The Cuyama Valley (
Chumash Chumash may refer to:
*Chumash (Judaism), a Hebrew word for the Pentateuch, used in Judaism
*Chumash people, a Native American people of southern California
*Chumashan languages, indigenous languages of California
See also
* Chumash traditional ...
: ''Kuyam'', meaning "Clam")
is a valley along the
Cuyama River
The Cuyama River (Chumash: ''Kuyam'', meaning "Clam") is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 15, 2011 river in southern San Luis Obispo County, northern Santa Barbara ...
in central
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, in northern
Santa Barbara, southern
San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfwa ...
, southwestern
Kern
KERN (1180 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Wasco, California, Wasco-Greenacres, California, and serving the Bakersfield metropolitan area. The station is owned by American General ...
, and northwestern
Ventura counties. It is about two hours driving time from both Los Angeles and the Santa Barbara area.
It is a sparsely inhabited area containing two primary towns –
Cuyama and
New Cuyama
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
, and also
Ventucopa. The land is largely used for ranching, agriculture, and oil and gas production.
California State Route 166
State Route 166 (SR 166) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It connects the Central Coast to the southern San Joaquin Valley, running from State Route 1 in Guadalupe and through Santa Maria in Santa Barbara County to State Ro ...
runs along most of the east/west length of the valley, connecting the Kern County and the southern
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...
with
Santa Maria and coastal Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties.
State Route 33 runs north/south through the eastern end of the valley, connecting the southern San Joaquin Valley with
Ojai
Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...
and coastal Ventura County.
Geography
![Entering San Luis Obispo County from Kern County on California State Route 166 westbound](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Entering_San_Luis_Obispo_County_from_Kern_County_on_California_State_Route_166_westbound.JPG)
The valley encompasses an area of approximately . It is bounded on all sides by mountains: the
Sierra Madre Mountains along the south and west,
La Panza Range
The La Panza Range is a mountain range in the Central Coast of California region in San Luis Obispo County, east of the small town of Santa Margarita. It is one of the California Coast Ranges and in the Los Padres National Forest.
The range is ab ...
on the north, and
Caliente Range
The Caliente Range is a west-east trending zone of uplift mountains in the California Coast Ranges, in central California. The highest peak of the range is Caliente Mountain at in elevation, located in southeastern San Luis Obispo County.
Geology ...
along the northeast − all of the
California Coast Ranges
The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains.
P ...
System; and the
San Emigdio Mountains
The San Emigdio Mountains are a part of the Transverse Ranges in Southern California, extending from Interstate 5 at Lebec and Gorman on the east to Highway 33–166 on the west. They link the Tehachapis and Temblor Range and form the southern ...
on the east − of the
Transverse Ranges
The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie within Santa B ...
System.
The headwaters of the
Cuyama River
The Cuyama River (Chumash: ''Kuyam'', meaning "Clam") is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 15, 2011 river in southern San Luis Obispo County, northern Santa Barbara ...
are just north of Pine Mountain Summit on
State Route 33. The valley widens from the river's entry to a maximum width near the highway junction of Routes 166 and 33, near the corner of the four counties. Then it narrows again as the river flows west out of the valley through a narrow canyon between the Sierra Madre and La Panza ranges, to the Santa Maria Valley and its
river mouth
A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current reducing the carrying ...
on the Pacific Ocean.
The agricultural fields are in the center of the valley, near the
Cuyama Highway junction and the two primary towns, where the alluvium is rich and the valley is a wide floodplain.
[Lantis, Steiner, Karinen, p. 193-4]
North of the major portion of the valley is the
Caliente Range
The Caliente Range is a west-east trending zone of uplift mountains in the California Coast Ranges, in central California. The highest peak of the range is Caliente Mountain at in elevation, located in southeastern San Luis Obispo County.
Geology ...
rises, over which is the
Carrizo Plain
The Carrizo Plain ( Obispeño: ''tšɨłkukunɨtš'', "Place of the rabbits") is a large enclosed grassland plain, approximately long and up to across, in southeastern San Luis Obispo County, California, about northwest of Los Angeles. It con ...
