Photos from the Vault

Atascadero Lake July 4 Fireworks

Fireworks at Atascadero Lake July 4, 1982.

A recent letter to the editor in The Tribune complained about the upcoming Independence Day laser show in Morro Bay. According to the letter writer the only proper way to celebrate the birth of a free democracy is to blow stuff up.
Personally I thought that freedom and independence of thought were the point of the day but this letter writer took a dim view of change.
Studies show that fireworks are a source of perchlorate contamination in lakes. The chemical can accumulate in soil and water and has been linked to thyroid damage. Other fireworks recipes are less environmentally risky but they cost more.
When there is an oil spill and injured birds floundering on the beach there is an outcry for environmental reform. It is harder to get people to take on invisible unpronounceable chemicals when they end up in the drinking water.
One of the places that no longer holds a fireworks show is Atascadero Lake. I seem to recall the organizers found the cost and fire risk too high.
Here’s wishing everyone a safe and enjoyable 4th.

Ken Chen made the photo.

Posted in 1980's, Going, Going, Gone, Popular Culture | 2 Comments »

Greek Costume Party

Who said bankers dress conservatively?
Margaret Nybak with San Luis banker Mel McDonald.

January 18, 1969
Photos from the Vault sets the wayback machine to 480 B.C. or the late 1960’s. One of those eras had cameras. Even though the skies were inundating the county with record rains there was still reason to throw a costume party.

The Greeks took over in San Luis Obispo Saturday night.
Despite a drenching downpour, more than 125 of them danced, dined on authentic cuisine and displayed dazzling costumes at the Monday Club.
The occasion was the Beaux Arts Costume Ball, first of this kind ever held here. And from an entertainment standpoint, it was a smashing success.
The bulk of those attending chose to portray figures from Greek history or mythology.
But such latter day figures as Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band, (Don and Carol Koberg) Zorba the Greek (Dr. Ronald Notley) and even Nick the Greek (Ed Jorgesen) were represented too.
The ball was co-sponsored by the San Luis Obispo Little Theater and the San Luis Obispo Art Assocation.

Looks like we have enough talent in town to have a Mardi Gras. Don Koberg would be one of the founders a few years later.

Photos by Michael Raphael

Posted in 1960's, Popular Culture | 1 Comment »

Teddy Roosevelt in San Luis Obispo County

For those of you keeping score, it is Republicans 5, Democrats 0.

William McKinley
Teddy Roosevelt
Richard Nixon
Ronald Reagan
George W. Bush

These are all the U.S. presidents who have visited San Luis Obispo County that I have found records on. All except Nixon and Reagan came by rail. The last three would be elected president after their visits. I am not sure if Gerald Ford ever visited here, his son, actor Steven Ford is a county resident.

Thanks to a Paso Robles-USA post by Wordy Dave I was made aware of the T.R. visit. He also has a recent post on one of the first newspapers in the county, the Paso Robles Leader.

I recently made a joke about anarchists advertising but today they would be on a terrorist watch list. One of their number was responsible for the murder of President William McKinley leading to his Vice President Teddy Roosevelt assuming the office.

The Morning Tribune noted the Roosevelt visit was carried out with precision. The train pulled in from Santa Barbara at 5:30 p.m. The band played the Star Spangled Banner after which the door opened and Judge E.P. Unangst and Mayor McD.R. Venable ushered the President to the rear platform of the train. The President bowed to a cheering crowd and a group of ten carriages took the party to the Mission for a tour where Roosevelt was introduced to Father Aguilera.
At six the Mission bells tolled the hour and the party drove to a reviewing stand at a park down Broad and Higuera Streets. The President spoke for 15 minutes, returned to the train and at exactly 6:30 the train pulled out, the hour allotted to San Luis Obispo was done. He would stop in Paso Robles for another speech that evening before leaving the county.

Roosevelt gave a feel good speech expressing his admiration for the state, local agriculture, Cal Poly and veterans.

The article included the full text of the speech excerpted here, under a headline that read:

PRESIDENT WAS MOST
SUCCESSFULLY ENTERTAINED

–
There Was Not a Hitch Nor a Halt Nor an
Accident and Everybody
Was Pleased.
–

Mr. Chairman, and you, my fellow citizens–It is indeed a great pleasure to have the chance of meeting you this afternoon. For three days now I have been traveling through your wonderful and beautiful state, and I marvel at its fertility. And, I am not surprised to see you looking happy, I should be ashamed of you if you didn’t (Applause).

