Although officially known as Arroyo Burro, this stretch of coastline between Hope Ranch and the Douglas Family Preserve has been called Hendry’s Beach for decades. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, William N. Hendry and family farmed in this area.
A native of Scotland, Hendry was 24 when he set sail for the U.S. out of Liverpool in 1872. It was not an easy passage. Rough seas, seasickness, theft, and fights among the crew and passengers were just some of the problems. Tragedy struck when a young girl stopped eating due to illness; she eventually died and was buried at sea.
After a journey of two months, Hendry arrived in Santa Barbara and went to work for Ellwood Cooper on his Goleta Valley ranch. Hendry worked from sunup to sunset, six to seven days a week. Entries in his journal often just read, “Ploughed all day.”