Scope and Contents From the Collection: The Mountain Drive Oral History Collection contains thirty oral histories of people who experienced the early days of Mountain Drive, Santa Barbara's bohemian community. The collection originated as an advanced oral history course conducted during the summer of 1986. The success of the group project, and the feeing that it had only scratched the surface of a rich subject, caused the effort to be continued for six years. One of the envisioned outputs of the project was a publication on the...

Abstract Mountain Drive, a residential enclave of free spirits located in the hills above Montecito, coalesced in the years following World War II. The driving force behind its formation was Robert McKee Hyde, known to all as Bobby. The spirit of the community was bohemian, a “live-and-let-live” feel that fostered a close-knit camaraderie. Community interaction often centered on a growing number of celebrations and festivals. Probably the best-known was the Wine Stomp, begun in 1952, in which the...