Santa Barbara highlight
Stearns Wharf
Stearns Wharf, completed in 1872, is the oldest operating wood-piling wharf in California and remains a public gathering place with restaurants, shops and fishing.
Lumberman John P. Stearns built his wharf in 1872 to serve as a deep-water loading pier for ships. At roughly 2,300 feet long, it stretches into the Santa Barbara Channel and has survived fires, earthquakes and coastal storms for more than 150 years, earning the distinction of California's oldest working wood-piling wharf. The structure remains under public ownership and carries both pedestrian and vehicle traffic, unusual among historic wharves along the California coast.
Today Stearns Wharf functions as a free public access point to the ocean and a commercial center with restaurants, shops and the Santa Barbara Sea Center, which houses marine exhibits and educational programs. Visitors fish without a license, dine with water views, browse local crafts or simply walk to the end and watch the channel. The first 90 minutes of parking are typically free, making it accessible to everyone in the region.
For families, the wharf is the kind of place that becomes a tradition: a school field trip, a Friday evening stroll, a birthday dinner. Protecting those traditions for the people who will miss them is what a term life insurance policy does, sized to your mortgage and income so your family can stay in the home and the community you have chosen.