USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 18
USA > California > Santa Barbara County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 18
USA > California > Ventura County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 18
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pany. The gold is found in streaks of black sand from three to four feet below the surface of the beach. They run from one inch to two feet in thickness, usually being about one foot, and from thirty to forty feet in length. The bank of the beach runs north and south, the streaks of sand east and west toward the ocean. Beneath the black sand is blue clay in some places, and sandstone in others. The richest deposits are found on the sandstone where it is woru into ridges, being favorable to the concentration of the gold. The sand is run into a hopper, where a stream of water carries it over amalgamated plates. About twenty-five tons of this sand yielded $137.
On the Jonita Rancho, near Los Alamos, rock con- taining gold and silver has been found. This at last induced William Buel to explore the formation of his rancho by running a tunnel over 400 feet. This tun- nel, which is situated a little over 1,000 feet above the level of the sea, is run in a southwesterly direction through a sedimentary formation, which dips to the sea at an angle of about 45° * *
* Here and there throughout the tunnel are a few seams and pockets of clayey matter, which are said to show a few colors of gold. * * * The tunnel does not ap- pear to be following any vein.
Copper is said to exist in paying quantities on the southern bank of the Santa Cruz River, where it was worked by the old padres; also at several places in the San Rafael Mountains.
Quicksilver is said to exist at Los Prietos, nine miles north of Santa Barbara, on the upper waters of the Santa Ynes River, in considerable quantities. It is claimed that a great deal of the ore will average from two to three per cent. The Eagle Quicksilver mine was also worked in 1867, by Captain Samuel Stanton, on the Cuchama River, in the San Rafael Mountains.
Float rock containing galena is said to be found at the mouth of Dry Creek Canon, on the Buel Rancho, near Los Alamos; also on the Spinnocia Rancho, about twelve miles east of Santa Ynes, in the San Rafael Mountains.
Manganese occurs in the San Rafael Mountains, about seven miles north of the town of Santa Ynes.
Coal has been found at several places in Santa Bar- bara County, notably in the Loma Paloma, head of Santa Ynes Creek, Montecito Hot Springs and at the Mission.
Limestone is widely distributed in the county, but as yet has been burned only for local use. It is found upon Moore's Rancho, a few miles west of Santa Bar- bara. Immediately north of Mr. Moore's house, dis- tant about two miles from the seashore, are the foot- hills of the Santa Ynes Range, spurs of which run down nearly to the water's edge; these are composed
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of sandstone, varying from coarse to fine. At one point they are traversed by a vein of calcite about four feet wide, running nearly east and west.
The gypsum deposits of Santa Barbara occur upon the southern side of Point Sal, and can be reached by road either from Guadalupe or Santa Maria. Point Sal gypsum mines lie back in the mountains about one and one-half miles from Point Sal Landing. They occur as a veiu having a head wall and foot-wall of · clay slate. There are six openings on this property from which gypsum are taken. *
* * The finest quality of the material is said to be obtained in the upper workings. The other openings are of less im- portance, and no gypsum at present is taken from them. The lower vein can be traced for about two miles. This mineral can be mined and placed on board the vessels at Point Sal for about $2 per ton.
There are several mineral springs in this county, but few of them have as yet become places of resort. At Montecito the water from the springs reaches 117º Fahrenbeit. On the Santa Ynes Mountains, near Santa Barbara, there is another hot spring; also in the Santa Marcos Canon, where the water is said to reach a temperature of 120° Fahrenheit. In the cañon and the Cuyama Valley are also spring>.
There are, so far as known at the present time, no oil wells producing anything in Santa Barbara County, though several have been sunk there. But there are great deposits of asphaltum and other hituminous matters at several localities in the county. " El Rincon " Creek, some three or four miles east of Carpenteria, is, for some little distance near the coast, the boundary line between Ventura and Santa Bar- bara counties. At Rincon Point, on the shore just west of El Rincon Creek, the railway company has recently done some heavy grading in the construction of their road. Amongst other unaltered rocks here, which dip toward the north, they have cut through a heavy body of bituminous shales, which contain a sufficient quantity of bitumninous matter, so that, when once ignited they continue to burn for a long time like the waste heaps from a coal mine.
