Feb 12
You may have wondered about the mysterious henge looming beside San Luis Creek in Avila Beach. It is one of the last remaining monuments to the dawn of modern Central Coast transportation, the Pacific Coast Railway. The concrete plinth was an underpinning to Bridge No. 5. The narrow gauge rails were in use for 66 …
Jan 22
Harold Guiton would be happy to see the depot in use today. He and other volunteers saved what is now the only remaining Southern Pacific Depot in the county. Paso Robles modernized and remodeled their depot after a fire so it is little like the original structure. San Luis Obispo bulldozed their wood frame depot. …
Dec 20
They could have been bitter rivals. Benjamin Brooks was the long time editor of The Tribune. George Staniford had owned The Tribune before Brooks and later owned a competing paper the Breeze. Both held high office in the Masonic lodge. Often rival newspapers of the era engaged in ugly personal attacks between editors and some …
Oct 08
A couple of years ago they waited, watching, biding their time. When my beefsteak tomatoes were three days from harvest they struck. Ground squirrel squads came through the fence and ate all the red, leaving lopsided green-striped tomato tops hanging from the vine. I could hear their high pitched laughter echoing from their dens. Apparently …
Sep 19
The scene outside Sharpsburg, MD., 150 years ago today of Sept. 19, 1862. “The army advanced about noon and we crossed the field of slaughter. It was a sickening, loathsome sight — a sight that paled the cheeks of men strong of heart and nerve—a sight never to be forgotten. Rebel and Union lay mingled …
Sep 04
Horatio S. Rembaugh traveled many miles before he set out to California, arriving in San Luis Obispo just in time to help publish the first edition of the Tribune. Born in Philadelphia August 3, 1840 he would never know his mother. Ann Rembaugh died within 9 months of Horatio’s birth. The fourth and last child …
Aug 28
From the first edition August 7, 1869 and for almost 8 years Horatio Southgate Rembaugh was the common thread in the management of the San Luis Obispo Tribune. Except for an unfortunate three-month interlude under the ownership of James J. Ayers, the Tribune would be associated with H.S. Rembaugh. Either as the announced owner, actual …
Aug 24
Whales were once used to make oil used for lubrication and illumination in the days before petroleum and electricity. Women’s corsets were also made from whale bone. Actually the material was baleen, the hard material in the mouths of filter feeding whales. It was tough and flexible, the plastic of the era. Collar stays, buggy …
Aug 01
The previous two postings on former Tribune editor and western journalist J.J. Ayers were woefully skimpy on details from his personal life. His observations of life in the Gold Rush west leave out all family details. By scraping information from digitized newspapers and books from the era a more complete picture emerges of the pioneer …
Jul 23
His book “Gold and Sunshine” opens with James J. Ayers, then all of 18 years old, departing St. Louis for the California gold fields in February 1849. After a long strange 22-year journey Ayers would briefly become the second editor of the Tribune in San Luis Obispo. Ayers planned get to the California gold by …
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