Daily Alta California, Volume 1, Number 103, 29 April 1850
REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE
On the Derivation and Definition
of the Names of the several Counties
of the State of California, &c.
SANTA BARBARA. — There being a distance of more than five hundred miles between the military posts of San Diego and Monterey, and the Missions of San Antonio, San Luis Obispo,San Buenaventura, San Gabriel, and San Juan Capistrano, being situated in this intervening space, the Governor deemed it advisable, for the protection of these Missions, to establish another post or “presidio” at some suitable point somewhere in their vicinity; with this object in view, and with the requisite troops, and accompanied by the Rev. Presiding Father Junipero Serra, he bent his steps towards these Missions, until reaching a valley of delightful view and rich verdancy, in April 1782, where the troops were stationed and the new “presidio called “Santa Barbara,” which is the oldest and principal town of that immediate section of country. Hence the name of the county.