The city of Lompoc celebrated its 100 th anniversary in 1974, but its history goes back much farther as geologic forces raised the ocean floor about 15 million years ago, and through subsequent ages other natural forces created the hills and canyons, developing the diatomaceous earth formations that provided Lompoc’s first industry after agriculture.  These formations made up of the silica-rich remains of diatoms, once classified as plants but now considered a class by themselves; neither plant nor animal formed the white hills to the south of Lompoc.

Uses for the strange material, called diatomaceous earth, were sought, some was cut into blocks that make up a few remaining structures in Lompoc, the most conspicuous being the Chamber of Commerce building on South I St.  Before that, blocks were being soaked in kerosene and shipped to San Francisco to be used as fire starters in the city’s homes.

The Native American Chumash who occupied the land called it Lompoc, thought to have meant land of little waters as the valley was a riparian woodland.  The Spanish occupation has seen the Chumash brought into the mission and the land put under cultivation by the Padres.  When Mexico gained its independence from Spain, the missions were secularized and Anglos moved it.  The original Mission La Purisima was built on the south side of the Santa Ynez River and was destroyed in the earthquake of 1812.  A few remnants of the original walls and foundations can be seen at the end of F St. but houses cover most of the original site.

The second mission, built on the north side of the river, fell into ruins after secularization, but during the Great Depression of the 1930’s it was rebuilt by the Civilian Conservation Corps.  It was dedicated on Dec 7, 1941, and opened as a State Historic Park.

In the early 1870’s a group from Santa Cruz saw the potential of the rich Lompoc valley, and bought up the land with the aim of forming a new town where temperance would be the rule.  The land was surveyed and lots of 5, 10, 20 and 40 acres were sold at auction.  The city of Lompoc was formed in 1874.

The new settlers farmed mustard, beans and sugar beets, until on 1907 a local farmer planted a few acres of sweet peas.  The crop was so successful that W. Atlee Burpee came out from Pennsylvania and bought 50 acres in the west valley and set Lompoc on course to become the flower seed capital of the world.

Lompoc population rose gradually until it was about 5000 when we entered World War II and the army bought 86,000 acres of Jesus Marie Rancho for an armored training center, naming it Camp Cooke.  Farmers changed from growing flowers to food crops.  Prisoners of war were incarcerated at Camp Cooke and after the war was over, the jail facility became and has remained a federal prison.  In 1956 the Air Force took over Camp Cooke, renaming it Vandenberg Air Force Base, and used it as a launch site from which missiles could be put into polar orbit.  The first missile was launched in 1958 and work was begun on the Manned Orbiting Laboratory.  When President Nixon abruptly cancelled the program, the site was idle until it was decided that Vandenberg AFB world become the west Coast site for launches of the space Shuttle.  Work began at a furious pace and the city started making plans for all the expected new employees and also the thousands of visitors expected for the launches, expected to be 10 a year, would bring.  That dream ended with the Challenger disaster at Cape Canaveral in 1983.

Developers had built or were building hundred of houses in and around Lompoc to serve the anticipated newcomers, but with the shuttle cancelled, realtors focused their advertising on the south coast, promoting bargain homes in Lompoc.  The effort was so successful that of Lompoc’s current population of a little over 40,000, 10,000 are estimated to commute daily from Lompoc to jobs on the South Coast.  Efforts to bring industry have been largely unsuccessful except for the growing numbers of small wineries.

Flowers continue to be grown in the Lompoc Valley, but major seed production has moved overseas to take advantage of lower labor costs.  The cut-flower market continues to expand, but the acreage planted to vegetables far exceeds that of flowers.  Artichokes are now widely planted with 27 varieties being grown in the Lompoc Valley this year.  In spite of agriculture’s economic importance, efforts to build houses on the Valley’s rich soils never end, and will be a continuing challenge to Lompoc’s elected leaders.

Wikipedia on Lompoc

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