Harry NelsonUCSB/Physics

RFGDecember 12, 2005

http://hep.ucsb.edu/people/hnn/goletaslough.html

Goleta Slouth (by an amateur)

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CDMSHNN

Conjectured History of Slough - (10,000 yr?) to 1780 or so… stable 1780-1925… Euro Agriculture, siltation

1812 Earthquake… `land opened up in vicinity (of San Miguel Chapel, Fairview/Hollister) to such an extent that it causes horror’… Chumash withdrew to SB Mission… Mescalitan Rancheria threatened by ocean flooding

Legal issue… 1850 at statehood where was tideland boundary?

Record rains… Nov. 1861-Feb 1862, heavily silt the slough

1925-present… Euro urbanization 1942/3 filling for airport, leaving the tiny portion

extent today

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CDMSHNNFrom SB Museum Natural History

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Rogers 1929 Reconstruction

Prehistoric Man of the Santa Barbara Coast, 1929

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AK Brown, 1967

The Aboriginal Population of the Santa Barbara Channel, 1967

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AK Brown Overlay

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European Contact My survey not systematic (eg, Cabrillo, Manila

Galleon, Vancouver, etc..) At least 3 written accounts from Portola

Expedition… Sunday, August 20, 1769 Costanso (engineer)… `two mouths’ (Goleta Beach/Devereux)… to east

`marshes and creeks of considerable extent’ Crespi (priest, two accounts!) `good-sized inlet appearing like a sea arm,

which reaches a great way inland’… IV knoll ¼ league in length, mouth at either end… Goleta Beach mouth ` ½ of a quarter league’

Fages (soldier) `one comes in sight of a long, bare point of land, on the eastern side of which a great estuary penetrates inland by two separate arms, which are probably about half a league distant from each other. This estuary runs close to the north side of a small hill which rises on a point of land and has the appearance of an island… The estuary spreads continually over the level ground eastward, forming various swamps and ponds of considerable extent…’

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1782 Map by Pantoja

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1782 Map by Pantoja

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1782 Map by Pantoja

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Mission Era (?) Cattle Ranching (?) San Jose Creek Winery San Miguel Chapel… ruined in 1812, probably

near S’axpilil (Fairview/Hollister) (Buffy)

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Diseno Maps (1840-1860) (online, cdlib)

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Diseno Maps (1840-1860)

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Diseno Maps (1840-1860)

1861/2 comes the deluge…

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1868 U.S. Coastal Survey (story about earlier data…)

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1888 County Map

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CDMSHNNSexton Memoir…

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Recollections about siltation…

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CDMSHNNSexton’s Memory Map

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USGS 1902

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Aerial Photo (UCSB) - 1928

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Aerial Photo (UCSB) - 1938

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Aerial Photo (UCSB) - 1943

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Perspectives/Conclusions 1954 student name for UCSB… `Slough U’ 1969 fight to stop 217 extension through

remaining slough (Underground Newspapers…)

`Lost Triangle’… Mescalitan/(Fairview/Hollister)/News Press Printing Plant… slated for intense development

Complete Restoration?