The Rancho of Mr. P. Clark Higgins, mentioned as the " Carpenteria bed," is only about one mile east of the new Carpenteria railway station. The bluffs here fronting the sea-beach are fifty to seventy five leet high. The lower portion of them consists of tertiary rocks, out of which the petroleum oozes. * * * Anywhere within one quarter of a mile or more back from the edge of the bluffs it is no uncommon occurrence for the plow to turn up bituminous matter. * * *
The outcrop of asphaltum and other bituminous matters in the bluffs extends for a distance of three- quarters of a mile along the shore and to within halt
a mile or less of the new railway station at Carpen- teria. * * This bitumen is very dirty, but might * possibly be used for street pavements.
On Ortega Hill, about six miles east of Santa Bar- bara, and near half way between there and Carpen- teria, Mr. H. L. Williams has drilled a well. The locality is within 500 or 600 feet of the seasbore, and 250 feet above high tide. Mr. Williams here went down 455 feet. *
* * The shale is very close, and contains neither water nor oil. The sand above was ·free from water. But the oil which it contains makes it act like a quicksand, and it rose 100 feet in the pipe. * * In attempting to draw the casing, in order to substitute drive pipe for it, the casing parted in the upper sand and they could not get the lower part of it out, and were therefore obliged to abandon the hole. Then they swung the derrick around about ten feet, and started another one.
Just northwest of Ortega Hill, in the Montecito Valley, two little creeks join, and just below their junction there is a small outerop of asphaltum in the bank. * * *
At the foot of the hills, on the shore, a quarter of a mile east of the well, the rocks are exposed at low water, and it looks as if there were an anticlinal fold here. There is also some seepage of oil from these rocks, and Mr. Williams states that after a slight earthquake shock one night, in 1883, a jet of oil " as large as a man's arm " spurted out here for a little while, but did not last long. Considerable gas also escapes from these rocks. Their strike is about east and west. Mr. Williams' wells are just about on the line of the anticlinal axis in these rocks, while the old well at the foot of the hill is on the north side of it.
A little over one mile east of here a low bluff makes out a short distance into the sea, and there is also some seepage of oil. There are also said to be extensive seepages in "Oil Canon " and one other canon in the Santa Ynes range of mountains, some three miles in an airline northeast from Ortega Hill.
In 1885 the "Santa Barbara Oil Company " sunk two wells some 500 or 600 feet deep in "Oil Cañon," at a point 1,400 or 1,500 feet above tide. There was much gas here. But at last, either by accident or malice, the tools were lost in one of the wells, and the work was abandoned. *
Moore's Landing is near the village of Goleta, about seven miles west of the city of Santa Barbara. East- erly from the landing, for a distance of a mile of 90 along the shure, the bluffs are forty to seventy-five feet high, of light gray sandstone, * * in which there are enormous quantities of asphaltum, which occur in all imaginable forms. There are occasional well- defined veins of it, from the thickness of a sheet of
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paper up to two or three feet thick, which extend for short distances through the heavy-bedded sandstone, and then run out completely. Again it occurs in heavy masses twenty or thirty feet and more in diam- eter. In some places very heavy beds of it run nearly parallel with the stratification of the sandstone, while on the other hand many of the small veins of it cut straight through and across the bedding at all · angles. Most of it is largely mixed with sand and pebbles; but there are large quantities of it which look very pure. No liquid oil is visible here, nor any soft pitch either, except what is washed up in small flakes by the surf on the beach from beneath the waters of the sea.
Something like a mile to the west of the landing there is a place in a creek in the salt marsh where a good deal of gas bubbles up; and two or three miles farther southwest is Salinas Point, which projects
some distance into the sea, and about half a mile out- side of which is one of the large and famous petro- leum springs beneath the ocean. The depth of the water where this spring issues was asserted by one man to be only about fifty feet, but by another to be fifty fathoms. The latter is more probable. About eighteen miles off shore here in the channel, and some two miles north of the island of Santa Cruz there is also said to be another very large oil spring under the water.
Mr. H. C. Hobson, of San Luis Obispo, states that there are very large quantities of asphaltum on the Sisquoc Rancho, in the northern part of Santa Bar- bara County, on one of the upper branches of the Santa Maria River. Sisquoc Creek joins the Santa Maria River at Fugler's Point, some fifty miles south of San Luis Obispo.
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SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY
IN GENERAL.
ORIGINAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.
