Santa Barbara (Spanish: Santa Barbara, meaning 'Saint Barbara') is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of
 which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of
 the United States excepting Alaska, the city lies between the steeply rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
 Santa Barbara's climate is often described as Mediterranean, and the city has been dubbed "The American Riviera".

 Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, sailing for the Kingdom of Spain, sailed through what is now called the Santa
 Barbara Channel in 1542, anchoring briefly in the area. In 1602, Spanish maritime explorer Sebastian Vizcaino gave the
 name "Santa Barbara" to the channel and also to one of the Channel Islands.

 A land expedition led by Gaspar de Portolà visited around 1769, and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi, who accompanied
 the expedition, named a large native town "Laguna de la Concepcion". Cabrillo's earlier name, however, is the one that has
 survived.

 Presidio of Santa Barbara.

 The first permanent European residents were Spanish missionaries and soldiers under Felipe de Neve, who arrived in 1782
 and constructed the Presidio. They were sent to both secure the Spanish claim to the region and to convert the indigenous
 peoples to Catholicism. Many of the Spaniards brought their families with them, and those formed the nucleus of the small
 town – at first just a cluster of adobes – that surrounded the Presidio of Santa Barbara. The Santa Barbara Mission was
 established on the Feast of Saint Barbara, December 4, 1786. It was the tenth of the California Missions to be founded by the
 Spanish Franciscans. It was dedicated by Padre Fermin Lasuen, who succeeded Padre Junipero Serra as the second
 president and founder of the California Franciscan Mission Chain. The Chumash laborers built a connection between the
 canyon creek and the Santa Barbara Mission water system through the use of a dam and an aqueduct. During the following
 decades, many of the natives died of diseases such as smallpox, against which they had no natural immunity.