Editing Goleta, California (section)

===Early history===
<!--Native history-->
The area of present-day Goleta was populated for thousands of years by the [[Chumash (tribe)|Chumash]] people. Locally, they became known, by the Spanish, as ''Canaliños'' as they lived along the coast, adjacent to the [[Channel Islands of California|Channel Islands]]. One of the largest villages, ''S'axpilil'', was north of the [[Goleta Slough]], not far from the present-day [[Santa Barbara Airport]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sbnature.org/research/anthro/chumash/golval.htm|title=Chumash Placenames of the Goleta Valley|work=sbnature.org|access-date=July 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520171159/http://www.sbnature.org/research/anthro/chumash/golval.htm|archive-date=May 20, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

<!--European discovery-->
The first known European visitor to the Goleta area was the mariner [[Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo]], who spent time around the Channel Islands in 1542, and died there the following year. During the 1980s, the discovery of a [[16th century|16th-century]] [[cannon]] on the beach led to the [[Fringe theories on the location of New Albion#Goleta.2C Santa Barbara County.2C California|advancement of a theory]] that [[Francis Drake|Sir Francis Drake]] sailed into the Goleta Slough in 1579. Goleta is one of many alternative locations (and the one farthest south) proposed for Drake's "[[New Albion]]", generally believed to be today's [[Drake's Bay]], north of [[San Francisco]].

In [[1602]], another sailing expedition, led by [[Sebastian Vizcaino]], visited the [[Coastal California|California Coast]]. Vizcaino named the channel 'Santa Barbara'. Spanish ships, associated with the [[Manila Galleon]] trade, probably stopped in the area, intermittently, over the following 167 years; no permanent settlements were established.

The first land [[Portola expedition|expedition]] to California, led by [[Gaspar de Portolà]], spent several days in the area in 1769, on its way to [[Monterey Bay]], and also spent the night of [[Timeline of the Portolà expedition|August 20]] near a creek (possibly [[San Pedro Creek]]) to the north of the Goleta [[estuary]]. At that time, the estuary was a very large, open-water lagoon that covered most of (what is now) the city of Goleta, stretching as far north as Lake Los Carneros (adjacent to [[Stow House]]).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hep.ucsb.edu/people/hnn/goslupanyarr1782.jpg|title=A 1782 Spanish map of the lagoon overlaid on a modern map|access-date=April 12, 2014|archive-date=June 28, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140628094627/http://hep.ucsb.edu/people/hnn/goslupanyarr1782.jpg|url-status=live}}</ref> There were at least five native towns in the area, the largest being on an island in the middle of the lagoon. For that reason, expedition engineer Miguel Costanso called the group of towns 'Pueblos de la Isla', or 'towns of the island'.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://pacificahistory.wikispaces.com/Portola+Expedition+August+20%2C+1769+Diaries|title=Portola Expedition August 20, 1769 Diaries|work=pacificahistory.wikispaces.com|access-date=July 14, 2017|archive-date=July 31, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731023847/https://pacificahistory.wikispaces.com/Portola+Expedition+August+20%2C+1769+Diaries|url-status=live}}</ref> Some of the soldiers called the island town [[Mexcaltitán de Uribe|Mescaltitlan]], after a similarly insular [[Aztecs|Aztec]] settlement in [[Nayarit]], Mexico. Franciscan missionary [[Juan Crespi]], who accompanied the expedition, gave the towns the name 'Santa Margarita de Cortona'.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bolton |first=Herbert E. |pages=166–169 |year=1927 |title=Fray Juan Crespi: Missionary Explorer on the Pacific Coast, 1769-1774 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b233487;view=1up;seq=9|publisher=HathiTrust Digital Library }}</ref>

The island retained the name [[Mescalitan Island]] (dropping the extra 'T' of the Aztec spelling), until it was bulldozed and flattened in [[1941]] to provide fill for the military airfield that is now Santa Barbara Airport (SBA). The Wastewater Treatment Plant of the Goleta Sanitary District is located on what used to be the island.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://goletasanitary.org/|title=Goleta Sanitary District - Home|website=goletasanitary.org|access-date=January 7, 2022|archive-date=January 7, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107195134/https://goletasanitary.org/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Image:CabrilloBusinessPark-1.png|thumb|300px|right|Cabrillo Business Park in Goleta]]

Portola returned to San Diego via the same route in January [[1770]], where he mounted a second expedition to Monterey that year. A second Spanish expedition came to the Santa Barbara area of [[Alta California]] in [[1774]], led by [[Juan Bautista de Anza]]. De Anza returned the following year, and the road along the coast of Santa Barbara County (today's [[California State Route 1|Highway 1]]) soon became the [[El Camino Real (California)|El Camino Real]], connecting the string of Spanish missions.

<!--Mission and rancho era-->
An expedition in 1782, led by military governor [[Felipe de Neve]], founded the [[Presidio of Santa Barbara]] and, soon thereafter, the [[Santa Barbara Mission]]. The Goleta area, along with most of the coastal areas of today's Santa Barbara County, was placed in the jurisdiction of the presidio and mission.

Sometime after the De Anza expeditions, a sailing ship ("goleta") was wrecked at the mouth of the lagoon, and remained visible for many years, giving the area its current name. After Mexico became independent of Spain in 1821, most of the former mission ranch lands were divided up into large grants. The Goleta area became part of two adjacent ranchos. To the east of today's Fairview Avenue was [[Rancho La Goleta]], named for the shipwreck and granted to [[Daniel A. Hill]], the first American resident of Santa Barbara. An 1840s diseño (claim map) of the rancho shows the wrecked ship.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hep.ucsb.edu/people/hnn/lagoleta.gif|title=Rancho La Goleta diseño}}</ref>

The parts of Goleta to the west of Fairview Avenue were in [[Rancho Dos Pueblos]], granted in 1842 to Irish immigrant Nicholas Den, son-in-law of Daniel Hill. Rancho Dos Pueblos included the lagoon, airport, UCSB and [[Isla Vista, California|Isla Vista]], extending to the west as far as the eastern boundary of today's [[El Capitan State Beach]].