I’ve been to Santa Barbara many times over the year.  Half way between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara is Oxnard and Point Hueneme which I never stopped at.  This time I decided to venture off  on to the road less traveled and check out this midway point.

Oxnard's founder, Henry T. Oxnard, intended to name the city after a Greek word for "sugar". Finally, frustrated with trying to communicate his desires to the state bureaucrat, he gave up and named the city after his family.

The earliest inhabitants of the Oxnard areas were the Chumash Indians who lived in round, thatched houses and were known for their well constructed plank canoes and fine basket work.

After a number of Spanish explorations, Jose de Galvez, utilizing powers bestowed upon him by King Charles III, appointed Father Junipero Serra to head missions in Alta California. Mission San Buenaventura was the half-way point between the San Diego and Monterey missions and was established in 1782. Pueblo life and sprawling ranchos began to spring up around the site of the mission, and Californio families exerted their influence until the State of California was added to the Union in 1850.g the mid nineteenth century, immigrants began to pour in from the east coast and Europe.

The major industry, agriculture, produced great crops of barley and lima beans. Achille and Henry Levy opened an agricultural brokerage business in 1882, and finally a bank, which encouraged and assisted farmers. Then, in 1897, ranchers Albert Maulhardt and Johannes Borchard believed sugar beets would be a profitable crop for the area, and invited Henry Oxnard to construct a local factory to process the harvests. Oxnard and his three brothers operated the American Beet Sugar factory in Chino, California and encouraged by a pledge of 18,000 acres of sugar beets from local farmers, built a factory in the heart of the rich fields. The Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a spur right to the factory site so the processed beets could be shipped out.

A town quickly sprang up near the factory. Almost overnight businesses and residences appeared around the town square, called the "Plaza", and schools and churches emerged almost as rapidly. The City of Oxnard was incorporated in 1903, taking its name from the Oxnard brothers who had founded the sugar beet factory.

The factory attracted many Chinese, Japanese and Mexican workers to Oxnard and the sugar beet industry brought diversification to agriculture. Major crops then included beans, beets, and barley, and businesses in town consisted of general merchandise, restaurants, laundries, saloons, and banks. Oxnard built its first public library, a classically styled, Andrew Carnegie gift, on the north-west corner of the plaza in 1907. The building stands today as a county historical landmark and is the only remaining structure from the early days of the plaza.

Agriculture has remained the major industry, but Oxnard has witnessed a steady population increase beginning in the 1940's. The establishment of military bases at Port Hueneme and Point Mugu during World War II, and the rise of electronic, aerospace, and other manufacturing industries have contributed to the growth of the city and surrounding areas. Oxnard is now the largest city in Ventura County, but remains a rich agricultural region to this day.

Heritage Square features a collection of 1876-1912 houses, a church and winery replica in a picturesque Victorian garden setting. Guided tours are offered on Saturdays and by appointment to groups and schools. Special events such as concerts, weddings, and holiday events are scheduled throughout the year.
Costumed docent volunteers help make history come alive as they take students and adults on walking tours of the buildings. Tours teach about Oxnard's rich pioneer roots and about the people who were pioneers.

Students also may participate hands-on in activities from the turn-of-the-century, including dressing in period costumes. All activities help to bring a by gone era back to life

The town's centerpiece attraction is Heritage Square, a block of Victorian homes rescued from developers' bulldozers and moved to a once-vacant lot bordered by A, B, Seventh and Eighth streets. A combination of private funding and city redevelopment money turned 15 shabby buildings into stunning showpieces that house offices, shops, a wedding chapel, a reception and banquet hall and a little theater company.

Two California bungalows recently were rescued and restored on a site across Seventh Street, ``and we're hoping we can restore the old Oxnard Hotel and turn it into offices,'' said Gary Blum, site manager and the great-grandson of one of the farming families whose restored home is in the square. Blum leads 45-minute tours of the square, giving visitors a glimpse of beveled and stained-glass windows, fancy woodwork, mantelpieces and chandeliers - plus some tidbits about the people who built and lived in the farmhouse and mansions.

For example, the 1896 Queen Anne-style Petit House, which Blum restored, was so run-down that the builder's heir planned to let the fire department burn it down for firefighting practice.

Today, the old home is perhaps the finest in the square, with its gray and white paint, its turret and its fancy porch railings. Inside, Blum shares office space with an insurance company and other businesses; the basement houses the Elite Theatre Company's 48-seat theater.

Across the brick courtyard stands Heritage Square Hall, built in 1906 in the Carpenter Gothic style and restored to act as a chapel for weddings and other services and ceremonies. ``We average about a wedding a weekend during the high season,'' Blum said.

A Queen Anne home built in 1887 by David Todd Perkins, who would become president of Union Oil Co. and a state assemblyman, now houses a Christian Science Reading and offices.

