The Guadalupe Nipomo Dunes is one of the tallest dunes when you compare it with some other dunes in the United States. Not just famous for the Guadalupe Nipomo Dunes camping, there are many attractive things. As a result, it draws the attention of the visitors.
Also, the dunes have some rich history and in this post, we’ll learn many things regarding it. As you already know that the dunes are the largest one among California State dunes. It’s also the biggest one in the dunes of San Francisco with Guadalupe Nipomo Dunes state park.
A Brief About Guadalupe Nipomo Dunes
The dunes cover about an area of 29Km of the coastline of California’s Central Coast. It extends to the northern part of Santa Barbara County from the southern part of the San Luis Obispo County. The dunes are the safe house of some exclusive ecosystem and some threatened and endangered species of animals and plants.
Some Complex has set away for saving and protecting the environment of the dunes. These include using off-road vehicles and camping. The owners of the dunes are a few states, federal, private companies, local agencies, individuals, and organizations.
Some of them are California State Parks, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara, the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
History of Guadalupe Nipomo Dunes
The Chumash tribe is the first known inhabitants of the dunes who were Native Americans. Also, early the maritime explorers of Spanish noted their settlements in the dunes. But, Europeans have traveled throughout the dunes after September 2–4 in 1769.
It was the time when members of the team of Don Gaspar journey stayed in these Dunes by shooting a thin bear. The incident happened on the shores of the Lake Oso Flaco. When they ate the bear, among the members two became very sick.
It’s because the Chumash had mixed poison to the bear for their protection. They believed that dangerous animal by providing for them contaminated meat. Thus the name of the lake became ‘Skinny bear’ or ‘Oso Flco’.
Film
Director Cecil B. DeMille made the epic movie named ‘The Ten Commandments’ in 1923. It filmed on these dunes. When the film completed, the giant sets of ancient Egypt buried after dismantled on the location to avoid reusing.
Regardless of decades of a range of excavation proposals, on or after 2013 they stay buried there. While others can see occasionally as the dunes move, some relics have been pulled through and are on exhibit at ‘The Dunes Visitor Center.’
Dunites & Oil
A team of artists, mystics, writers, nudists, and hermits who have known as the “Dunites” occupied the Dunes in the 1920s. They also remained up to the 1940s. They regarded it as a point of creative energy. So, they published it in a magazine and named ‘the dune forum.’
The oil companies bought the duneland and they discovered oil in 1948 out there. In the 1950s, an oil company named Unocal started working on the Guadalupe Oil Field.
