Guide to the Chumash Painted Cave

State Historic Park Collection 1928-2001

(bulk dates 1970-1990)

California State Parks Archives

McClellan, California

Contact Information: California State Parks Archives 4940 Lang Avenue Suite 114 McClellan, California 95652 Telephone: (916) 263-0779 FAX: (916) 263-0858 Email: department.archives@parks.ca.gov URL: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=1080 Records processed by Margo Lentz-Meyer Date Completed April 2016 © 2016 California State Parks Archives. All rights reserved.

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Descriptive Summary

Title Guide to the Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park Collection Collection Number CSPA-525 Creator Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park Extent .4 linear feet and 1 map folder Repository California State Parks Archives McClellan, California Language English Abstract Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park, located three miles south of San Marcos Pass near Santa Barbara, contains some of the finest remaining rock art created by Chumash people. The Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park Collection is arranged into eight series: 1. Correspondence, 2. Legal Documents, 3. Interpretation, 4. Publications, 5. Ephemera, 6. Photographic Material, 7. Cartographic Material, and 8. Reports. Items span the years 1928-2001, with the bulk of the material dating from 1970-1990. Physical Location California State Parks Archives

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Administrative Information

Publication Rights For permission to reproduce or publish, please consult the California State Parks Archives archivist. Permission for reproduction or publication is given on behalf of the California State Parks Archives, McClellan as the owner of the physical items. The researcher assumes all responsibility for possible infringement that may arise from reproduction or publication of materials from the California State Parks Archives. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park Collection, CSPA-525: [box: folder number], California State Parks Archives, McClellan, California. Restrictions The collection is open for research. Cultural and archaeological site maps are restricted. Reports with sensitive data may be restricted. Consult repository for details. Acquisition Information The materials in this collection were acquired from the park in 2001. Accruals The repository continues to add materials to this collection on a regular basis. Processing Information Margo Lentz-Meyer processed this collection and created and encoded its finding aid in 2016.

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Administrative History

Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park, located three miles south of San Marcos Pass near Santa Barbara, contains some of the finest remaining rock art created by Chumash people. The purpose of this small park is to preserve these ancient paintings and make them available to the public. The pictographs are protected by a metal gate that bars entrance into the cave. The Chumash were hunters and gatherers, dependent for their food on the wild plants and animals native to the South Central Coast of California. Their way of life reflected the natural world around them providing the inspiration for their religious beliefs, music, and ceremonies. They respected and feared the natural world, for their lives depended on it. The Chumash were highly successful in utilizing the natural environment. They relied on acorns, nuts, seeds, roots, bulbs, and leaves from the incredible variety of plants around them. Because of their success as gatherers the Chumash people had ample time for leisure activities such as playing games, making music, telling stories, and otherwise developing complex social institutions as elaborate as that of any hunter-gatherer society on earth. Chumash presence in the cave dates back thousands of years. The present paintings in the cave date back hundreds of years, with the newest additions having been painted approximately one hundred years ago. Since the Chumash people did not have a written language system we now have to rely on archaeologists, historians, and the Chumash people’s decedents for interpretations of the cave paintings at Chumash Painted Cave SP. Archaeologists and historians believe the pictographs were painted by shamans as part of religious ceremonies and practices. The shamans who created them were most likely of the ‘antap group of the Chumash people. The paintings depict animals, everyday objects, and a variety of supernatural and celestial beings. Anthropologists and archaeologists speculate that the Chumash created these paintings during religious ceremonies to invoke positive things such as health, fertility, and rain; and turn away negative things such as sickness, sterility, or drought. Beginning in the early 1900s Santa Barbara residents took an interest in preserving the cave and its contents. Since 1910 access to the cave has been restricted by a series of gates. In the 1960s Robert Hyde, the brother-in-law of Campbell Grant one of the foremost experts on Native American rock art, purchased the cave site and the surrounding 160 acres. The area was again sold and divided in the 1970. Responding to the uncertainty of the caves protection, local residents formed a citizen group that, with the help of the California State Parks foundation, secured the funds necessary to purchase the cave and the surrounding seven acres. In 1976 title to Chumash Painted Cave was transferred into the public trust as a California State Historic Park. The Painted Cave and the surrounding seven acres remains an important and popular cultural destination.

