stern’s wharf

Click Here to Order a Ready to Frame Luster PrintFor a two week period, in the middle of the month of July 2011, I took a journey. That started with a view of Vegas and ended with a trip down the California coast.This was the last stop on my way down the California coast. Learning about this pier was something that took time.In 1872 construction was completed on what had just become the longest deep-water pier between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Named for its builder, local lumberman John P. Stearns, the wharf served the passenger and freight shipping needs of California's South Coast for over a quarter century.When the railroad finally reached Santa Barbara in 1877, Stearns added an additional spur to the wharf, providing a necessary transport link to his lumberyard and the nearby Southern Pacific Depot. The spur was damaged by severe storms in the early 1900's and was ultimately abandoned in 1923. A raiload logging car remains on the spur as a legacy of the times.The Ha