Historic Agricultural Sites Throughout San Luis Obispo County
Take a pleasant drive in the country. Many intriguing agricultural history sites dot San Luis Obispo County. This tour guide is a sampler of places and structures that will lead you to interesting destinations, routing you through a rich variety of rural landscapes along the way. Take a picnic. Have an adventure. Remember that half the fun is getting there.
1) San Simeon – Coastal Cattle Country, 2) San Miguel – San Miguel Flour Mill, 3) Estrella – Estrella Grange #488, 4) Paso Robles – Farmers’ Alliance Building, 5) Templeton – Templeton Livestock Market, 6) York Mountain – York Mountain Winery, 7) Los Osos – Spooner Ranch House, 8) San Luis Obispo – Froom Ranch, 9) San Luis Obispo – Stenner Creek Trestle, 10) San Luis Obispo – Central Creamery, 11) San Luis Obispo – Sinsheimer Brothers Store, 12) Arroyo Grande – E.C. Loomis & Son Feed Store, 13) Oceano – Pismo-Oceano Vegetable Exchange, 14) Carrizo Plain – the Carrizo Plain
1: San Simeon – Coastal Cattle Country
From Cambria, take Hwy 1 northwest 11 miles to the marked Vista Point just beyond Oak Knoll/Arroyo Laguna Creek.
This stretch of rolling rangeland between the sea and the Santa Lucia Mountains is vintage cattle country, a surviving remnant of pastoral California. Originally a coastal rancho belonging to the Mission San Antonio, in 1840 the 48,405 acre spread passed as a Mexican land grant to Don Jos de Jsus Pico. Vaqueros on Picos Piedra Blanca Rancho tended vast herds of cattle for the hide and tallow trade.
These grasslands look much the same as they did when George Hearst began buying up local real estate in the 1860s. Hearst leased small farms to Swiss dairymen until the Hearst family ceased the practice in the late 1890s. George Hearst raised beef cattle and horses on the ranch. His son, William Randolph Hearst, maintained the cattle and horse ranch, but also raised grain, grain hay, silage, field crops, fruit, and garden produce to supplement his pasture operations. Fruit, garden produce, and field crops were raised on a small scale. The ranch also featured a dairy, a poultry ranch, and a 2000 acre exotic animal park. Today the diversity of agricultural activity is gone, although you may see a leftover zebra as you drive by the ranch. Now 90,000 acres, the Hearst Ranch seasonally pastures 5000 beef steers and maintains a breeding herd of 1000 cows. Grazing cattle dot the landscape to the northeast and northwest of Vista Point (at this point the coast runs east-west, so that the seemingly north up-coast direction is actually west). Visible on a hilltop to the northeast, Hearst Castle towers over the landscape.
2: San Miguel – San Miguel Flour Mill
Take Hwy 101 north to the San Miguel exit, turn right on Mission Street
and continue for 1.1 miles to the mill on the right.
San Miguel Flour Mill
Wheat was king in much of California during the late 1800s. Reliance on a single major cash crop was fraught with uncertainty. The margin of profit for San Luis Obispo County wheat farmers was exceedingly slim, especially at a time when the Southern Pacific Railroad monopolized shipping. The local Central Milling Companys flour mill contributed to the farmers economic woes. The mill refused to grind locally grown wheat and, in effect, forced farmers to ship their entire wheat crop to San Francisco. No portion could be retained for personal consumption. The Director of Central Milling at the time was Richard Shackelford, who was also the Paso Robles Southern Pacific Agent and Southern Pacific Warehouse Director. In and effort to break Shackelfords strangle-hold, in 1891 North County and Monterey County farmers banded together to build a cooperative Farmers Alliance Flour Mill. The mill ground custom grist for Alliance members using power from wood-burning steam engines. The steam engines were separated from the mill by a brick wall which minimized the fire hazard. The mill produced 75 barrels of flour per day, but it was burdened by a large construction debt, its small size, and inexperienced management. In 1903 the San Miguel Flouring Mill Co. reorganized the mill, and owns it to this day. Nearly half of the original Alliance Mill burned down in the early 1930s. Flour milling was stopped at that time. Today, the steam engines and brick structures are gone and the northern end of the building is corrugated iron construction, but the south end of the building is original redwood siding with traditional red stain.
3: Estrella – Estrella Grange #488
From the Hwy 101 interchange at Paso Robles take Hwy 46 east 4.7 miles to Jardine Road. Go north on Jardine 3.5 miles to Estrella Circle (at the Estrella Grange sign). Turn left on Estrella Circle. The Grange Hall is about a block ahead on the right.
