The Carpinteria Tar Pits at Carpinteria State Beach are located in a designated area called Tar Pits Park. The Carpinteria Tar Pits are one of five natural asphalt lake areas in the world, 2nd in size to and older than the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. These tar pits date back to the Pleistocene Age (Ice Epoch), 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. Before Europeans arrived here, Mishopshnow was the name of a large coastal village of hunting people and Canalino/Chumash. Tar from this area was used