I get to a sandy beach.

Turning around and looking east a great view unfolds east up the Santa Ynez River estuary towards the mountains beyond.

About a half mile south of Ocean Park at the end of the road I find a surprise. The nearest town is Lompoc, about ten miles to the east, but here along the beach, at the end of the road, is an Amtrak train stop! The best I can figure is that it must meet some need for the air force base, but your guess is as good as mine!

I do get a great view north of the coastline towards the main air force base, most of which is not visible from the highway.

The lower Santa Ynez Valley was first settled by Chumash natives and became a rest stop along the Camino Real when Spanish missionaries came to the area. The eleventh of the 21 Alta California missions, La Purisima, was established on the south side of the valley floor in 1787. The original mission was destroyed by an earthquake in 1812 and the “new” mission was built about three miles northeast on the other side of the valley.

La Purisima

The mission operated for nearly 50 years until after the Mexican War of Independence when the victorious Mexican government dismantled the California missions and sold off their land. The complex fell into disrepair until the 1930’s when the land and mission ruins were donated to the state of California and restoration of the mission was undertaken by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Today La Purisima is considered to be the most complete and accurate restoration of the 21 missions in California. A small Visitor’s Center and museum containing a collection of artifacts documenting the history of the mission and restoration.

Surprisingly, though the mission had been abandoned for a long time, many of the original relics were still scattered around the community of Lompoc and are now housed in the museum, including an original bell that once rang over the countryside. The inscription on the bell reads “Manuel Vargas made me year of 1818 La Purisima Mission of New California.”

After the mission was abandoned the land passed into private hands until 1905 when the State of California took ownership. A picture from 1890 shows the state of the decay.

Throughout the years roof tiles were salvaged for other projects and without protection from the weather the adobe brick walls began to melt away, as seen in this photograph from the early 1930’s prior to the restoration.

The CCC tried to use similar methods and materials as the early builders in their reconstruction with the addition of steel girders in the walls and other strategies designed to prevent damage from the frequent earthquakes in the area.

Leaving the visitor center one walks down a gentle slope and across a seasonal creek bed out onto the mission grounds. My path around the mission grounds will essentially take me in a circle. The entry gate opens onto a large open area that once was home to the mission farm and livestock enclosures. In the distance the mission is essentially built in a line extending from the pink-walled cemetery and bell tower on the left to the colonnaded shops and barracks building on the right. Another, larger building housing the priests and mission majordomo stretches further to the right out of the picture.

The small enclosed cemetery does not appear to contain any original graves, a large cross stands at the south end in remembrance while the bell tower rises in the northeast corner.

Outside of the enclosure are the remains of the mission tallow vats, where beef fat from the mission cattle was melted and purified before being stored in cowhide bags to be used for cooking, making candles and soap, or sold to traders for other goods.

The church itself is a large narrow room. Standing at the far end under the choir loft the church stretches before me. The pictures make the space seem smaller than it is as the church was designed to hold 1,000 people at a time.

Standing in the middle I get better pictures of each end of the long narrow hall. The main altar is richly decorated while on the other end the choir loft perches above.

An original confessional and baptismal font are near the choir loft.

Extending off the bell tower is the main chapel and a series of small rooms used by the priests in preparation for services contain a number of original artifacts. The large sacristy chest in this room was crafted in 1799.

Attached to the church is a large building housing the shops and living quarters. A long veranda provided shelter from the sun and elements to the soldiers, workmen and their families who lived and worked within. Built in the form of a “squared-off” figure eight, the front of the building faced the Camino Real, or “King’s Road”, the main highway from San Diego to San Francisco, and the rear of the building opened up to two large courtyards where many of the household functions took place.

The first courtyard housed the domestic operation of the mission. Here the natives went about their daily cooking and cleaning chores. The dome of the baking oven sits apart from the main structure in an effort to reduce the danger of fire.

The second courtyard served the production of olive oil and wool, two of the major sources of revenue for the mission. A burro would pull the grinding stone around to grind the olives into a mash which was then carried over to the adjacent olive press where the oil was squeezed out of the mash.

Along the east side of the courtyard where the apartments for the majordomo, or foreman of the mission, who was responsible for the livestock and farms. The majordomo was usually a retired soldier who was waiting for his own land grant to be authorized. As one of the elite of the mission, he and his family enjoyed luxuries not available to most mission families.

Finally at the far end of the building was the weaving shop, where the raw wool was processed and then woven. At its’ peak the shop produced about 1,000 blankets a year.

The third of the large structures is the residential building where the padres lived and worked. The padres’ efforts to ensure survival of the structure during the frequent earthquakes in the area are seen in the buttresses along the end and thick columns of the colonnade.

A second, smaller chapel is contained within. Originally a chapel for the padres, it became the main church for the mission in later years when the population of the mission dwindled and an underwater spring opened up under the original church, rendering it unusable.

The structure housed the living quarters and offices for the two padres who ran the mission, including an indoor toilet!

Stepping outside I look south along the east façade of the mission complex. Because the buildings are offset a bit, you can’t see the church and bell tower at the far end.

Set apart from the main buildings along the dirt track which is the remains of the original Spanish Camino Real, sits the blacksmith shop.

As I circle back towards the visitor center at the base of the hill to my left in the distance is the spring house, where water from nearby springs was channeled and filtered through sand before traveling underground in clay pipes to the fountain in the garden that served as a water source for the mission.

Further along the path is the “lavanderia”, a large pool used by the natives for doing laundry and bathing (while bathing was not valued by the white inhabitants of the mission, the natives took cleanliness very seriously.}

As I return to the visitor center parking lot I have essentially completed a circle around the mission grounds.

Leaving the mission and heading east the flat valley floor is under cultivation in all directions.

Barely a mile outside the mission walls is the bustling town of Lompoc. Originally established as a temperance colony in 1874, Lompoc slumbered for years as a small town surrounding by fields of flowers and became to be known as the “flower seed” capital of the world. During World War II lands around Lompoc were the home of Camp Cooke, an army training installation. The fate of Lompoc changed dramatically in 1958 when Camp Cooke was chosen as the site for the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base, the military installation now is by far the primary employer in the area and the town of Lompoc is home to over 50,000 people. Because Lompoc is a relatively “new” town the historic city center is quite small. However, murals decorate the sides of numerous buildings in the city core.