Triunfo means “triumph” in Spanish, and this place name was coined back in the 18th century by Father Juan Crespi (1721-1782), chaplain and diarist on Gaspar de Portolá‘s famed California expedition. Although Crespi’s diaries vanished long ago, the most accurate transcript – certified in 1792 – states that on January 13th, 1770, the Portolá group came upon a friendly Chumash village in this area and Crespi dubbed it El Triunfo del Dulcísimo Nombre de Jesús: “The Triumph of the Extremely Sweet Name of Jesus”. This grateful mouthful of a moniker was presumably due to the village having, as Crespi put it, “plenty of water near at hand and firewood and pasture in abundance.” Triunfo Canyon Road was laid out by 1927 and named by 1932.
Find it on the map:
