The families of the Goleta Valley were simple folk, content with their rural lives. Get-togethers and celebrations consisted of hoedowns, picnics, church sociables, dances, clambakes and grunion hunts.

A good amount of glitz and glamour west of Santa Barbara did manage to dazzle the citizens of the Good Land, thanks to Col. and Mrs. W.W. Hollister, who gave lavish garden parties during their heyday from 1873 to 1883 at Corona del Mar, now called Bishop Ranch.

Shortly after World War II, a new generation of bluebloods came around just in time to usher in the Roaring Twenties. One of these families was the Campbells, who were connected to English nobility during the time of the British Empire.

The Campbells — he a retired English army officer, she a wealthy American heiress — came to the Good Land in 1919 in search of a new country home, since taxation back in England forced them to give up many of their assets.

After a visit, the Campbells decided to settle in at the old Alphonso Den homestead at Coal Oil Point. Maybe the beauty of the place reminded Col. Colin Campbell of his old country home. Or maybe he’d heard of the medicinal qualities of the area:

“As early as the 1860s, Dr, Samuel B. Brinkerhoff had endorsed the theory that oil slicks off the coast of Goleta (for which Coal Oil Point was named) gave a medicinal quality to inshore breezes that could benefit sufferers of respiratory ailments,” wrote Walker Tompkins in “The Yankee Barbareños.”

Whatever health benefits there might have been from the oil-laden winds that blew in from the ocean, they missed Col. Campbell. He died from a massive heart attack on the way home from Chicago. His wife, knowing his love for his new home, had him buried in a private cemetery at the tip of Coal Oil Point.

Despite the death of Col. Campbell, the Campbell Ranch became the destination for the who’s who of Santa Barbara society. Mrs. Campbell threw lavish parties, fit for the Roaring 20s.

One of the most memorable galas was thrown for His Royal Highness Prince George, the younger brother of the Prince of Wales. Upper crust notables came all the way from San Francisco and Beverly Hills to join the festivities.