San Luis Obispo was one of the original twenty-seven counties created by act of Leg- islature, approved February 18, 1850. The boundaries of this county, as described by section 5 of this act, were as follows: " Be- ginning three English miles west of the coast at a point due west of the source of the Nacimiento River, and running due east to the source of said river; thence down the middle of said river to its confluence with Monterey River; thence up or down, as the case may be, the middle of Monterey River to the parallel of thirty-six degrees north lat- itude; thence due east following said parallel to the summit of the Coast Range; thence following the summit of said range in a southeasterly direction to the northeast corner of Santa Barbara County; thence following the northern boundary of Santa Barbara County to the ocean, and three English miles therein; and thence in a northwesterly di- rection, parallel with the coast, to the place of beginning. The seat of justice shall be at San Luis Obispo."
The area of the county, as originally de- fined, contained about 3,250 square miles. This territory was but sparsely populated;
the census for 1850 gave a total population of 336. The only occupied sections were the large ranchos, where were found but the dwellings of the proprietors and their em- ployés. The only focus of population was at the Mission of San Luis Obispo; this was the central point of the district, before the creation of the county; here was the seat of justice for the surrounding region, and here were held elections. But even here there was no assemblage of houses beyond the mission buildings and a few neighboring adobe structures.
This county has about ninety miles of coast, extending along the Pacific Ocean, northerly and northwesterly, from opposite the mouth of the Santa Maria River to where the Sixth Standard South, Monte Diablo Base, enters the ocean, or to a point about ten miles northwest of the Piedras Blancas.
Soon after California became a possession of the United States, this coast was surveyed under the suprevision of Prof. A. L. Bache, of the United States Coast Survey, the first report on the survey being published in 1852. The surveys have been continned under the charge of Prof. George Davidson, whose vol- ume, published in 1869, entitled "Coast l'i- lot of California, Oregon, and Washington,'
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is the authority for many of the present state- ments.
The coast of this county has a natural di- vision into two distinct sections, one of which extends from Point Sal, in Santa Barbara County on the south, to Point San Luis on the north. This division is an indentation called San Luis Obispo Bay; north of Point Sal the mountains fall back, and the shore is formed of sand-hills. The general trend is north, until the coast commences sweeping westward to form the bay of San Luis Obispo, and the shores become high and abrupt. From Point Sal to Point San Luis the dis- tance is abont seventeen miles in a north- westerly direction, the beach running somewhat east of north for about fifteen miles, when it curves to the northwest, west, south, and southeast, in a line of ten miles, forming San Luis Obispo Bay.
A few miles north of Point Sal the Santa Maria River, emptying into the ocean, forms the division line between this and Santa Barbara County. A few miles north of this is the Oso Flaco, and midway of the beach the Arroyo Grande empties, having received near its mouth the Pizmo and Arroyo Verde creeks. The San Luis Creek enters the northern side of the bay.
The first or lower division of this coast is called Pizmo Beach. Landing was formerly effected here in fair weather by means of small boats, and lines through the surf. As increasing agricultural interests demanded better facilities, the Pizmo wharf was here constructed in 1881, extending through the surf to deep water, opposite the Pizmo Rancho.
On San Luis Obispo Bay the Coast Sur- vey made the following report, published in 1852, and republished in 1867: "This bay is an open roadstead, exposed to the south- ward, and even during heavy northwest
weather a bad lateral swell rolls in, render- ing it an uncomfortable anchorage. The landing is frequently very bad, and often im- practicable, but the best place is the month of the creek, keeping the rocks at its month on the starboard hand. Fresh water may be obtained at a small stream opening on the beach half a mile west of the creek. In the coarse sandstone bluff between these two places are found gigantic fossil remains.
" Off Point. San Luis, which forms the southwest part of the bay, are some rocks, and in making the anchorage vessels should give this point a berth of half a mile. * * * The distance from this rock to the mouth of the creek is a mile and a half. * * * Four fathoms can be got about a fourth of a mile from the beach. In winter, anchor far enough out to clear Point San Luis if a southeaster should come up. During sontherly weather landing is frequently effected at the watering place when impracticable at the creek."