Estrella Grange #488 has been a local landmark since its construction in 1915 as a rural community center. The front portion of the rectangular, gable-roofed building is a hardwood-floored meeting hall, the rear a large kitchen. The weathered steel sheathing is original, some of it embossed in a laid brick design. To the left of the hall is a pedestal bearing a brass plaque dedicated to the charter members of Estrella Grange # 488, organized June 6, 1932.
The Patrons of Husbandry of the National Grange was a national farmers social and mutual benefit organization founded in 1867; the California State Grange dates from 1873. Grangers strove to enrich rural life, and lobbied tirelessly against corporate monopolies over the packaging, transporting and marketing of agricultural products. They organized purchasing, marketing and insurance cooperatives and sponsored credit unions. In 1937 Estrella Grange launched the first federal credit union in San Luis Obispo County. The Grange was a potent national and local force in the late 19th century, then declined, then revived in response to the Great Depression. Estrella dates from this era, as do the six other granges still active in the county. In the late 1930s Estrella had more than 100 members. Today 49 grangers meet monthly, perpetuating their historic traditions by providing credit union and insurance services, lobbying for beneficial agricultural legislation, and maintaining a gathering place for area residents.
4: Paso Robles – Farmers’ Alliance Building
Heading north on Hwy 101, take the Paso Robles St. exit, turn left on 13th St. and cross over the freeway to Riverside Avenue. Turn left on Riverside and go 1 mile.
Heading south on Hwy 101, take the Pine St. exit and then make a hard right onto Riverside Ave. The Farmers’ Alliance Building is immediately on your left.
Located at 525 Riverside Avenue.
A Paso Robles landmark since its construction in 1922, the Farmers Alliance Building was actually constructed by the Paso Robles Almond Growers Association as a warehouse and processing plant. With a central elevator tower rising to a height of 82 feet, the coral-colored, 75 foot by 150 foot, reinforced concrete building had the capacity to store 1000 tons of almonds. Organized in 1910 with only six members, the Paso Robles Almond Growers Association membership owned only 60 acres of orchards. Just eight years later the Paso Robles area was a world leader in almond orchard acreage. The distinctive appearance of the building is much the same today as when it was first built. In later years the Farmers Alliance Business Association, a grain brokerage, bought the building and occupied it until 1975. The signage on the building is the only locally surviving public artifact of the once potent Farmers Alliance, a grassroots populist farmers organization. Indeed this may be the last building in the United States still bearing the words Farmers Alliance.
5: Templeton – Templeton Livestock Market
Take Hwy 101 south from Paso Robles for 3 miles or north from Atascadero 5 miles to the Main Street exit. Head east on Main Street toward Historic Templeton for 1 mile. The Templeton Livestock Market is located on the left just behind the long street-front building which houses the “Hoover’s Beef Palace Restaurant” and several other businesses.
Templeton Livestock Market
Established in the late 1940s by Walter Goodell, the Templeton Livestock Market provided county ranchers with an auction site for breeding bulls and locally raised livestock. In 1966 partners Dick Nock, Bob Lewis, and Al Santos purchased the livestock market. To improve service to county ranchers, the group built additional corrals and holding pens. Brothers Jan and Gary Davis with Duane Baxley purchased the market in 1983. Cattle auctions are held each Saturday all year long. Hereford, Red Angus, and Black Angus breeding bulls and miscellaneous other categories of cattle weaned steers, weaned heifers, pairs (cows with calves), bred heifers, and bred cows of various breeds are offered for sale in the red rectangular auction building with its associated livestock pens and corrals. From fifty to one hundred thousand cattle change hands each year. A small animal auction of hogs, goats, sheep, drop calves, and the occasional horse occurs the first Sunday of each month.
6: York Mountain – York Mountain Winery
From Hwy 101 take Hwy 46 miles west 7.2 miles to York Mountain Road, turn right, and proceed 1.6 miles to the winery. From Hwy 1 take Hwy 46 13.6 miles east to York Mountain Road, turn left, and proceed .6 miles to the winery.
