Gaviota Pass

The bronze tells the county's favorite story: a Christmas ambush waiting in the gorge, Benjamin Foxen warning Fremont, and a bloodless capture of Santa Barbara by way of San Marcos Pass. The historian Walker Tompkins took it apart. No soldier's diary mentions Foxen, the able-bodied men of Santa Barbara were away at Los Angeles, and the flooded gorge was impassable to a column that winter. The state has since rewritten its own register entry, which now says only that this is one of California's historic mountain passes.

What the plaque says

Gaviota Pass Fremont - Foxen Memorial Here, on Christmas Day, 1846 natives and soldiers from the Presidio of Santa Barbara lay in ambush for Lt. Col. John C. Fremont, U.S.A. and his battalion. Advised of the plot, Fremont was guided over the San Marcos Pass by Benjamin Foxen and his son William, and captured Santa Barbara without bloodshed. Erected jointly by Santa Barbara Parlor No. 116 Native Sons of the Golden West and Lions Club of Santa Maria

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Mission Santa Inés — 9.2 mi
• La Purisima Mission — 16 mi
• Original Site of Mission de La Purisima Concepcion de Maria Santisima — 16 mi
• First Successful Cement Job — 19 mi