Over the years Noozhawk has carried anniversary articles on El Presidio de Santa Bárbara, the Spanish adobe fort that marked the founding of our town on April 21, 1782.
The April 21 date falls on Tuesday this year and, to my mind, is cause for celebration.
Spain ruled over Alta (Upper) California from 1769 to 1820, and established political, economic and cultural traditions that shaped the community we live in to this day.
In fact, these traditions are more manifested in Santa Barbara than anywhere else in California, with the possible exception of San Juan Bautista.
One of the byproducts of this Hispanic heritage has been the preservation, restoration and interpretation of the Santa Barbara whose remnants at the turn of the 19th century had been reduced to underground archaeological foundations.
Storms and earthquakes had taken their toll.
A question that has crossed my mind is why other towns founded as presidios — such as Monterey, San Diego and San Francisco — have done much less than Santa Barbara to interpret these important historical sites.
Monterey, the capital of the Spanish province of the same name, can at least claim significant remnants from the Mexican post-Spanish period and has preserved its Spanish-period Presidio chapel intact.
If one seeks to learn about Spanish history and architecture prior to 1820, better luck is found at the missions, although even at mission sites, Mexican-period architecture (1826-1848) predominates.
What finally dawned on me is Santa Barbara had an enthusiast, Pearl Chase, and a number of other community-minded people who believed they had something special with their adobe fort and formed the Presidio Volunteers.
In Santa Barbara, Pearl Chase is a legendary figure, but there were many others. I would like to introduce some of these local heroes who contributed their time and talents.
What resulted was the creation of a state historic park that today is recognized as an important international site.
My hope is that these individuals will inspire a future group of enthusiasts who will continue the work of the founders, work that still needs to be accomplished at the presidio.
“The Presidio Volunteers spearheaded community interest in the presidio by conducting archaeology digs at the chapel site, holding fundraising events and making adobe bricks.”
Michael Hardwick
For starters I asked Michael Hardwick, a longtime Presidio Volunteer, to submit a bio of himself that included his multidecade contributions to the presidio project.
Here it is:
I arrived in Santa Barbara in 1969 to attend UC Santa Barbara. From 1965-1969 I lived in Oxnard. with my wife, Paula, who was a social worker at the Ventura County Department of Social Services.
During that time, we made regular trips to Santa Barbara following up on Chumash Indian historical lore and early area history, which had become our weekend hobby. It was during these trips that I became acquainted with Russell A. Ruiz and his family. Russell introduced me to the Presidio Project during those early trips to Santa Barbara in the middle 1960s.
Russell and his family were exploring the original Presidio Chapel site behind what was then the Whitaker adobe on Canon Perdido. He would hold court at the site every Saturday, arriving in a golf cart with his wife and son.
I started working on the presidio project in 1970 while still a student at UCSB. I had just been discharged from the Navy after serving on a cruiser in Vietnam.
Doing some of the original archaeology at the presidio in the 1970s, I literally spent hundreds of volunteer hours digging, sorting and documenting. I coordinated the archaeological investigation of the presidio site from July to November of 1970 in what became known as Phase V excavations at the Royal Presidio Chapel.
At that time archaeological work was carried out by Presidio Volunteers, which were a committee of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation. A report was filed at the end of the season. Report chairman was George W. Decker and committee members were Russell A. Ruiz, Michael Glassow (UCSB), Richard Whitehead, Michael Hardwick, Alice Doidge and Lynn Spear.
During the season, I managed to upgrade and support the concept of an overall grid system for the site. This provided a structure for cataloguing the provenance of emerging artifacts.
I also emphasized the importance of stratigraphy, which gave a time perspective to the layers of soil that were being unearthed. The stratigraphic approach enabled the solution of a discovered red layer that seemed to appear in areas of the dig.
This previously had been assumed to be original chapel floor. When artifacts were discovered below the red layer that post-dated the colonial presidio, it became apparent that the red layer was deposited after the demise of the chapel.
A little interpersonal investigation revealed that the Japanese inhabitants of the site in the 1920s had constructed a tennis court over the chapel site. Without knowing it, I had basically become a historical archaeologist as a result of my work on the presidio site in 1970.
The fifth summary report was pivotal in the history of the Presidio Project. Lynn Spear concluded it by noting that the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation was poised to purchase the site of the Presidio Chapel and adjacent properties and that the properties would be incorporated into El Presidio State Historic Park.
Lynn noted that the trust was applying for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, which would make the project eligible for federal funding.
The Presidio Volunteers spearheaded community interest in the presidio by conducting archaeology digs at the chapel site, holding fundraising events and making adobe bricks.
