Wharf gate & Dolphin Fountain

Come to the foot of State Street, where it meets the water, and you'll find a fountain crowned with leaping dolphins. This is Bud Bottoms' Dolphin Fountain, dedicated in nineteen eighty-five — Bottoms was a beloved local sculptor, and these dolphins have become the unofficial emblem of the whole waterfront. There's a lovely footnote to it: casts of these same dolphins were sent to Santa Barbara's sister cities — you'll find them leaping in Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, in Toba in Japan, and in Dingle in Ireland. One fountain, four coastlines.

But stand here and think about what this spot was before the fountain. A century and a half ago, this was a lumberyard — John Peck Stearns's lumberyard. And Stearns had a problem that this exact spot handed him every single day: getting lumber ashore. Without a pier, cargo had to be floated or rowed in through the surf and dragged up the beach — slow, wet, and half-ruined by the time it landed. Standing right here, watching that struggle, Stearns became convinced the town needed a real wharf, out into deep water.

So this is the threshold of the whole story. Everything we've walked backwards through — the harbor, the resort, the railroad, the funk — all of it stands on a decision a lumberman made at this very spot. Just east, by the way, are Chase Palm Park and Skater's Point, if you're exploring after.

Now the last stop, and the oldest thing of all. Walk out onto the planks.