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Santa Barbara County is a county
located on the
Morgage Glossary
Pacific coast of the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, just west of Ventura County. As of 2000 the county had a population of 399,347. The estimated total population of Santa Barbara
Real Estate Home Values
County as of January 2006 is 421,625, according to The California Department of Finance. The county seat is Santa Barbara.
For thousands of years,
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the area was home to the Chumash tribe of Native Americans.
The Santa Barbara Channel received its name from Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino when he sailed over the channel waters in 1602; he entered the channel on December 4, the day of the feast of Santa Barbara. He was not, however, the first European to enter the channel: that honor went to the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo who arrived in 1542.
Mission Santa Barbara was founded on December 4, 1786 in what is now Santa Barbara. The county derives its name from the mission.
Santa Barbara County was
one of the original counties of California, formed in 1850 at the time of statehood. Parts of the county's territory were given to Ventura County in 1872.