Faria, California

Faria, California
Unincorporated community
Faria, California
Coordinates: 34°19′05″N 119°23′15″W / 34.31806°N 119.38750°WCoordinates: 34°19′05″N 119°23′15″W / 34.31806°N 119.38750°W
Country United States
State California
County Ventura
Elevation 10 ft (3 m)
Time zone Pacific (PST) (UTC-8)
 • Summer (DST) PDT (UTC-7)
Zip Code 93001
Area code(s) 805
GNIS feature ID 1702921[1]

Faria, also known as Faria Beach, is an unincorporated community in Ventura County, California, United States. Faria runs 1.32 miles (2.12 km) along the ocean side of California State Route 1 9 miles (14 km) northwest of Ventura between Ventura and Carpinteria. It is within the Ventura Unified School District and has a Ventura zip code.

Geography

Faria is located on Pitas Point, a popular surf spot also known as "Whistles."[2] The rocky point faces south, with stretches of sandy beach running northeast and northwest from the point. Pitas Point and nearby Punta Gorda were created by large uplift events according to scientists making observations of old sections of shoreline along the Rincon. Their first clue to the possibility of exceptionally large earthquakes on the Ventura Fault was the finding that these areas suddenly grew between 16 feet to 26 feet out of the surf zone as mechanically interlinked faults ruptured simultaneously.[3]

History

In 1769, the Spanish Portola expedition came northwest along the beach from the previous night's encampment on the Ventura River. The explorers found a small native village near a watering place at what is now called "Padre Juan Canyon" (which reaches the sea at Pitas Point) and camped nearby on August 15. "Padre Juan" refers to Fray Juan Crespi, a Franciscan missionary travelling with the expedition, who noted that the natives "kept us awake playing all night on some doleful pipes or whistles". Thus the point was named "los pitos" - Spanish for "whistles".[4] Later American coast survey mapping misspelled the name as "Las Pitas", which was the Spanish name for the Agave americana (century plant).[5]

Supreme Court case

Faria is the home of several beachfront properties along the Pacific coastline, one of which became the subject of the 1987 US Supreme Court case Nollan v. California Coastal Commission.

References

  1. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Faria
  2. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Pitas Point
  3. ↑ Lin II, Rong-Gong (April 20, 2015). "Earthquake fault heightens California tsunami threat, experts say". Los Angeles Times.
  4. ↑ Bolton, Herbert E. (1927). Fray Juan Crespi: Missionary Explorer on the Pacific Coast, 1769-1774. HathiTrust Digital Library. pp. 160–161. Retrieved April 2014.
  5. ↑ Gudde, Erwin G. (1969). California Place Names. Berkeley: UC Press. p. 248.