Historical Marker · No. 535
La Carpinteria
Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County · California
Erected by the County of Santa Barbara in cooperation with the California State Park Commission
The Spanish named this place for what they saw people doing on the beach. Portolá's soldiers came through in 1769 and found Chumash splitting drifted redwood into planks and sewing them into tomols, so they called it the carpenter's shop. What made a plank boat possible was underfoot: tar seeping from the ground at Carpinteria, boiled with pine pitch into yop, sealed the seams and let the canoes cross to the islands. The bronze writes the village Mishopshnow; it is usually Mishopshno now.
What the plaque says
La Carpinteria (1769) The Chumash Indian village of "Mishopshnow", discovered by Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo, August 14, 1542, was located one-fourth mile southwest of here. Fray Juan Crespi of the Gaspar de Portolá expedition named it "San Roque", August 17, 1769. Portolá's soldiers, observing the Indians building wooden canoes, called the village, "La Carpinteria" - the Carpenter Shop. Registered Landmark No. 535 Plaque erected by the County of Santa Barbara in cooperation with the California State Park Commission.
Where it stands
34.39740, -119.51782 · Directions
More markers nearby
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