In the ante-wharf days, landing was ef- fected here as elsewhere by means of boats and lighters, and the disembarking was often, when the swell was heavy, very dangerous, as only those places were selected which were accessible to teams or pack trains on the shore. In 1860, a small wharf was built at a spot called Cave Landing, and here passengers and goods were landed. In 1869 a larger structure, called the People's Wharf, was built at the Avila Beach. Here vessels and steamers could make fast to discharge and receive cargo. This wharf was exposed to the violence of the ocean during southwest storms, preventing landing, and more than once breaking away the structure.
It was observed that vessels remained more securely farther to the westward, where the waves broke less heavily; but here the beach was very difficult of access, high, rocky bluffs coming to the edge of the water. Here Mr.
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John Harford and others resolved to con- struct a landing, and accordingly in 1872 work was begun, to quarry a way for a rail- road, and build a wharf to deep water. By 1873 the enterprise was so far advanced that shipping was received and goods transported over the railway, then operated by animal traction, to a point accessible to teams, a dis- tance of some two miles. Such was the ori- gin of Port Harford, which now has a wharf 1,800 feet long, with warehouse and offices upon it, and a large hotel at the land end. Vessels of up to 3,000 tons' burthen touch at this wharf regularly, and it is constantly crowded with business. Passengers and freight are conveyed to San Luis Obispo and other towns by the Pacific Coast Railway, whose trains run out upon the wharf twice a day.
The second division of this county's coast is an irregular shore line, extending north- ward from Point San Luis to where the Santa Lucia Range abuts upon the coast, at the northern extreme of the county. Con- cerning this section, the Coast Survey's report says :-
" To the northwest of the bay of San Luis Obispo rises to a great height the Monte de Buchon, which is readily distinguished in coming from the northward or the sonthward. * * * From Point San Luis the coast trends in a straight line west-northwest for eight miles, and close along the shore of this stretch are several large rocks. Thence the coast trends abruptly to the north, to the high, conical rock called El Morro, distant eight miles-these two shores forming the seaward base of Monnt Buchon. From El Morro the shore line gradually trends to the westward, thus forming a deep indentation or bay, designated as Estero Bay on the Coast Survey chart. Behind El Morro are several lagoons or streams, where a harbor
for light-draft vessels could be made at com- paratively small expense, and the high land etreats for some distance, leaving the shore low and sandy, while the north shore is rug- ged and guarded by rocks. The northwest point of the bay is called Punta de los Este- ros, on the old Spanish charts, distant thir- teen miles. A line joining these points shows that the bay is about five miles deep.
" In this bay is the landing of Cayucos where Captain James Cass, in 1873, built a substantial wharf, with tramway, ware- houses, etc.
" From Point Los Esteros to the western point of anchorage of San Simeon, the coast runs nearly straight northwest by west for a distance of fifteen miles. The shores are not so bold as to the southward or northward, and the mountains fall back, leaving a fine, rolling country of no great elevation, and well suited to agriculture. We have seen wild oats growing here over six feet in height-not one or two stalks, but in acres.
SAN SIMEON BAY .- " This is a small, ex- posed roadstead, bnt affords tolerably good anchorage during northwest winds. * * * The indentation of the shore line forming the bay trends between northwest and north for half a mile, and then sweeps away to the westward about a mile and a half, gradually taking a southeast direction. The land be- hind the bay is comparatively low and gently rolling, the high hills retiring well inland. The high hills behind this shore are marked by redwood trees along their crest
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line, and upon some of their flanks.
It was in this bay that the steamship Pioneer, in 18-, put in leaking badly, was driven or dragged upon the beach, and after being abandoned by the underwriters was got off and carried to San Francisco.
" In making this harbor from the north- ward vessels must sight the Piedras Blancas
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(White Rocks) four miles west, three-quar- ters north of the southwest point of San Simeon. They are two large, white, sharp- topped rocks, and nothing else like them is found on this part of the coast. When the onter rock bears north-northwest about two miles distant, it bears a very striking resem- blance to a lion couchant. The geographical position of the outer and larger rock is, ap- proximately, latitude 35° 39' north; longi- tnde, 121° 15' west. *
* * From Piedras Blancas the coast trends northwest half west for a distance of fifty-seven miles, in an almost perfectly straight line."
ORGANIZATION.