Archaeological excavations had been carried out at the site since 1966. Various organizations participated in the 1970 excavations, including the Santa Barbara High School Archaeology Club, the Santa Barbara County Archaeology Society, and students from social studies classes at Dos Pueblos High School. In 1971, the Volunteers raised more than $1,800 for the project.
In the nearby 1970 photograph, Russell Ruiz and a group of volunteers hold court on a vacant lot next to the old Shalhoob building on the corner of Santa Barbara and Canon Perdido streets.
The Ruizes, center from left, Russell, Alice Ruth and Russell Clay, along with retired Santa Barbara County planning director Dick Whitehead, had a lofty goal of discovering the remains of the old presidio in the vacant lot.
Half of the people in the photo have passed on: Russell, Alice Ruth and Dick Whitehead. In the photo I am much younger, wearing my old Navy work clothes. Jeremy Hass (seated) used his skills as a lawyer to negotiate property acquisitions for the project.
I was appointed to the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation Board of Directors in 1982, and served for 17 years. While on the board, I served as treasurer for two years. I chaired the Archive Library and the Descendants and Genealogy committees.
I was also a member of the Reconstruction Committee, serving with Jim Mills and Garvan Kuskey. During my time on the Reconstruction Committee, we formalized plans for the restoration of the chapel’s bell tower. Never did we consider anything but the complete restoration of the presidio.
In 2004 I was appointed Life Honorary Trustee of the Trust. I accepted the award with the following statement: “In accepting this award, I want to thank the Board of Directors of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation for considering me worthy of receiving it. To me it represents a monument to my involvement with the Presidio Project. It formalizes something I have been doing for the last 34 years.”
In 1990, I was instrumental in founding Los Soldados del Real Presidio de Santa Bárbara. The organization came to life as we acquired authentic reproduction uniforms and flintlock muskets that were used by the soldiers of the presidio.
Jim Martinez became our drill instructor and drilled soldados using commands (which he translated) from an 1808 Spanish Manual of Arms that was acquired from the Los Angeles County Museum.
I often portrayed Felipe de Neve, who was the first governor of the Californias during the years 1777-1782. I established a website for Los Soldados and wrote several papers on Spanish Colonial military history. Los Soldados as an organization was motivated by the same spirit of volunteerism that started the Presidio Project. We held a number of events every year.
In 1995, we provided the honor guard for the visit of Prince Felipe of Spain. In 1996 we traveled to Washington, D.C., with a proclamation from the City of Santa Barbara to participate in the Second Annual Hispanic Heroes parade which honored Bernardo de Gálvez, Hispanic Hero of the American Revolution.
In December 2008, I formally resigned as a member of Los Soldados after serving with them some 18 years.
Living History and Publications
Recently I authored several articles on “Identifying Early Cannons at the Presidio of Santa Bárbara.” My most recent publication on this topic appeared in the Journal of the Early Americas, Volume II, Issue I, February/March 2012. An abstract follows:
Founded on April 21, 1782, the Royal Presidio of Santa Bárbara was the last in a chain of four military fortresses built by the Spanish along the coast of Alta California, then a wilderness frontier.
Ordnance and ordnance stores originally supplied to the presidio included two bronze four-pounders, each weighing more than 700 pounds. Field pieces of this type were known as cañones de campaña.
Unfortunately, in California none of the original presidial four-pounder (de a 4) cannon have survived.
Recently a cannon of this type was located at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, by Michael R. Hardwick, honorary life trustee of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation. I was assisted in this research by John Morris of Springfield, Virginia.
The Navy captured the guns as trophies of war in 1847 during the Mexican War in California. By comparing original inventory records at the presidio with the physical characteristics of cannon at the Naval Academy, I was able to identify the type of cannon that was most likely originally supplied to the presidio.
The cannon was designed by Joseph Barnola and cast at the Barcelona factory in 1766.
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I want to thank Mike for providing background information on his enormous volunteer efforts.
Over the course of this year, I hope to provide a series of profiles of many others who contributed mightily to the rebuilt Presidio that has re-emerged around the intersection of East Canon Perdido and Santa Barbara streets.
And if your interest is piqued to learn more about the Santa Barbara Presidio, I have published a book, Santa Barbara’s Royal Presidio: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Spain’s Last Adobe Fortress, available at Chaucer’s Books and online at Amazon.
More information on the historical importance of presidios can be found by clicking here for The Presidio Alliance.
As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States on July 4, we can also celebrate the role that King Carlos III and Spain played in the American Revolution.
