Lompoc is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, set in the Lompoc Valley on the Central Coast about 55 miles northwest of Santa Barbara. The area's history runs deep: it is part of the homeland of the Chumash people, whose Purisimeño language gave the city its name, and the valley became the site of Mission La Purísima Concepción, founded in 1787 and later rebuilt after an 1812 earthquake. That mission survives as La Purísima Mission State Historic Park, one of California's most completely restored mission sites and a central piece of the region's Spanish-colonial heritage. Modern Lompoc is defined by a distinctive mix of industries and identities. Vandenberg Space Force Base, whose origins reach back to a 1941 Army training camp and which became a missile and space launch installation in 1958, is the dominant employer and gives the city an aerospace character visible in its frequent rocket launches. At the same time, Lompoc is known as the "City of Arts and Flowers," a title earned by its more than 40 downtown murals and by a flower industry long considered among the nation's most productive. In recent decades, wine has joined the mix: Lompoc is the western gateway to the Sta. Rita Hills American Viticultural Area, and its "Wine Ghetto" — a cluster of tasting rooms in former industrial buildings — has become a notable wine-tasting destination. The city's population is roughly 43,800, and it is served by the Lompoc Unified School District, which covers Lompoc and the surrounding communities of Vandenberg Village, Mesa Oaks, Mission Hills, and the base itself. Highways 1 and 246 connect Lompoc to Santa Barbara to the south and San Luis Obispo to the north, while nearby Jalama Beach and Surf Beach provide access to the coast's surf and open shore. Lompoc suits people drawn to a grounded, working Central Coast city — aerospace employment, wine and flower country, mission history, and relatively approachable housing for Santa Barbara County — rather than the resort polish of the coast's more expensive cities.