History of Cambria, California
The place we now call Cambria was once part of the lands of the Mission San Miguel. After Mexico declared its independence from Spain in 1821, the Missions were secularized and the lands were given to prominent individuals through the land grant system. On January 18, 1841, Governor Juan B. Alvarado granted the 13,000 acre Rancho Santa Rosa to Don Julian Estrada.
The first man to own much of Cambria after the land grant system began to fade was Domingo Pujol, a San Francisco attorney who had loaned money to Don Julian Estrada. Rancho Santa Rosa was the security for the loan and, when Estrada defaulted, Pujol foreclosed and took the land. In the mid 1860s speculators and others came and bought the land from Pujol, who sold it at a profit. Among the few original investors were five men named George. George Lull built a general store in 1865 at what is now the south east corner of Bridge and Main Streets. George E. Long, George W. Proctor and George W. Davis bought land in Cambria between 1866-1868 and George Lingo bought land in the 1870s. Some landholders developed other plans and wound up with other interests.
One of the first was George Proctor who built the three story Proctor Hotel across Bridge street from Lull's store. The town was called "Slabtown" because many of the buildings were made from rough slabs of wood. This was the beginning of Cambria. "Slabtown" grew rapidly and by 1880 Cambria was the second largest town in San Luis Obispo County. Early industries in the area included cinnibar mining, and sales, lumbering, dairying, beef-cattle ranching and grain and orchard farming. The downtown area along Main Street was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1889. Many of the residential buildings were centered around Lee and Center streets (Lee is now called Burton Drive) and survived the fire. Many of the homes were quite lavish for the times and today house commercial ventures. This picture shows The Swiss Parade along Lee Street in the early 1900s with the Guthrie-Bianchini House appearing on the left.
In 1894, the railroad came to San Luis Obispo County bypassing Cambria and causing a sharp decline in shipping. Even so, Cambria continued as a quiet, isolated farming community. The advent of the automobile in the 1920s caused an improved road to be built to Cambria and brought land developers. The Cambia Pines Lodge was built so that prospective land buyers would have a place to stay. Then, in 1958, Hearst Castle became a state park and was opened to the public. This brought throngs of tourists to the area clogging the roads until a Highway One bypass was built carrying the traffic around the downtown areas. Known over the years as Santa Rosa, Roseville, San Simeon and "Slabtown", the town became Cambria (the Latin word for Wales according to Funk & Wagnall's) on January 10, 1870, on the recommendation of a local committee. The exact story of how Cambria got its name is shrouded in mystery and lost as subsequent generations have stepped forward to claim the honor of naming our village. One story that seems to have the most facts to support it is that Cambria is named after a Welsh town in Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
Local tribes
Earliest human settlement of this area is associated with prehistoric habitation by the Native American Chumash peoples, who exploited marine resources along the coastal area, with emphasis upon sites that were streamside in nature.
Although our recorded history of the tribes in this region does not begin until explorers and missionaries arrived, there is evidence that there were many tribal settlements in the area that was to become Cambria. It is estimated that as many as 30,000 thrived in the area in the 1000 years before the Spanish arrived. Some experts believe these tribes were migratory and used Cambria as a seasonal settlement, while others are convinced that they lived there permanently. Most agree that they feasted on shellfish and seafood on the coast, as well as traveling inland to hunt and gather seeds. A variety of artistically-crafted implements have been discovered, including obsidian spears and arrowheads; basalt, sandstone, and granite mortars and pestles; soapstone kettles; and stone hammers. They were skilled basket and net makers and fashioned jewelry from crab claws, abalone shells, and the teeth of sharks and whales. The presence of soapstone (steatite) provides evidence that they traded with the Catalina Island tribes, while the lack of metals and glass indicated they did not trade with Europeans or Asiatics.
Evidence exists to allow experts to conclude that Cambria tribes were gentle, generous, and peaceful, and that they lived simply. Their family bonds were strong, and they exhibited great love and patience toward their children. They were also noted for their extreme cleanliness in handling and preparing food and possessed an advanced knowledge of medicinal herbs. For entertainment, they enjoyed music and had a passion for gambling.
Cambria is located on the Rancho Santa Rosa Mexican land grant given in 1841 Julian Estrada.
Miners were attracted to the area upon the discovery of the Little Bonanza Deposit in 1862, as well as the other deposits discovered soon thereafter in the Santa Lucia Mountain Range, which were worked sporadically until 1940.
Originally an American settlement called Slab Town, it was centered at Leffingwell cove of today's north Moonstone Beach, which also housed a wharf. As lumber, ranching and Quicksilver (mercury) mining increased in the area, the village adopted the more dignified name of Cambria, influence by a local transplant surveyor from Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
Other notable locations in the town include the historical Old Santa Rosa Chapel that was built in 1870, and as one of the oldest churches in the county of San Luis Obispo, held Catholic mass until May 26, 1963. The church fell into neglect until 1978, when the chapel and cemetery were restored. Wooden markers and tombstones as old as the founding year of the chapel (1870) grace the Santa Rosa Catholic Cemetery to the rear of the small chapel and donned with the large entrance sign reading: In Pace Requiescat (Latin for Rest In Peace).
History of San Luis Obispo County
The prehistory of San Luis Obispo County is strongly influenced by the Chumash people who had significant settlement here at least as early as the Millingstone Horizon thousands of years before the present age. Important settlements existed, for example, in many coastal areas such as Morro Bay and Los Osos.
Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa was founded on September 1, 1772 in the area that is now the city of San Luis Obispo.
San Luis Obispo County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood.
The Salinas River Valley, a region that figures strongly in several Steinbeck novels, stretches north from San Luis Obispo County. The remote California Valley near Soda Lake is the region most untouched by modernity. Travels through this area and the hills east of highway 101 during wildflower season are very beautiful and can be incorporated with wine tasting at local vineyards.
A Timeline of San Luis Obispo County History
1542 Cabrillo and party enter Morro Bay, name Morro Rock
1769 Portolá expedition passes through the area
1772 Fages leads Spanish expedition to area to secure bear meat for settlements at Monterey and San Antonio
1772 Junípero Serra founds Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, 5th in the coastal chain of 21 missions
1797 Mission San Miguel Arcangel founded (16th mission)
1821-22 California becomes Mexican as Mexico gains independence from Spain
1837-1846 Mexican land grants are made to settlers in area which will become SLO County
1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; California becomes territory of United States
1850 U.S. statehood for California; San Luis Obispo becomes one of California's original 27 counties
1857 Cholame Valley (in SLO County) is epicenter of the historic Fort Tejón earthquake
1858 Vigilante committee formed
1860 County population is 1,782
1862-64 Severe drought kills off most of the cattle on the great ranchos
1864 Portuguese sea captain Joe Clark establishes San Simeon whaling station
1866 Steele brothers commence dairying operations in "cow heaven"
1867 Captain James Cass to Cayucos
1870 County population is 4,772
1873 Construction begins on Harford's Wharf (now Port San Luis) and narrow gauge railway; County Courthouse completed
1874 Ah Louis opens wooden store on Palm Street, City of SLO; Piedras Blancas Lighthouse completed
1875 Developer C. H. Phillips subdivides Rancho Morro y Cayucos into town lots
1878 Beginning of gold rush in the La Panza area
1879 Establishment of County Hospital and Farm
1880 County population is 9,142
1886 Southern Pacific Railroad line arrives in San Miguel, then Paso Robles
1889 El Paso de Robles Hot Springs Hotel replaces early thermal center; Southern Pacific service is extended to Santa Margarita
1890s Quarrying begins at Morro Rock
1890 County population is 16,072; Point San Luis Lighthouse completed
1894 Southern Pacific service is extended to San Luis Obispo, ending stage service over the Cuesta Grade; U.S. requires registration of Chinese residents, who must carry Certificates of Residence or be deported
1900 County population is 16,637
1901 The "gap" in railroad service between SLO and Los Angeles is finally closed; California Polytechnic School founded
1903 California Polytechnic School holds first classes
1906 Union Oil builds first oil pipeline to Avila Beach
1907 Oilport, at site of present Shell Beach, completed in November, then destroyed by heavy surf in December
1910 First flight of an airplane over city of SLO, in a July 4 demonstration
1911 Legal daily limit for Pismo clams set at 200
1913 E.G. Lewis founds Atascadero colony
1922 Construction of Blue Star Memorial Temple in Halcyon
1923 Anderson Hotel opens in city of SLO (July)
1925 Milestone Inn, later known as the Mo-Tel Inn, opens as the country's first "motel"
1926 Union Oil Tank Farm Fire (April 7)
1928 SLO High School built on Murray Hill
1920s-30s: Colony of "Dunites" flourishes in Oceano/Nipomo dunes
1936 W.P.A. begins work on north breakwater, making causeway to Morro Rock; "Migrant Mother" photographed in Nipomo by Dorothea Lange
1938 Small colony of sea otters spotted in remote area off Big Sur Coast; their recovery will re-extend their range south along SLO coast
1939 Hoover brothers and Art Thompson establish San Luis Obispo airport
1940 County population is 33,246
1941 Camp San Luis is expanded to meet wartime training needs; Union Oil tanker Montebello sunk by Japanese submarine off coast near Cambria (December 23)
1942 U.S. Executive Order 9066 forces relocation of 800 County residents of Japanese ethnicity
1946 First Pismo Beach Clam Festival
1950 County population is 51,417
1958 Hearst Castle opens as state park; Alex and Phyllis Madonna open the Madonna Inn
1960 County population is 81,004
1962 SLO High School building condemned as seismically unsafe; new high school building completed 1963
1965 County population is 102,486
1970s Ongoing protests re licensing of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
1985 Las Pilitas fire burns 75,000 acres
1988 FAA control tower added to San Luis Obispo County airport
1990 Elephant seals establish new colony on beach near Piedras Blancas
1990 (August 2) City of San Luis Obispo becomes first place in U.S. to ban smoking in bars.
1993 Chapel Hill at Shandon completed by Judge William P. Clark and his wife Joan Clark
1997 Record grape harvest focuses attention on development of local wine industry
1998 Unocal agrees to $18 million clean-up of oil seepage under Avila Beach
1999 Beginning of Cal Trans project to widen Cuesta Grade portion of Hiway 101
2000 County population is 246,681 (U.S. Census)
2001 Cal Poly celebrates 100th anniversary of its founding
2003 (June) Closure of SLO County General Hospital (est. 1879)
2004 Voters defeat library funding measure and measure to ban modified crops; inroads made by "big box" stores; housing prices continue upward