Archive for May 2002

Three giant ranches cover most of the land between Vandenberg Air Force Base and Gaviota State Park, roughly 20 miles of the California coast. Rancho San Julian, inland from the coast along Highway 1, is owned by heirs of Jose Noriega, the original Spanish land grantee in the early 1800s. It’s still used for cattle…

Vandenberg Air Force Base, established in 1958 when it absorbed the older Camp Cook (founded 1941), occupies 98,500 acres (154 square miles) along the central California coast in northern Santa Barbara County. With 35 miles of wild shoreline, Vandenberg qualifies as one of the most important large parcels of property on the California coast. Vandenberg…