York Mountain Winery
York Mountain Winery nestles into its wooded site at the western end of the Paso Robles wine district, where distinctive soils and climate are ideal for growing premium Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel varietals. First dug into the side of the hill in 1882, the ivy covered brick and wood winery building exhibits a Spartan charm. Native stone walls flank the entrance to the winery which is now, unfortunately, closed to the public until the un-reinforced masonry walls can be rehabilitated for earthquake safety. Some of the original winemaking equipment remains on view outside the winery. Andrew York came to California to find gold but stayed to found a winery. Between 1882 and 1970 three generations of the York family made wine here. Ownership then passed to the Goldman family, and then in 2001 to David and Mary Weyrich. The Weyrichs plan to restore the winery and continue its tradition of small-scale production under its own appellation, perpetuating York Mountains claim as the oldest continuously operating commercial winery in San Luis Obispo County. Visit the temporary tasting room located in the parking lot of the historic winery.
7: Los Osos – Spooner Ranch House
Montana de Oro State Park: From Hwy 101 at San Luis Obispo, take Los Osos Valley Road west 15 miles through Los Osos (LOVR becomes Pecho Road) and along the coast to the ranch house.
In 1892 Alden B. Spooner, Jr. built this ranch house overlooking the sea. He first leased the land, then in 1902 bought it outright. Eventually his Pecho Ranch and Cattle Company spread over 8,000 acres. The Spooners planted grain and field crops, ran dairy and beef cattle, and slopped hogs with creamery waste. During the 1920s-30s they leased ocean terrace land to Japanese pea farmers. Except for the highest slopes, every acre visible from the ranch house was under cultivation. At least 18 outbuildings, a water-powered creamery, and a cliffside loading chute for coastal steamers once clustered near Spooners cove; now only the ranch house and a concrete creamery (1915) remain.
A. B. Spooner typified the progressive farmer-dairymen who transformed SLO agriculture at the turn of the 19th century. They owed their success to technological innovation, better access to distant markets, and lucky timing. In the 1890s mechanical cream separators increased butter and cheese production; World War I European famine created a high demand for beans; meanwhile ever-cheaper sea and rail transportation carried local products far afield. The Spooner family sold out in 1942. The ranch changed hands several times until the 1960s, when it became Montaa de Oro State Park. Since then former fields have reverted to chaparral. Exhibits in the ranch house, now the state park Visitors Center, show how Pecho Ranch looked in its heyday.
8: San Luis Obispo – Froom Ranch
San Luis Obispo: The Froom Ranch is located at 12165 Los Osos Valley Road, 0.4 miles west of the junction with Hwy 101. It is visible at the end of an unnamed but posted private road to the south. The ranch is not directly accessible; the best view is from the Nursery parking lot of the Home Depot store.
Nestled against the Irish Hills at the southeast end of Los Osos Valley, today the historic Froom Ranch sits all but obscured behind the bulk of a big box store. The oldest, now derelict ranch buildings date from the early 20th century. The milking barn the only round-end barn in the county originally stood on the eastern end of the ranch, and was later moved to its present location. The larger residence, woodshed, wash room, storeroom, and bunkhouse joined the ranch complex in 1915. Picturesque in setting and appearance, until recently the Froom Ranch has been a popular subject for local landscape artists. Originally swampy Los Osos Valley had been drained early and developed by family farmers and ranchers into prime grazing and row-crop land. Canadian immigrant John Froom came to the valley in the 1880s. He first worked this ranch as a hired hand, leased it in 1890, acquired ownership through marriage in 1904, and ran cattle on its 500 acres until his death in 1929. His son Bill continued the family tradition until his retirement; the new owner, Alex Madonna, agreed to postpone property development until Froom had lived out his natural life on his ancestral turf. The future of the Froom Ranch is uncertain. It stands today as an artifact of changing times and shifting land use priorities, a symbol of progress and of loss.
9) San Luis Obispo – Stenner Creek Trestle
San Luis Obispo: Take Hwy 1 to Stenner Creek Road, 0.7 miles north of the Highland Drive entrance to Cal Poly (no left turn off southbound Hwy 1). Follow Stenner Creek Road 1.6 miles to the base of the trestle. Get out and look up.
Stenner Creek Trestle
The Stenner Creek railroad trestle is the most impressive relic of that day in early May, 1894, when the Southern Pacific mainline from the north finally linked San Luis Obispo to the wider world. The trestle was the last step in the monumental effort to tunnel
Stenner Creek Trestle
and switchback a route through the Santa Lucia mountains. The 935 foot long, 90 foot tall steel superstructure was partially preassembled in Pittsburgh, then erected and bolted to its granitepiers on site.