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Scope and Content

The Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park Collection is arranged into eight series: 1. Correspondence, 2. Legal Documents, 3. Interpretation, 4. Publications, 5. Ephemera, 6. Photographic Material, 7. Cartographic Material, and 8. Reports. Items span the years 1928-2001 with the bulk of the material dating from 1970-1990. Series one, Correspondence, contains general correspondence, correspondence regarding the park’s daily operations, and copies of correspondence between A.L. Kroeber and Frederick Law Olmsted. Series two, Legal Documents, contains the escrow and title information for the park. Series three, Interpretation, consist of the park’s interpretive prospectus. Series four, Publications, includes newspaper and magazine clippings, and books. Series five, Ephemera, includes brochures, merchandise tags, post cards, and a small poster. Series six, Photographic Material, contains photographic prints. Series seven, Cartographic Material, consists of topographic maps. Series eight, Reports, includes reports produced by the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation and cultural resource management contractors.

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Indexing Terms California. Department of Parks and Recreation Chumash Indians Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park (Calif.) Cultural resources Esthetic resources Historic resources Natural resources Painted Cave (Calif.) Petroglyphs Pictographs Picture-writing Rock art

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Series Description

Series 1. Correspondence, 1928-1998. 3 ff. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically with in each file. Box 1: 01 Daily Operations Correspondence, 1975-1980.

02 General Correspondence, 1968-1998. 03 State Park Commission, 1928 Olmsted Survey: Correspondence

between A.L. Kroeber and Frederick Law Olmsted, 1928. (2 Copies)

Series 2. Legal Documents, 1971-1977. 1 ff. This series is arranged chronologically. Box 1: 04 First American Title Company: Escrow Instructions and Title

Information, 10/18/1971-06/09-1977. Series 3. Interpretation, 1974. 1 ff. This series is arranged chronologically. Box 1: 05 Interpretive Prospectus: Chumash Painted Cave State Historic

Park, February 1974. Series 4. Publications, 1970-1986, undated. 3 ff. The items are arranged alphabetically. Box 1: 06 California Caves, Compiled by A.E. Henning, undated. 07 Guide to Painted Cave, Travis Hudson, 1982. 08 Newspaper and Magazine Clippings, 1970-1988. Series 5. Ephemera, 1969-1986, undated. 1 ff. Ephemera is arranged by the size of the material smallest to largest. Box 1: 09 Brochure, Tags, Post cards, Poster, 1969-1986, undated. Series 6. Photographic Material, 1978, undated. 1 ff. This series contains photographic prints that are arranged chronologically. Thumbnails of the scanned photographs in the collection are located in Appendix A.

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Box 1: 10 Project Photos, 1978, undated. Series 7. Cartographic Material, 1959, undated. 1 ff. The series is arranged chronologically. Box 1: 11 Topo Maps, 1959, undated. Series 8. Reports, 1972-2001. 10 ff. Documents produced by California State Parks or Parks contractors are arranged alphabetically by title. Reports are arranged alphabetically by first letter of the report to coincide with the Department Unit Data File System. Box 1: 12 Archaeological Site Survey Record, 1984.

13 DPR ASCAR, 02/23/2001. 14 Chumash Indian Rock Art: A Study of Pictograph Pigments and

Their Conservation, 03/27/1990. 15 DPR 429: Report of Trespass, 06/12/1980. 16 DPR 492: Acquisition/Development Evaluation Transmittal,

04/18/1980. 17 DPR 578: Development Proposal, 02/29/1980.

18 Enlarged Bradbury Archaeological Survey, Chumash Reservoir, Santa Barbara County, 03/30/1987.

19 NRHP Inventory – Nomination Form, 05/04/1972. 20 Resource Inventory Report, 11/18/1975. (2 Copies)

21 The Proposed Conservation of a Park Service Chumash Painted Rock Painting Site, Santa Barbara, July 1978.

Appendix A –

Photographic Material Thumbnails

Appendix A - Chumash Painted Cave: Photographic Prints

Appendix B –

Inventory of Cartographic Material

Unit # Park Title

525 Chumash Painted Cave SP Topographic Map: San Marcos Pass, Calif. U.S. Geological Survey 1959

Topographic Map: San Marcos Pass, Calif. U.S. Geological Survey 1959