, a much larger inland valley. To the southeast is the high backcountry of Ventura County, which includes the highest summit in the region,
Mount Pinos
Mount Pinos () ( Samala: Iwɨhɨnmu'') is a mountain located in the Los Padres National Forest on the boundary between Ventura and Kern counties in California. The summit, at , is the highest point in Ventura County. The mountain is the hi ...
and other features of the
San Emigdio Mountains
The San Emigdio Mountains are a part of the Transverse Ranges in Southern California, extending from Interstate 5 at Lebec and Gorman on the east to Highway 33–166 on the west. They link the Tehachapis and Temblor Range and form the southern ...
. The far eastern end of the valley the
San Andreas Fault
The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonics, tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is Fault (geology)#Strike-slip fau ...
zone crosses, and forms a low jumble of hills which Route 166 passes over to reach the southwestern
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...
, with
Maricopa
Maricopa can refer to:
Places
* Maricopa, Arizona, United States, a city
** Maricopa Freeway, a piece of I-10 in Metropolitan Phoenix
** Maricopa station, an Amtrak station in Maricopa, Arizona
* Maricopa County, Arizona, United States
* Marico ...
,
I−5, and
Bakersfield
Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...
.
The
Los Padres National Forest
Los Padres National Forest is a United States national forest in Southern California, southern and central California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, Los Padres includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast ...
lands are adjacent to the Cuyama Valley on the south, east, and northwest sides. Much of the land to the northeast, including most of the Caliente Range, is managed by the U.S.
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...
(BLM).
Geology
Geologically, the valley is an
alluvium
Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
-filled
synclinal basin, at an elevation of approximately 2,000 to 2,500 feet (600 to 800 meters). Most of the rocks are sedimentary, and the
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
-age
Monterey Formation
The Monterey Formation is an extensive Miocene oil-rich geological sedimentary formation in California, with outcrops of the formation in parts of the California Coast Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and on some of California's off-shore islan ...
outcrops to the south, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre.
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58[Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...](_blank)
sedimentary formations occur in the foothills along the south side of the valley as well. The large
Morales Thrust Fault
Morales is a Spanish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Alfredo Morales (born 1990), American footballer
* Alvaro Morales (disambiguation), several people
* Amado Morales (born 1947), Puerto Rican javelin thrower
* Bartolomé Moral ...
separates the abruptly-rising block of the
Caliente Range
The Caliente Range is a west-east trending zone of uplift mountains in the California Coast Ranges, in central California. The highest peak of the range is Caliente Mountain at in elevation, located in southeastern San Luis Obispo County.
Geology ...
from the valley itself on the north. Scenic
badlands
Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, m ...
occur in the upper reaches of the valley, north and northeast of Pine Mountain Summit; they are reachable from Route 33 via Lockwood Valley Road.
Climate
The climate of the valley is semi-arid with hot summers and cool winters. Almost all precipitation occurs in the winter in the form of rain, although snow has fallen on occasion; only five inches of rain falls annually on the valley floor, making it the driest place in coastal Central California. Since the valley is open to the sea, there is occasional marine influence. The principal native vegetation on the valley floor is grassland and scrub, with
chaparral
Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...
and oak woodland in the hills to the south.
History
The native inhabitants of the valley were
Chumash Chumash may refer to:
*Chumash (Judaism), a Hebrew word for the Pentateuch, used in Judaism
*Chumash people, a Native American people of southern California
*Chumashan languages, indigenous languages of California
See also
* Chumash traditional ...
. The name "Cuyama" comes from a village named for the
Chumash Chumash may refer to:
*Chumash (Judaism), a Hebrew word for the Pentateuch, used in Judaism
*Chumash people, a Native American people of southern California
*Chumashan languages, indigenous languages of California
See also
* Chumash traditional ...
word ''kuyam'', meaning "clam" or "freshwater mollusk".
