The Painted Cave community and Laurel Springs Ranch near Chumash Painted Cave SHP is four miles east of San Marcos Pass via East Camino Cielo Road, which intersects with SR 154 right at the summit.

"[3] No shots were fired during this "battle", which consisted solely of John C. Frémont's California Battalion crossing the mountains via San Marcos Pass on the night of December 24, 1846, during the Mexican–American War.

It was a rainy night, and while Frémont's battalion had lost 150 horses and mules from sliding down the muddy slopes during the crossing, the exhausted men were able to reach the Goleta Valley foothills by the next morning, where they camped for two days.

On December 27, 1846, they entered into Santa Barbara and ran up the Stars and Stripes at the Thompson Adobe (now 809–811 State Street).

[5] A local Army National Guard center is named after Frémont, in recognition of his capturing Santa Barbara and making it part of the United States.