A century later Amtrac trains and heavy freights still cross its seemingly skinny girders every day. Until 1894 local local economic development had stalled for want of cheap and reliable transportation. County residents depended on rutty wagon roads, small coastal steamers, and the narrow gauge Pacific Coast Railroad (serving the hinterland south to Los Olivos) for supplies and access to markets. The coming of the SP (completed through to Los Angeles in 1901) fueled a regional boom. Expanded outlets for agricultural products, easier access to a wider range of material goods, faster communications, and an influx of new residents ushered the county into into an era of agricultural diversity and opportunity.
10: San Luis Obispo – Central Creamery
San Luis Obispo: The Creamery is located at 570 Higuera Street, San Luis Obispo, near Nipomo Street, three blocks south of Mission Plaza.
Massive refrigerator doors, a roof-mounted cooling tower, and remnants of boilers and piping recycled into planters hint that this graphic arts mini-mall was once a dairy processing plant. The complex evolved through the years. The original Central Creamery building, recycled in 1910 from an earlier machine shop, stands to the right. The back buildings date from 1910-1929; the street-facing office building and connecting facade, with sign, was added in 1928. Owners and firm names changed over the years, from Central Creamery to California Central Creamery to Golden State Creamery to Foremost. The second creamery established in the city, in 1974 it was the last to shut down. Subsequently developers remodeled the old creamery into attractive creek-side retail and restaurant spaces.
Large scale commercial dairying came to San Luis Obispo county in the 1860s. By 1882 dairy products ranked second only to wheat in dollar value. In order to minimize shipping costs to distant markets, local production centered on low bulk, high value butter and cheese. San Luis Obispo county became one of Californias leading dairy products exporters. By 1925 the Creamery was producing 1.2 million pounds of butter a year, and there were three additional creameries clustered within a four block radius. Later in the 20th century, corporate consolidations in the food industry and the local ranchers shift from dairy to beef production made these once thriving smaller scale creamery operations obsolete.
Other commercial dairy buildings nearby include the Challenge Creamery (991 Nipomo, now Reis Family Mortuary and Crematory), and Garden Dairy (341 Higuera Street, now SLO Camp N’ Pack).
11: San Luis Obispo – Sinsheimer Brothers Store
San Luis Obispo: Sinsheimer Bros. Store is located in San Luis Obispo at 849 Monterey Street, between Morro and Chorro Streets, a half block from Mission Plaza.
The Sinsheimer Brothers Store (1884) is a rare local example of cast iron front commercial architecture, a building type developed in the 1850s to reduce danger from fire, the scourge of Victorian urban life. Designed by William Knowles of Oakland, the structures cast iron facade, iron interior supporting columns, exterior brick walls, and steel plate shutters made it relatively fire proof. The fire shutters on the rear wall survive. Built before plate glass display windows became common, the Sinsheimer facade emphasized large entry doors beckoning customers inside to view goods arrayed on counters and shelved floor-to-ceiling along the walls, accessible from rolling ladders still in place. The proprietors oversaw the store and managed their other enterprises from the balcony office along the rear wall. The original office vault and furnishings are intact, but not accessible to the public. The remarkably intact sales floor interior conveys a sense of the scale, feel, and clutter of a late 19th century small town mercantile establishment.
The Sinsheimer Bros. Store is also an agricultural landmark, even though its impact on rural life went on behind the scenes. Bernard and Henry Sinsheimer founded the firm in 1876. The brothers (Bernard and Aaron in San Luis Obispo, Henry in San Francisco) became key middlemen in the county’s rapidly developing agricultural economy. They were prominent brokers in the wheat, barley and bean trades, funneling local produce to the San Francisco market. As merchants, they supplied farm families with a full range of dry goods, hardware, and other necessities. As private bankers, they provided essential consumer credit until harvest.
12: Arroyo Grande – E.C. Loomis & Son Feed Store
Arroyo Grande: From Hwy 101 at Arroyo Grande, take the Grand Avenue (Rt. 227) exit. Follow the signs to Lopez Lake 0.5 miles through the village to E.C. Loomis and Son at 415 East Branch Street (on your left).
The weathered E. C. Loomis and Son establishment has been a mainstay of Arroyo Grande valley agriculture for ninety years. The original structure had corrugated steel walls and roof, still visible from the rear of the customer parking lot. Later additions included shed extensions, board and batten siding, and outbuildings. Price Canyon mines supplied material for the original asphalt floor, still visible in the storage area.Edward Loomis came to the area as a young man well aware that agriculture depended on cheap and convenient transportation. He founded the firm in 1905 (the date on the street facade), then in 1910 built this warehouse at the village transportation hub facing the main street, directly across from the Pacific Coast (narrow gauge) Railroad depot and Wells Fargo freight station, and next to the narrow gauge spur track. The low-roofed portion of the building next to the parking lot covers the old narrow gauge roadbed.
