Editing Goleta, California (section)

===19th and 20th centuries===
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The Goleta Valley was a prominent lemon-growing region during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was largely agricultural. Several areas, especially the Ellwood Mesa, were developed for [[oil extraction|oil]] and [[natural gas extraction]]. In the 1920s, aviation pioneers started using portions of the [[Goleta Slough]] that had silted-in due to agriculture to land and takeoff. As former [[tidelands]], the title to these lands was unclear. Starting in 1940, boosters from the city of Santa Barbara lobbied and obtained federal funding and passed a bond measure to formally develop an airport on the Goleta Slough. The necessity for an airport – or at least a military airfield – became more apparent after a Japanese submarine shelled the [[Ellwood Oil Field]] in 1942. This was one of the few direct-fire [[Attacks on North America during World War II|attacks on the U.S. continent during WWII]]. The Marine Corps undertook completion of the airport and established [[Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara]] on the site of the current airport and [[University of California, Santa Barbara]], campus.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://goletahistory.com|title=Goleta History|work=goletahistory.com|access-date=July 14, 2017|archive-date=June 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170621200901/http://goletahistory.com/|url-status=live}}</ref>

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After the war, Goleta Valley residents supported the construction of [[Lake Cachuma]], which provided water, enabling a housing boom and the establishment of research and aerospace firms in the area. In 1954, the [[University of California, Santa Barbara]], moved to part of the former Marine base. Along with the boom in aerospace, the character changed from rural-agricultural to high tech. Goleta remains a center for high-tech firms, and a [[bedroom community]] for neighboring Santa Barbara.