In the division of the State into Assem- bly and Senatorial districts, San Luis Obispo was allowed to elect one Assemblyman, and San Luis Obispo and Santa Bar- bara counties were united in a Sena- torial district to elect one Senator. Don Pablo de la Guerra of Santa Barbara was sent out as Senator, although it was claimed that more votes were cast for Captain Will- iam G. Dana, of San Luis Obispo. Henry A. Tefft was the first Assemblyman from this county. Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo composed the Second Judicial district, in which court was ordered to be held in the more northern county-seat, beginning on the first Monday of March, of July, and of Octo- ber, in each year. At the election held April 14, 1850, J. Mariano Bonilla was elected County Judge; Henry J. Dally, Sheriff; Charles James Freeman, County Clerk; Joa- quin Estrada, County Recorder; John Wil- son, County Treasurer and Collector; Joseph Warren and Jesus Luna, Justices of the Peace. The statute creating the courts au- thorized the Court of Sessions to order elec- tions to fill vacancies, and also to fill vacancies
pro tem. Here as elsewhere the court con- sisted of the County Judge and two Justices of the Peace. The first session, held in July, 1850, appointed Francis Z. Branch, Assessor; William Hutton, County Surveyor, and Will- iam Stenner, Harbor Master; also Stephen Purdie to fill the office of County Recorder, resigned by Joaquin Estrada; and in August, when Purdie in his turn resigned, his snc- ceisor, S. A. Pollard, was appointed. There were in this county several incumbents of the office of Juez de Campo (Judge of the Fields or Country), a feature adapted from the old Spanish regime. This officer had supervision over the ownership, branding, driving, and killing of cattle, and other ques- tions relating to this subject, and in those connties containing the great stock ranges his functions were very important.
The first mention of any other township than that of San Luis Obispo is in the rec- ords of the Court of Sessions which appointed these judges of the fields and prescribed their duties. Here reference is made to the township of Nipomo, and to that of the Third Precinct.
At the election held in 1853 there were cast 137 votes in San Luis.
After a meeting of the board of supervi- sors, August 3, 1859, which added three more precincts to those already existing, the county contained election precincts as fol- lows :- San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, Ar- royo Grande, San Miguel, Costa, and Es- trella.
For a number of years all the proceedings of the Court of Sessions of San Louis Obispo were conducted in Spanish, and all the ac- counts, and such records as were kept, were entered in that language, which alone was spoken by the great majority of the people, and by those who composed the official corps and the juries.
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ANNALS OF THE COUNTY-1851-1890.
In the early days an act of the Legisla- ture provided for public advertising in this county, requiring that all public notices should be posted at the houses of three speci- fied citizens of the county.
The total vote here at the first election under American rule was twenty-nine. The first after the constitution was adopted was forty-five. At the election of 1851 for gov- ernor, San Luis Obispo gave eight votes for the Democratic, and fifty-eight for the Whig, candidate, this being the lowest vote polled in any county in the State, whose whole vote was 46,009. This county continued Whig for some years.
During the '60s the inequitable assess- ments on lands caused great dissatisfaction in San Luis Obispo as elsewhere, and, a test case having been carried through various courts, it was declared that the action of the Board of Equalization, in increasing the as- sessments, was unjustifiable in law. The taxes were therefore paid according to the original asesssment. The assessed valuations this year were : real estate, $177,711.60; personal property, $311,121.25; total, $488,- 832.85. The tax rate was $3.85; total tax, $18,598.90. There was in the county treasury a total of $4,881.50.
During the decade of 1850-'60 San Luis Obispo County was indeed " a dark and bloody ground," where the peaceable and law-abiding citizen was far enough from finding security and protection. In 1853 a gang of eight or ten inen committed inurders and robberies here- abouts, and then left for Los Angeles, where they were captured, five paying the supreme penalty for their crimes, and the rest escaping. For the next five years, hardly a month passed without the disappearance of some traveler, or the finding of one or more bodies of men slain for plunder.
The murder of George Fearless in 1856, presumably by Jesus Luna, unpunished; the murder of the two Frenchmen, Obiesa and Graciano, on the Nacimiento, in December, 1857, by Jack Powers, Pio Linares, and the Huero Rafael, who all escaped justice; the cold-blooded murder at San Juan Capistrano of the French rancheros, Baratie and Borel, and the abduction of Mme. Baratie by eight men who had enjoyed their hospitality, are among the most flagrant cases of those days. Of these criminals six paid the forfeit of their lives, either by hanging at the hands of the law or by shooting by their pursuers.
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