Goleta Depot: The South Coast Railroad Museum

Goleta Depot at Stowe House

Welcome to a very special place we call Goleta. We are working to bring you the very best of Goleta, California.

The Goleta Depot

The Goleta Depot was built in 1901 by the Southern Pacific Railroad Co. Ending the days of the Stagecoach and the days of Dusty Santa Barbara. It was also when the long awaited, completion of S.P.'s Coast Line was finished. Now San Francisco and Los Angeles were finally completed.

Like the many other of these two-story, wood-frame depot stations that once were scattered throughout the nation, The Goleta Depot served both the railroad and the local community with the transport of goods from Asphalt to Lemon's and flowers to passengers and livestock.


Finally, in October of 1973, Goleta Depot was closed and boarded-up 8 years after the elimination of the local passenger trains had reduced the station's workload to just train orders and freight.

Thanks to The effort of many local organizations,The Goleta Depot was Saved and moved to it's present location at the Stowe house on Los Carneros Road. Read the FULL Story Here!

Development in Goleta the Good Land?

Santa Barbara Cable Car Company.

Is the Goleta Valley going to go the way of its neighbor, Santa Barbara?? I put this picture of the Santa Barbara cable car company which ran a loop from the Mission Santa Barbara, across the front of the Riviera down to state street. Can something like this happen across the foothills above Bishop Ranch. Are those same Goleta foothills going to look like the beautiful, lush landscapes of the Santa Barbara Riviera?? Is the Bishop Ranch in Goleta going to finally be developed? What kind of housing are the residents of the Goleta Valley going to get out of it? Will it be the same type of track homes as the El Encanto Heights neighborhood? Or Will it be like the dense Winchester Commons neighborhood? We know that growth is inevitable, so we must control it. I wonder what Nicholas Den would think of His beautiful Santa Barbara's Royal Rancho? "The Rancho of Twelve Canyons" as Los Dos Pueblos had been nicknamed by the Indians, contained the following creeks in west to east order: Las Llagas, El Gato, Las Veras (Doty), Dos Pueblos, Eagle, Tecolote, West Las Armas (Winchester), Las Armas (Bell), Tecolotito (Glen Annie), Carneros (Bartlett and La Patera), San Pedro, and Las Vegas. (Names in parenthesis are the modern equivalents.)