Point Arguello is a prominent headland and the site of the Vandenberg Space Launch Complex, as well as a historical cattle ranch, lighthouse station, and Loran station, about 55 miles (89 km) west-northwest of Santa Barbara and 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Lompoc, California. In 1792, Captain George Vancouver named the headland Point Arguello, for José Darío Argüello, then Commandant of the Presidio of Monterey and later acting governor of Alta California. The first Europeans to explore the area were members of the Spanish Portolá expedition. On 26 August 1769, they camped near a creek flowing into a sheltered cove and discovered a Chumash settlement that relied primarily on fishing. The next day, the explorers continued north past the headland now known as Point Conception and camped near another Chumash village they named ‘Ranchería de la Espada’ (meaning ‘the sword’), after a villager tried to run off with a soldier’s sword. In 1837, Governor Juan Alvarado gave a Mexican land grant of 24,992 acres (10,114-hectare) called Rancho Punta de la Concepcion to Anastasio José Carrillo, the son of Don Raymundo Carrillo, one of the first commanders of the presidios at San Diego and Santa Barbara. Formerly part of the secularized holdings of Mission La Purísima Concepción, this grant stretched along the Pacific coast from Point Arguello south to Cojo Creek, just east of Point Conception. In 1851, Carrillo partitioned the property into Rancho La Espada (the sword), comprising 16,500 acres (6,677 hectares) on the west, and Rancho El Cojo (the lame), covering 8,580 acres (3,472 hectares) on the east. He sold Rancho La Espada to Isaac J. Sparks, who in 1852 sold it to Gaspar Oreña; who, in turn, sold it to Thomas Dibblee in 1867. In 1879, the Dibblee-Hollister partnership was dissolved, and Rancho La Espada went to Hollister. In 1883, he sold it to Captain Robert Sudden.

Ships sailing south along this coast must locate the entrance to the Santa Barbara Channel and make a critical turn between Points Arguello and Conception to the east, and San Miguel Island to the west. A strong prevailing northerly current complicates this maneuver, and more than 50 known shipwrecks have occurred here, prompting the construction of a light station. In 1901, the US Lighthouse Service built the first light station at Point Arguello. It comprised a one-story rectangular fog building with a pitched roof and a tower at its western end. Atop the short tower stood a circular lantern room housing a fourth-order Frédéric Barbier Fresnel lens formerly used at Point Hueneme. The lighthouse itself stood near the outer end of the peninsula; 600 feet (183 m) farther inland, a single-family residence and a two-story duplex were built to house the light keepers. Additional structures included a blacksmith shop, a barn, and an oil house capable of storing a year’s supply of oil for both the light and the fog signal. The station drew water from a spring on adjoining land, piping it 7,000 feet (2,134 m) to two masonry cisterns, which distributed it by gravity to the various buildings. A radio direction finder station was added, and soon a small community took shape with a post office named ‘Arlight’ (a contraction of Arguello and lighthouse). In 1934, the lighthouse was replaced by two revolving aero beacons mounted atop a steel tower. In 1939, the light keeper’s dwellings were converted into barracks, and additional ranch-style houses were built nearby. During the second world war, the US Coast Guard manned the light and a lifeboat station at Point Conception. In 1945, a Loran station was built for up to 16 personnel, and in 1967 the original dwellings were razed and a new metal tower installed. Today, the light is a revolving beacon on a post 124 feet (38 m) above sea level, visible for about 17 miles (27 km). A two-tone diaphone fog signal sounds when visibility is less than 5 miles (8.0 km).

In 1941 the US Army began training infantry and armored forces and acquired about 86,000 acres (35,000 ha) of ranch land along California’s Central Coast, naming the area Camp Cooke in honor of Major General Phillip St. George Cooke. In 1958 the northern portion of this facility was transferred to the US Air Force and renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base in honor of General Hoyt Vandenberg. More than 19,800 acres (8,013 ha) of the former camp went to the US Navy. In 1963 the Air Force was given central authority to coordinate missile and space-vehicle launches and tracking worldwide, and the facility at Point Arguello became Air Force property in 1964. In the mid-1960s the Air Force also acquired the Sudden Ranch under eminent domain; the property included the Point Arguello light station and the Loran station. The site was developed as Space Launch Complex 6, originally intended for Titan III rockets and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, but these projects were canceled before construction finished. The complex was later rebuilt to serve as the west-coast launch site for the Space Shuttle but went unused because of budget, safety and political concerns. It was subsequently used for military Space Shuttle missions and several Athena rocket launches, including the Lewis satellite, before being modified to support the Delta IV family, which has operated there since 2006. Rocket launches from Vandenberg fly south, placing payloads in polar or sun-synchronous high-inclination orbits that permit regular global coverage and are often used for weather, Earth observation and reconnaissance satellites. These orbits are difficult to reach from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, where launches must fly east to avoid large population centers. Dodging these would require inefficient maneuvering and heavy fuel consumption, greatly reducing payload capacity. Read more here and here. Explore more of Point Arguello and Vandenberg Space Launch Complex here: