It has been said that it takes a newcomer to truly appreciate the marvelous place that is Santa Barbara. The visitor, armed with maps and tourist guides, often discovers dazzling treasures that many locals scarcely know exist or have forgotten. Its colorful history is one of Santa Barbara's wonderful, often hidden treasures.

Tens of thousands of years ago, long before any European imagined there was a place called North America, people known as the Chumash lived in scattered villages along the central coast. They lived in harmony with the land, eating acorns aand other native vegetation as well as the plenteous supply of fish and shellfish. They were skilled in many crafts, inventing the tomol, or plank canoe, which took them across the channel to the islands visible from the shore.

The Spanish came in the 16th century, signaling the beginning of the end of the Chumash way of life. When Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo arrived in 1542 he met a friendly native people, who paddled out to the ships in their tomols. Over the next several hundred years explorers visited the central coast and were met by curious, amicable natives, who eagerly traded items with the Europeans. They would escort the visitors to shore and welcome them, throwing splendid celebrations in their honor. In fact during one visit it was said that Chumash singing and dancing in honor of their guests went on so long and so loudly that the Spanish finally asked them to quiet down and let them sleep! On Dec. 4, 1602, explorer Sebastian Vizcaíno sailed into the channel. He was accompanied by a Carmelite friar who had a penchant for naming the places they visited. They arrived on the feast day of Saint Barbara, a girl who had been martyred by the Roman army.

It wasn't until the 18th century, when the English and Russians began eyeing "Alta California," as it was called, that the Spanish got serious about colonizing the area. Capt. José Francisco de Ortega was dispatched to Santa Barbara to build a military post. After his arrival, Capt. Ortega asked a native chief where he could find good water. The chief led him to a laguna where two pure cold water springs flowed. Ortega chose a nearby hilltop for the fort, and on April 21, 1782, it was founded as the Royal Presidio at Santa Barbara, which still exists, in reconstructed form, in the area of Canon Perdido and Santa Barbara streets.

Soon after, the Santa Barbara Mission was established, where the native people were baptized and taught European trades — weaving, iron-working, pottery and masonry. As the indigenous people left their villages and came to the Mission, Chumash village life began to disintegrate. The Europeans also unwittingly brought smallpox and measles with them, infecting the native people and eventually decimating their population. "The Queen of the Missions," however, has endured, rebuilt after several earthquakes.

Many of the soldiers who had been stationed at the Presidio decided to make Santa Barbara their permanent home, and a pueblo began to grow up around the fort. After Mexico declared its independence, the government divided up the Santa Barbara area into ranchos and granted them to prominent men. The ranchos consisted of tens of thousands of acres each, where livestock were raised and orchards and crops were cultivated.

In the second half of the 19th century, when California became part of the United States, Anglos flowed into the community. The economy boomed, the railroad arrived and new, Victorian-style buildings rose up quickly, often replacing adobes of the past. Late in the century Santa Barbara began to be identified as a resort community. Wealthy easterners were drawn by the mild temperatures and gentle sunshine resulting from rare geography. Because the coastline runs east-west rather than north-south (the only portion of the west coast between Alaska and South America like it), the beach remains in the sun all day. Santa Barbara became known as the American version of the Mediterranean Riviera. The Arlington, a 90-room luxury hotel at the corner of Chapala and Victoria streets, accommodated not only east-coast tycoons but also presidents such as Teddy Roosevelt before it burned down in 1909. A few years earlier, the Potter Hotel was erected on the beach. It could house up to 1,000 guests. The Potter also burned, in 1923. Many of the visitors who stayed in Santa Barbara's hotels became enchanted with the community and decided to stay, building palatial estates. Everyone today associates the film industry with Hollywood, but in the early 20th century Santa Barbara was the motion-picture center. In 1910 Flying A Studios was begun at the corner of State and Mission streets, and more than 1,200 silent films were made during its 10-year history. Since then Santa Barbara has been a popular getaway for many film stars.

One of the most memorable natural disasters in local history is the 1925 earthquake, which heavily damaged the Mission and destroyed the old brick County Courthouse. The community rallied to rebuild. The Mission was restored and a new Courthouse was built in the style of Spanish-Moorish architecture. Known today as one of the most beautiful buildings in North America, the Courthouse is a product of architectural controls implemented in the early part of the 20th century to recapture the old-world style of its origins. The Spanish colonial revival also gave the community the El Paseo shopping arcade and the Lobero Theatre, which is one of the many places that the arts have flourished in Santa Barbara over the years.

Today Santa Barbara, with more than 160,000 residents including outlying areas, would scarcely be recognized by those who lived in the sleepy pueblo hundreds of years ago. In addition to being a tourist and celebrity mecca, the community sports a wide range of commerce, industry, a University of California campus and an airport. But if you look closely you can catch a glimpse of the city's origins when strolling through shopping arcades and walking the outdoors. From the mountains, home to the Chumash Painted Cave, to the Mission and adobes scattered through the downtown area, Santa Barbara hidden treasures of yesterday remain with us today.