Carpinteria

A small jewel on the map along the coast of southern Santa Barbara County, Carpinteria--or "Carp"--has an enduring and endearing idiosyncratic character that suits locals, welcomes visitors, and resists reinvention. Charlie Chaplin was married in Carpinteria, and Charles Lindbergh was an occasional fly-in visitor. The "world's fastest human" once hailed from Carpinteria, the same place where a single grape arbor consistently delivered 10 tons of grapes annually. Unspoken traditions included upstanding teachers by day using aliases at night to drive in rough-and-tumble jalopy races. The infectious small-town sensibility remains so intact that most Carpinterians don't vacation elsewhere. Many of the vintage photographs in Carpinteria, which were collected from local families and institutions, including the Carpinteria Valley Museum of History, prove that the city's visuals are as spectacular as its history is intriguing.