1965 Highway 101 sniper attack

The Solomon Hills are a low mountain range in the western Transverse Ranges, in northern Santa Barbara County, California. The Hills separate the Santa Maria Valley and Santa Maria to the north, from the Los Alamos Valley and the Santa Ynez Valley to the south.

KSNI-FM (102.5 FM, "Sunny Country 102.5") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Santa Maria, California, United States and serves the Santa Maria—Lompoc, California area. The station is owned by American General Media and broadcasts a country music format.

The Orcutt Oil Field is a large oil field in the Solomon Hills south of Orcutt, in Santa Barbara County, California. Discovered in 1901 by William Warren Orcutt, it was the first giant field (over 100 million barrels (16,000,000 m3) in ultimate recovery) to be found in Santa Barbara County, and its development led to the boom town of Orcutt, now the major unincorporated southern suburb of Santa Maria. With a cumulative production in 2008 of 870,000 barrels (138,000 m3) of oil, it is the largest onshore producing field in Santa Barbara County.The Orcutt field was called the "Santa Maria Field" until the discovery of the larger Santa Maria Valley Oil Field on the plain to the north, an area which is now largely covered with the urban and suburban development. Several oil companies, including Breitburn Energy and Phoenix Energy, LLC are still actively producing from the Orcutt field. The field, mostly located on the old Careaga family ranch, also contains the remains of the ghost town of Bicknell, a company town built for oil workers in the early years of the 20th century, but abandoned in the mid-1930s.

The Cat Canyon Oil Field is a large oil field in the Solomon Hills of central Santa Barbara County, California, about 10 miles southeast of Santa Maria. It is the largest oil field in Santa Barbara County, and as of 2010 is the 20th-largest in California by cumulative production.The field was discovered in 1908, just seven years after the nearby Orcutt field. At first it was developed slowly, because of difficulties in drilling and keeping wells productive, but as ever-richer reservoirs were revealed in the next two decades it gradually became one of the most productive fields in the state. A mature field in decline, estimated reserves have dwindled to 2.3 million barrels, less than one percent of the total produced in the preceding century. A total of 243 wells remained active, although a field revitalization program commenced by ERG Resources in 2011 intends to extend the field's lifetime by extracting reserves previously considered unrecoverable. The largest operators currently active on the field are Greka Energy with 168 active wells, and ERG, who plans to bring over 300 shut-in wells back into production.

St. Joseph High School (SJHS) is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Santa Maria, California. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Garey is a census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, California located east of U.S. Route 101 about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Santa Maria and 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Sisquoc. The ZIP Code is 93454, and the community is inside area code 805. The population was 68 at the 2010 census.

Orcutt is an unincorporated town and census-designated place located in the Santa Maria Valley in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Orcutt is named for William Warren Orcutt, the manager of the Geological, Land and Engineering Departments of the Union Oil Company. The population of Orcutt was 28,905 at the 2010 census, up from 28,830 at the 2000 census.

Ernest Righetti High School (commonly Righetti, or RHS) is a public comprehensive secondary school in Santa Maria, California, United States, serving students in grades 9-12. The school is part of the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District. Righetti is a fully accredited, two-time California Distinguished School, awarded in 2002 and 2009. Righetti High School was built in the suburban community of Orcutt, California in 1963 to relieve overcrowding at Santa Maria High School, opening in January 1963 and graduating its first class in June 1964. The school was named for a local civic leader whose family has engaged in cattle ranching in the Santa Maria area for several generations. The school's boundaries encompass several elementary school districts that serve the communities of Orcutt, Guadalupe, Los Alamos, Sisquoc, Garey, and Casmalia, as well portions of the city of Santa Maria and rural northern Santa Barbara County.Righetti High School maintains a large comprehensive array of academic and athletic programs, as well as several electives and vocational programs, and a renowned agricultural studies program. Academic performance standards have risen steadily since the early 2000s. As of the 2018-2019 school year, the school had an approximate enrollment of 2,301 students and 93 classroom teachers. The principal of Righetti High School is Mr. Ted Lyon.

Sisquoc (Chumash for "quail") is a census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, California located east of U.S. Route 101 about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Santa Maria and 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Garey. The ZIP Code is 93454, and the community is inside area code 805. Sisquoc has a fire station, a church, a Preschool-8 school and a store. It has a micro-climate with mild weather year-round. The population was 183 at the 2010 census. The town is at the intersection of Palmer Road and Foxen Canyon Road, at the southwestern edge of the floodplain of the Sisquoc River. The predominant land use on the plain is agriculture, while the hills to the south and west contain the Cat Canyon Oil Field, with Greka Energy and ERG Resources, LLC being the largest operators. Sisquoc is an agricultural area. It is well known for vineyards and strawberry fields. The terrain is hilly, and there are mountains in the distance. Wildlife near Sisquoc includes bobcats, coyotes, mountain lions, rabbits, and gophers. There is one closed store in town called the Sisquoc store, and a fire station. There is one school in town called Benjamin Foxen, home of the Bobcats. Benjamin Foxen is the only remaining school of 5 in the Blochman School District. The Blochman School PTA (Parent Teacher Association) was established in 1960. The school has a library in need of more books. Students and teachers at Blochman run a school garden, and fresh produce from the garden is served in the cafeteria.

The Sisquoc River is a westward flowing river in northeastern Santa Barbara County, California. It is a tributary of the Santa Maria River, which is formed when the Sisquoc River meets the Cuyama River at the Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County border just north of Garey. The river is 57.4 miles (92.4 km) long and originates on the north slopes of Big Pine Mountain, at approximately 6,320 feet (1,930 m). Big Pine Mountain is part of the San Rafael Mountains, which are part of the Transverse Ranges.

The Cuyama River (Chumash: Kuyam, meaning "Clam") is a 118-mile-long (190 km) river in southern San Luis Obispo County, northern Santa Barbara County, and northern Ventura County, in the U.S. state of California. It joins the Sisquoc River forming the Santa Maria River. The river's name comes from an Indian village named for the Chumash word kuyam, meaning "clam" or "freshwater mollusk".

The Los Alamos Ranch House is a historic adobe house near Los Alamos in northern Santa Barbara County, California. The house, the centerpiece of Rancho Los Alamos, was built about 1840, and is one of the best-preserved examples of domestic architecture from California's Mexican period. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.