A small boy stands on a wooden box, peering through a submarine periscope. But the periscope isn’t in a sub. It’s in a museum at the Santa Barbara Harbor.
"I see the harbor, I see flags, and I see palm trees," said the boy. The periscope gives him a view of the harbor area.
We’re at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, an 8,000-square-foot complex celebrating the region’s maritime history.
"We wanted to cover everything that has human interaction with the Santa Barbara Channel," said Greg Gorga, the museum's Executive Director. "We go from Point Conception to Port Hueneme, the Channel Islands, and anything in between. We wanted from the very beginning to be the most hands-on, interactive maritime museum on the West Coast. We have a sport fishing exhibit where you hold a rod in your hand, and when the fish bites. It shakes the rod, and you have to hold on and reel it in. We have a working periscope, one of only five open to the public in the United States. Kids can jump up on a surfboard. So, it's really hands-on."
It’s a big summer for the museum, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
"The building we are in (at the Harbor) was a WPA Works project," said Gorga. "It was built, and then World War II broke out. The city gave it to the Navy, and it was a Navy training center and then a Navy Reserve building from World War II into the '90s. The city bought it back from the Navy, and there was a big discussion over what to do. A group of individuals, including local fishermen, commercial divers, and Bob Keating, who owned a boat store, led an effort to bring people involved with the harbor together to open our doors."
One of the museum's cornerstones is education. There’s a kids' area, where some children are making paper hats. Others are coloring images of the iconic island fox, the once-endangered species making a comeback in its native Channel Islands habitat.
"I'm going to make one of the foxes," said one boy. "I'm going to make it white and orange."
"We started bringing a tall ship here to town," said Gorga. "Kids learned about being an 1830s sailor. Now, we've grown to 13 different education programs. We work with junior high school and high school girls and put them on a NOAA research vessel, where they become hands-on scientists. We have great programs in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, and Oso Flaco Lake where we get kids to explore the coastal environment."
The museum also has an ongoing adult lecture series that examines everything from sea life to shipwrecks. There’s a gallery area that showcases maritime-related paintings and photographs. The current exhibition features the photography of Chuck Graham, chronicling the life of the island fox.
According to Gorga, a wide range of exhibits look at Santa Barbara's deep maritime roots, telling stories even some local residents don’t know.
"Santa Barbara has a rich maritime history. You know, you could only get here originally by boat. Trains didn't come until the late 1800s. We had a pirate attack in 1818. at Ortaga Ranch up by Refugio Beach. We have the Chumash who have been mariners, and [have been] getting out to those islands for thousands of years. We are the birthplace of deepwater commercial diving."
One of the museum’s prized exhibits is a two-story-high lighthouse lens built in the 1850s to warn mariners that they were approaching Point Conception.
"Augustin-Jean Fresnel was a French physicist/engineer in the 1820s, and he revolutionized lighthouses. Before that, they had Argand lamps, and just reflected a flame. He developed a series of glass prisms. So, we're looking at 624 glass prisms. Sixteen of them are called bullseyes. That's the round pieces of glass, very unique. And that was five times stronger than what was there before. This one we are looking out was designed to send light 25 miles out to sea."
Perhaps one of the museum’s most fun new additions is a simulator that allows you to be the captain of a boat crossing the Santa Barbara Channel, while trying to avoid everything from cargo ships to whales. "I helped design this exhibit, but I've never made it across the Channel," he laughed. "I've run out of gas a few times."
The admission charge and memberships only cover a portion of the museum's running costs. Donors and foundation grants have helped keep it open and growing. It hosts around 40,000 visitors annually, and is nearing the millionth visitor in its history. On June 28, it will host a 25th anniversary party featuring the band Yachty By Nature. Tickets are still available for the fundraiser.
