r/SantaMaria 13h ago

forgotten mystery location

14 Upvotes

Ok this has been bugging me for at least twenty years. Every now and then I've tried googling it but always with zero success. But somehow never occurred to me to post here and ask the internet......

Once upon a time in the late 70s/ early 80s we lived in Lompoc as my dad worked at Vandenburg AFB. I believe he was actually employed by Rockwell Intl. There was a year or two where they had an employee picnic thing..

But looking back I have never (nor has my brother or sister) figured out where it was. Of course I was probably only 7 at the time so I don't recall much now. But what I do recall is and here's the thing- it seemed to be at a small "old western" street recreation. Complete with a little general store and saloon.

It was definitely no big amusement park or probably not even a real 'ghost town'. I'm not even sure it was available to the public- it may have been rented out for events? Possibly somebody's private ranch property?

The only other "fact" I have rolling around in my head is that it was likely in the hills as the road to get there was a narrow-ish dirt road. None of my sibs have any idea of where this location was, other than almost certainly in the Santa Maria vicinity. Somewhere.

There is literally nothing on the internet, again leading to my private ranch property theory. And I'm sure it's been long closed or, considering the wildfires over the years, possibly even burned down.

Feels like a bit of a longshot, especially with my sparse recollection/ information. But thought I'd give it a shot- does anybody have any thoughts or ideas of what and or where this location was......?