***
I have forgotten of all of the records that you have in the county, but I know that the largest pumpkins, watermelons and onions created are here, so that your agricultural products have made a name for themselves to be feared. And of course in stock raising, in dairying, the county stands equally preeminent.
And I am glad to learn that the state of California is erecting here a Polytechnic Institute for scientific training in the arts of farm life, and more than that, our people have awakened to the fact that farming is not only a practical but a scientific pursuit, and that there should be the same chance for the tiller of the soil to make of his a learned profession that there is in any other business.
***
We have passed the stage as a nation when we can afford to tolerate the men whose aim it is merely to skim the soil, and go on and skim the country and take off the cream and go on; our aim must be upon the laws promotive of irrigation, upon the laws securing the wise use in the perpetuity of the foresees, upon the laws shaped in every way to promote the predominant interests of the country; our aim must be to hand over to our children not an impoverished but an improved country. We wish to hand over our country to our children in better shape, not any worse shape than we ourselves got it.
That is common sense isn’t it?
Yes.
***
It is a mighty good thing to raise such produce as you have raised on your farms, it is a better thing to bring up such children as I have been seeing here today, and I congratulate you on their quality and on their quantity. (Applause.)
I claim to be more or less an expert in them, I have got six myself. (Applause.)
***
I come to you today, I come to you with an ever increased faith in the future of our country, in the future of America, and I believe in you. I believe in you men and women of California, men and women of America, of the United States, because I feel that you are not only sound in body and sound in mind, but that you have that which counts for more than body, for more than mind–character! Character in which many different elements enter, in which above all elements, are those of decency, of courage and of common sense.
Good bye and good luck to you.

Later in the day he would give a speech in Paso Robles and spend the night at the Hotel Del Monte in Monterey.

When conservative Republicans list their great presidents they often leave the progressive Teddy Roosevelt off. Perhaps his fifth cousin Franklin soured them on the Roosevelt name. Perhaps it was bolting from the party to found the Bull Moose party and spoiling another Republican’s presidential bid. In a party that claims to like mavericks he is about as mavericky as you can get.

An abbreviated list of accomplishments:

Youngest President at age 42.
A war hero who stormed San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish American War.
Built the Panama Canal (after fomenting a revolution that split Panama from Colombia.)
The Modern American Navy
Peace making between Russia and Japan which won him the Nobel Peace Prize.
Dissolved 40 monopolistic corporations to enable competition
Established federal oversight of food processing
The first conservationist president, preserving 5 national parks, 18 national monuments and millions of acres of national forest.
Teddy Bears? Named after the 26th President.
Mount Rushmore, that’s him next to Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson

On the train there were photographers from the San Francisco newspapers, The Bulletin, Call and Examiner. Perhaps they have dusty negatives on their shelves. I’d sure like to see a photo from San Luis Obispo. Tribune Editor Benjamin Brooks was a member of the reception committee. The list of names include business men Capt. Jas. Cass, H.M.Warden, W.H. Warden, Norman Sandercock, B.Sinsheimer, O.Sinsheimer and Sheriff Yancy McFaddin.

Posted in 1900's, News, Politics, Popular Culture, Railroad | 5 Comments »

Fast facts on fad food fondue

Telegram-Tribune wire editor David Verbon practices fondue fork technique taught by Cal Poly home economics instructor Connie Breazeale.

October 24, 1968
You’ve heard of fast food?
This is fad food.
Fondue.
One of the famed fads of the late 1960’s and early 70’s. San Luis Obispo even had a restaurant with this menu item. I think it was called the Wine Street Inn…in the basement of the Network Mall.

As recounted in the Linnea Waltz story fondue Swiss legend tells the story of two opposing armies ran out of food. One had bread the other had milk. The fighting stopped and the eating began. More sophisticated armies later used cheese instead of milk.

This sounds a lot like the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup origin story.

Fun Fondue Facts

• When cooking the mixture, stir in a figure 8 design for optimal mixing.

• Halfway through the meal down a glass of cherry brandy, another at the end of the meal.

• If your bread falls off the fondue fork you owe the group a bottle of wine, to avoid this push the tines of the fork clear through the crust of the bread.

• Unlike stadium nachos, processed cheese is not welcome in fondue.

• Fondue can be made in a simple 9 step process

I am so grateful we don’t have to print food pages in black and white any more. No one wants to eat gray food.

Photos by David Ranns

Posted in 1960's, Cal Poly, Fashion, Popular Culture | 3 Comments »

California Men's Colony built

Eight months after starting the list I now have the 10th item for my top ten list of things that have changed the history of San Luis Obispo County.
Drum roll please….
State prisons.

From California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo to Atascadero State Hospital to the now closed California Youth Authority in Paso Robles, millions of dollars and hundreds of careers have been injected into the local economy via the payroll and construction at these institutions.
CMC’s minimum security West Facility opened in 1954. The medium security East Facility opened in 1961. The correctional facility was named in an era when rehabilitation was the watchword so prison isn’t part of the name, colony is.
The CMC website lists the 2006/2007 combined medical and operating budget as $215 million dollars with a staff of 1,870 and 6,586 inmates in both facilities.
The community also gets the benefit of having inmate fire crews and work crews.
The Wikipedia page has a list of famous inmates, which included Timothy Leary and Huey Newton. Leary was also arguably the most famous escapee.

April 6, 1959
Unbylined photos of the construction were on the front page of the then Telegram-Tribune. Earth moving bulldozers crawled over the site of the administration building and concrete walls of the cellblocks were being poured. This has to be in the list of biggest construction projects in the county.