The John home, a one-story bungalow with new, but antique-looking, beveled glass and an impressive porch, was one of the homes moved into Oxnard about 1900 because the demand for houses was greater than builders could supply.

Not far from Heritage Square is the town's other favorite spot for tourists - Fisherman's Village structures at the harbor were carefully crafted to look like an old East Coast seaport - complete with its own Maritime Museum. There's even a lighthouse, but it's just for looks.

The village lines the harbor's northern shore, featuring a half-dozen seafood restaurants, art galleries and shops, and visitors can stroll a cobblestone walkway that skirts the inlets where the fishing boats tie up with their catches at the end of the day while hungry gulls screech and swoop overhead.

The Maritime Museum, which houses models of ships - from man's earliest effort at sailing the seas to the men-of-war of the English Navy - also includes a gallery of sea and ship paintings, a model-building workshop and its own library.

Just south of Oxnard is Port Hueneme.  The Port of Hueneme is the only deep water port between the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of San Francisco, and the only Navy controlled harbor between San Diego Bay and Puget Sound.

The harbor is a shipping and receiving point for a wide variety of goods destined for the Los Angeles Basin and beyond, including automobiles, pineapples, and bananas. Agricultural products such as onions, strawberries, and flowers are shipped.

Hueneme', (pronounced "Y NEE MEE"), is derived from a Chumash Indian word (Wynema) meaning "half-way" or "resting place." It is believed that central California's original inhabitants the Canalinos Indians, (part of the Chumash nation), used this coastal point of land (approximately half way between today's Point Mugu and the mouth of the Santa Clara River) as a resting place as well as from which they departed on fishing expeditions. The point at Hueneme is the closest spot (11 miles) from which to cross the Santa Barbara channel between the mainland and Anacapa Island a prime Chumash fishing area.

The Oxnard plain where the port is located is home to some of the most fruitful agricultural land anywhere, growing at one time or another, lima beans, sugar beets, lemons, oranges, walnuts, and a peculiarly stubborn brand of California farmer. The farmers never liked the truck and rail rates they had to pay to get their produce to water. As they watched the loaded trucks and trains go by, bound for Los Angeles, they asked, "Why should we send our stuff down there when we've got the ocean at our front door? All we've got to do is build a harbor."

The idea for building a Port at point Hueneme was the direct result of a coastal exploration by Thomas Bard in 1867.  Bard had learned of a freak submarine valley (Hueneme Canyon over 1000 feet deep that came within 300 feet of the proposed channel and how an underground river would keep the channel free of silt. Growing frustrations experienced by Ventura County's early agricultural industry in getting its expanding grain surpluses to broader markets only tended to confirm Bard's vision of a port to serve as an entrepot for the area's vast agricultural potential.  Taking advantage of Hueneme Canyon, a 1500-foot (Bard's) wharf was constructed in 1872 to lighter goods between the coast and ships off shore.
The City of Port Hueneme (pronounced "Wy-Nee-Mee") is approximately fifty miles north of Los Angeles. In 1874 a lighthouse was established to guide shipping through the Santa Barbara Channel which runs between the California coast and the Channel Islands.

The ornate two-story Victorian was identical to the light at Point Fermin, and both lights were first lit on December 15, 1874. The light flashed white until 1889, when the signal was changed to fixed red. In 1892, the light displayed an occulting white signal. A new lens installed in 1899 displayed flashing white.
The early Point Hueneme keepers record was mediocre at best. Head Keeper Samuel Ensign and assistant keeper Korts were dismissed in 1878 for failing to maintain the station grounds (although the light was kept in good order). The first assistant keeper, Melvin Giles, was twice caught sleeping on his watch - but nevertheless was later promoted to head keeper at Pigeon Point.

Walter White served at Point Hueneme from 1927 to 1948. He was witness to many changes at the site. In 1940, the Port of Hueneme was completed. In 1942, the US Navy purchased Hueneme Harbor and established the US Construction Battalion Center - "Home of the Seebees."

Keeper White also oversaw the replacement of the original lighthouse with a new concrete Art Moderne structure which began service in 1941. The old building, sans lantern room, was barged across the harbor, for use by a local yacht club. Sadly, the building was left neglected and eventually torn down.

The new 48 foot tower is still active and maintained by the Coast Guard. The light is on the grounds of the Port of Hueneme. In recent years, the Coast Guard has refurbished the building, and there are plans to make the site part of an Aquaculture center, complete with interpretive facility and Coast Guard maritime museum. A public access path along the shore to the light already exists and is being further developed.
Today, the lighthouse has been opened to the public. The Coast Guard Auxiliary offers tours of the tower. The City of Oxnard, in conjunction with the Oxnard Harbor District, have created a Lighthouse Promenade along the port fence that leads to the lighthouse.
So if your heading from Los Angeles to Santa Barba

ra and want a midway stop of something to do, Oxnard is a quaint little city with a rich heritage and history coupled with historic architecture.