Nov 06
Digging a little deeper in the San Miguel history folders I found this Lura Rawson column. The town had even more boom and bust cycles than I originally thought. From the Telegram-Tribune May 31, 1990: San Miguel: Like its namesake, a survivor. In an earlier column, I called Mission San Miguel Archangel a survivor among …
Feb 17
Fires are the bane of hotels. A roll call of lost county landmarks include the Ramona, Paso Robles Hot Springs and El Paso de Robles. Today public buildings are required to have sprinklers and even California homes built after January 1, 2011 are required to have sprinklers. The Madonna Inn’s first rooms were completed December …
Jan 23
A little over 100 years ago the pride and joy of the fire department was the horse drawn wagon. This would be state of the art firefighting in San Luis Obispo until 1916 when petrol would replace equine power. This photo was made a year after one of the worst fires in history struck downtown, …
Dec 30
Among the worsening war news on page three of the then Telegram-Tribune was an article that gave a glimpse of life in the late 1800s on the Central Coast. A former fire chief and downtown stable owner visited his friends during the 1941 holiday season. Apparently his skill with people and horses shaped a career …
Apr 27
San Luis Obispo city hall circa 1938 on Higuera street where Charles Shoes is today. ©The Tribune Top five signs your fire department needs an overhaul. 1. Fire department catches fire. 2. No hydrant wrench on truck to turn on water. 3. Water pressure only reaches the story below the fire. 4. Second fire engine …
Feb 06
If things went wrong, we were dead, along with everyone in sight around us. Isobutane is unforgiving. A liquid under pressure, it becomes a gas when the pressure is released, making it a fuel for camp stoves or cigarette lighters. At the scene of an isobutane train derailment in what was then Grover City on …
Aug 04
How many cars and trucks has Cuesta Grade sent to the wrecking yard? My second car, a very used German made Opal Ralley Kadet tore up its automatic transmission as I came south into San Luis Obispo. I was coming back from a north county football assignment during my student internship at the then Telegram-Tribune …
May 05
Travel through a town and you pass through areas that don’t match up with their surroundings. When something looks out of place I always wonder what the story was behind the change. Today 157 Higuera St. is a gas station next to Sunshine Donuts. Most of the other buildings nearby are steel warehouses. Until late …
Jan 27
April 7, 1926 Travel through the Midwest and every barn and silo has a lightning rod on it. Not to many around here. Thunder storms are rare on the Central Coast but a recent electric storm set me to thinking about the biggest lighting disaster in the region. Union Oil built the tank farm along …
Apr 23
November 22, 1963 When the Paso Robles Hot Springs Hotel burned down the city lost a 42-year-old landmark and the Police Department office. They were lucky there were no injuries. The fire broke out at 3 am in the basement and within 45 minutes had raced three stories up the elevator shaft to the roof. …
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