For decades the warehouse was a landmark shipping outlet for local farm products, and remains a general farm supply store. At one time the firm operated a 20 ton steam driven roller for processing local barley, and maintained a public scale. For several generations the Loomis family was part of an informal network of occasional brokers, investors and private bankers who underwrote the local agricultural economy. The current feed store is operated by Julie Wilson, great-granddaughter of E. C. Loomis. The building complex is pending designation as a California State landmark. [UPDATE: In 2003, Farm Supply purchased the E.C. Loomis and Son feed store, but in 2004 moved to their current location on El Camino Real in Arroyo Grande. In 2005 Chameleon Style moved into the building. ]
13: Oceano – Pismo-Oceano Vegetable Exchange
Oceano: From Highway 101 southbound: At Pismo Beach take Hwy 1 south 3.8 miles to Railroad Street, turn right across the tracks and proceed 0.2 miles to POVE at 1731 Railroad Street.
Or, from Hwy 101 northbound: At Arroyo Grande take Halcyon Rd. south 1.7 miles to Hwy 1, turn right and go 1.2 miles to Railroad Street. Turn left and proceed as above.
It would be easy to overlook the unassuming, panel-clad Pismo Ocean Vegetable Exchange (POVE) building as an important agricultural history site, but it stands as a monument to the grass-roots cooperative tradition in American agriculture. Close by the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks, POVE anchors a complex of ice plants and coolers, vegetable brokerages, packing sheds and shipping carton facilities. Dating from the 1970s, the structure replaced the original wooden POVE building on the same site.
Local growers launched POVE in an effort to improve their position in the fresh produce market. In 1927 about fifty members of two older Japanese-American marketing cooperatives, the Pismo Pea Growers Association (1922) and the Arroyo Grande Pea Growers Association (1925) combined their resources to found POVE. Looking ahead, they built their packing shed conveniently close to both rail and road transportation directly across the tracks from Highway 1 and the Southern Pacific depot (the latter since moved a few hundred yards north). When rail shipment of fresh produce declined in the 1970s and the SP freight office closed, POVE was already a well-established refrigerator truck terminal. POVE shut down between 1941 and 1945 when war jitters prompted the internment of area Japanese-American families. After the war many of the displaced returned, reclaimed their farms, revived and modernized POVE. Now 3.5 million crates and cartons of SLO fresh produce pass through each year on their way to national and international markets. The cooperative is the worlds largest grower and shipper of Napa (Chinese) cabbage.
14: Carrizo Plain – the Carrizo Plain
From 101 at Santa Margarita take Hwy 58 east 52 miles to California Valley. Turn right on Soda Lake Road, go 15 miles south to the Guy Goodwin Education Center (open seasonally). The National Monument is open year-round, but dirt roads may be impassable in wet weather. There is no water or gas available on the Carrizo, and only occasional portable toilets.
The Carrizo Plain is a vast, arid, treeless basin between the Caliente and Temblor ranges in east San Luis Obispo County. The climate resembles that of the Mojave Desert. Runoff feeds Soda Lake, the remnant of a much larger alkali wetland. The plain derived its Spanish names from its native plants: Llano Estero (salt marsh plain) and Carrizo (after the reeds that grow around Soda Lake). Today the Carizzo Plain National Monument embraces 180,000 acres of this haunting landscape, sometimes called Californias Serengeti. ” Native Americans occupied the plain for millennia. Early Spanish, Mexican and American ranchers replaced much of the native vegetation with European grasses to feed vast herds of cattle, sheep and horses. In the mid-1880s homesteaders introduced dry land grain farming. Large scale, mechanized bonanza farming began about 1912 and dominated Carizzo agriculture for decades.
Visible relics of these former days include the old wheat-threshing combine behind the Guy Goodwin Education Center on Soda Lake Road, and the faint plow lines visible along the foothills bordering the plain. Other notable Carizzo sights are wildflowers in the spring, visiting Sand Hill cranes during the winter, free ranging antelope, dramatic stream offsets tracing the path of the San Andreas Fault along the Temblor Range, and spectacular native American ceremonial artwork at Painted Rock.