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Suggest pagesPoint Conception
Coordinates: 34°26′53″N 120°28′17″W / 34.448113°N 120.471439°W
Point Conception is a headland along the Pacific coast of U.S. state of California, located in southwestern Santa Barbara County. It is the point where the Santa Barbara Channel meets the Pacific Ocean, and as the corner between the mostly north-south trending portion of coast to the north and the east-west trending part of the coast near Santa Barbara, it makes a natural division between Southern and Central California.[1] The Point Conception Lighthouse is at its tip.
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[edit] Toponymy
Point Conception derives its name from La Misión de la Purísima Concepción de la María Santísima (The Mission of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Holy Virgin Mary), which was originally established in the vicinity in 1787.
[edit] Chumash beliefs
The ancient Chumash people of the region may have seen Point Conception as the "Western Gate," through which the souls of the dead could pass between the mortal world and the heavenly paradise of Similaqsa. Exactly how widespread this belief was within the Chumash culture is disputed by some scholars. [1]
[edit] References
- ^ Characteristic patterns of shelf circulation at the boundary between central and southern California
[edit] Further reading
Courtney Milne, Sacred Places in North America: A Journey into the Medicine Wheel.(1995, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 575 Broadway, NY, NY 10012.
