Greater Carpinteria:: Summerland and La Conchita

Carpinteria once featured a racetrack at one end of town and a gargantuan statue of Santa Claus at the other—anchor operations highlighting this unique southern corner of coastal Santa Barbara County. A few miles south, in the northern corner of Ventura County, nestles La Conchita, where an early seaside stagecoach route and a famous banana plantation helped shape the local flavor. The historical characteristics of Summerland, on the coast north of Carp, as Carpinteria is known, have includ...