This is my guess on how a list could look, though I’m open to suggestions.

Diablo Canyon
Cal Poly
CMC
Morro Bay Power Plant
Hearst Castle
Salinas Dam
Cuesta Grade Highway projects

I seem to recall someone telling me that the prison grew out of surplus Camp San Luis Obispo land and that there may have been a stockade on the site originally. Perhaps someone knows those early details.

Having just discovered a bulging folder of photos from the early days of CMC there will be a few posts over the next few months on the state prison.

***

UPDATE

Major (retired) Mark Johnson, Director of Community Activities, Camp San Luis Obispo sends this photo from almost the same spot 50 years later. Thanks for sharing!

Posted in 1950's, 1960's, Construction, News | 5 Comments »

Cuesta Grade a formidable foe

OLD CUESTA ROAD–A photo from the California Division of Highways [now Caltrans] which once reported 71 hazardous curves on the highway north of San Luis Obispo. The road was built in 1915 and improved in 1923, the photo is from about 1922.

Something about the Cuesta Grade captures the imagination of readers.  One of the popular pages in Vault is a Cuesta Grade accident photo from 1963. A quick web search shows interest in the pass from railroad and highway historians.

The railroad spanned the grade in the late 1800’s The automobile came a few years later. Stage Coach Road is the closest thing today to the original trail over the grade.
On September 12, 1965 an Elliot Curry story was published on the history and future of the Cuesta Grade. [A few paragraphs have been rearranged and the story edited for length. The first part of the story talks about the highway department plans then delves into history. ]

The Cuesta has always been a formidable foe.
The first route over the pass was called the “Padre’s Trail” and it simply followed the bottom of the Canyon, dodging obstacles along the creek. The first county road over the pass was constructed with a $20,000 bond issue in 1876 and was called Cuesta Road. It followed the westerly slope and most of it is still there, but recommended only for daring drivers.
Before the coming of the railroad in the Nineties [1890’s], much of the grain and wool from the north part of the county had to be hauled over the pass to San Luis Obispo and supplies for the ranches had to be hauled back over the torturous route.
For the big freight wagons, pulled by six or eight horses it was a day’s journey just to get over the grade. On leaving San Luis Obispo the first stop was the Waterfall saloon, built over San Luis Creek, near the start of the long climb. It was eight miles to Bean’s station at the foot of the grade on the north side and it took a good eight hours to make it.
Henry Twisselman, a pioneer of the Shandon country, always claimed to be the only man who ever drove a 12-horse team over the grade with three wagons hitched together–the ancestor of some of today’s truck and semi-trailer monsters.
The State Division of Highways office was organized in San Luis Obispo in 1912 and it soon came to grips with the Cuesta.
In the fall of 1914 contract No. 110 was let for a 24-foot roadbed and gravel surfacing on the easterly slope of the pass. Total cost was $58,771 and the surface was oiled in 1916 and maintained as such until 1922.
In 1922 curves were widened and a reinforced concrete pavement was put down with curbs along each side. Cost of this project was $169,166 and parts of the old pavement can still be glimpsed along the mountainside where it wound its way through 71 curves.
By 1936 the old paved route had become a traffic trap that could delay motorists by as much as half an hour. The state highway commission decided to make this one of the best mountain highways in the west and in the following two years they appropriated $945,000 for the job. Metropolitan Construction company built the four lane highway in 18 months.
***
When the present grade was opened in 1938 it was called the third largest road building job in the west. Excavation involved 1,365,000 cubic yards of earth, considered a monumental task at that time. Today more earth than that is moved to build the Cayucos by-pass.
The Cuesta Grade crosses a pass in the Santa Lucia Mountains and whatever else they may be, these mountains are not “rock ribbed.” One of the biggest problems encountered in the construction was the instability of the mountainside where the mud deposits were sometimes 40 to 50 feet thick. The problem persisted for years at the Division V [Highway Dept.] engineers devised ways of draining the water out of a side hill which kept sliding toward the canyon bottom.
***
Some of the most harrowing chapters in the history of Cuesta ended when the freeway was built through San Luis Obispo. When Highway 101 was still routed down Monterey Street, runaway trucks used to come screeching and honking through the city at 100-mile-an-hour speeds. In one of the last such episodes a truck raced along Monterey all the way to Nipomo [Street] and then took out the corner of a a building as it dived into San Luis Creek.

At the time there was a push to convert all of Highway 101 in the county from expressway into freeway, eliminating grade level access. That goal that eludes the road to this day.
The Cuesta was still using the 1930’s era bridge over the railroad within my driving career. The road has undergone at least two major face lifts since the mid-1960’s and many of the same issues bedevil drivers and road engineers.

And yes, the term Cuesta Grade is redundant. So is Morro Rock. Apparently boosters in the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce tried to get the name changed in the 1930’s to La Cuesta. Still waiting for that one to catch on.

Posted in 1800's, 1900's, 1960's, Construction, Environment, Going, Going, Gone, Popular Culture | 4 Comments »