In addition to kuyam, other Chumash communities in the Cuyama Valley included Sxaliwilimu’, Lishawato’w, and Tsiwikon. Although the Spanish arrived in 1769 in California, the Cuyama Valley Chumash had little interaction with the Spanish until 1801. Between 1801 and 1822, over 400 people from the Cuyama Valley were baptized into Spanish missions. Over half went to Mission La Purisima, while most of the others were incorporated into Mission San Luis Obispo, Mission Santa Ines, and Mission Santa Barbara—all Chumash missions. Pacomio was a Cuyama Valley man baptized into Mission La Purisima in 1803. The decade 1811 to 1822 was a period when Spain ceased to subsidize missions. This put pressure on native Christians to produce more and to pay a tax to sustain the suddenly unpaid military. As a result, Cuyama Valley people made a transition to mission life at a tense time. In 1824, Pacomio was a leader in the multi-mission Chumash uprising. In 1825, newly independent Mexico sent a governor to California who liberated accomplished craftsmen from mission life. Pacomio became a free carpenter in Monterey, the Mexican capital of California, where he served on the town council. He died in 1844 of smallpox.
Near the end of the Mexican period of
Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
the valley was split into two land grants along the
Cuyama River
The Cuyama River (Chumash: ''Kuyam'', meaning "Clam") is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 15, 2011 river in southern San Luis Obispo County, northern Santa Barbara ...
, the
Rancho Cuyama de Rojo in 1843, and the
Rancho Cuyama de Lataillade) in 1846. The main land use in the second half of the 19th century was cattle grazing, although some homesteading took place in the latter part, especially in the side canyons where there was more water. In 1939, the first successful water wells using a pumping system were drilled. The groundwater aquifer is deep below the Cuyama Valley. The availability of irrigation water introduced agricultural crops into the region with the grazing of cattle continuing.
Little further economic development took place in the Cuyama Valley until the discovery of oil in 1948 at the
Russell Ranch Oil Field
The Russell Ranch Oil Field is an oil and gas field in the Cuyama Valley of northern Santa Barbara and southern San Luis Obispo Counties, California, in the United States. Discovered in 1948, and reaching peak production in 1950, it has produced ...
, and more significantly in 1949 at the much larger
South Cuyama Oil Field
The South Cuyama Oil Field is a large oil and gas field in the Cuyama Valley and the adjacent northern foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains in northeastern Santa Barbara County, California. Discovered in 1949, and with a cumulative production ...
. Richfield Oil Company, later part of
ARCO
ARCO ( ) is a brand of gasoline stations currently owned by Marathon Petroleum after BP sold its rights. BP commercializes the brand in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, while Marathon has rights for the rest of the United States an ...
, built the town of New Cuyama to house the oil workers and their associated services. They shipped the oil pumped from these two fields by pipeline to their refinery near Long Beach. For a brief time in the early 1950s, the Cuyama Valley was the fourth-most productive oil region of California.
As oil production declined − only about two percent of the South Cuyama Field's oil is estimated to remain − the main economic activity in the valley again became agriculture,
although with the sharp rise in the price of oil in 2007 and 2008, petroleum exploration has again been of interest.
Recently E&B Natural Resources purchased the rights to develop the
South Cuyama Oil Field
The South Cuyama Oil Field is a large oil and gas field in the Cuyama Valley and the adjacent northern foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains in northeastern Santa Barbara County, California. Discovered in 1949, and with a cumulative production ...
from Hallador Petroleum.
See also
*
*
*
References
* Charles W. Jennings and Rudolph G. Strand. ''Geologic Map of California, Los Angeles Sheet.'' State of California, Division of Mines and Geology. 1969.
* Dennis W. Lantis, Rodney Steiner, Arthur E. Karinen: ''California, Land of Contrast'', 3rd edition. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque Iowa. 1977.
Notes
External links
Ranchos of Santa Barbara County MapDigital Tabulation of Stratigraphic Data from Oil and Gas Wells in Cuyama Valley and Surrounding Areas, Central CaliforniaUnited States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
{{Authority control
Valleys of Santa Barbara County, California
Valleys of Kern County, California
Valleys of San Luis Obispo County, California
Valleys of Ventura County, California
California Coast Ranges
Regions of California
Valleys of California