Tajiguas

Tajiguas is located south of Hollister Ranch. Tajiguas was a Native American village of the Chumash people. Tajiguas probably means 'the basket.’ The village was situated on the Pacific coast, at the site of the current Tajiguas Beach, 2 miles west of Refugio State Beach. The village had 42 wikiups on one side, 37 on the other with at least 400 Native Americans as noticed by the Portola Expedition in August 1769. The settlement spanned two sides of Tajiguas Creek. Some believe the people are believed to have been forced by war to move slightly to the east to the coastal villages of Qasil and Shishuchi'i'.

During the early 20th century, several settlements were established on what is known since the mid-1980s as the Gaviota Coast. By 1940, Tajiguas had become a small town. With a small store and motor court that served the residents, homes in neighboring Arroyo Quemada, and motorists who drove though on what was then Highway 1. The second half of the century saw the demolition of most of the structures in the small village leaving only a gas station that was eventually removed in the 1970s as the area came under control of Santa Barbara County’s dump, the Tajiguas Landfill.

Once a lengthy, vibrant coastal canyon featuring a grand assemblage of habitats and ecosystems, Pila Canyon is now buried under tons of refuse from throughout the county. Indeed, a mountain of buried trash is now very evident as one passes the canyon mouth while driving on US 101 (a supposed “Scenic Highway”). It is fascinating to realize that so-called “environmentally sensitive” Santa Barbara County considers a county dump to be a preferable addition to the Gaviota Coast rather than the quaint village by the sea that used to exist.