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Santa Barbara is a city, seat of Santa Barbara County, southwestern California, on the Pacific Ocean; incorporated 1850. It is a resort situated on the Santa Barbara Channel at the foot of the Santa Ynez Mountains. Manufactures include aircraft and aerospace equipment, precision instruments, and electronic components; petroleum is produced offshore. The city is the seat of the University of California-Santa Barbara (1898), Westmont College (1940), Brooks Institute of Photography (1945), the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Of interest are the beautiful Mission Santa Barbara (1786 and still in use) and the Spanish presidio (1782), around which the early settlement grew. The first American settler arrived here in 1816. The site was named by the Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno, who anchored offshore on the feast day of St. Barbara in 1602.
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