City of San Luis Obispo history

San Luis Obispo, city, seat (1850) of San Luis Obispo county, western California, United States It lies on San Luis Obispo Creek at the base of the Santa Lucia Mountains, 20 miles (30 km) east of the Pacific Ocean and 80 miles (130 km) northwest of the city of Santa Barbara.

Look through a new lens: Built in 1875, the Piedras Blancas Light Station sought to protect ships passing by San Simeon from wrecking on the rocky shoreline.

The Port San Luis Lighthouse opened in 1890 with a French Fresnel lens that could be seen 20 miles away.

In 1893, not long before they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, John Michael Price, the founder of Pismo Beach, and his wife Andrea, moved into their new two-story redwood home.

Originally built in 1901, the Santa Manuela Schoolhouse, located in the historic village of Arroyo Grande, is a hands-on museum for historical exploration and learning.

In 1914, between the Harford and Avila Beach Piers, the Pacific Coast Railway Co. built a pier for commercial shipping, later leased by Union Oil Co (Unocal). Both Harford and the Pacific Railway Pier shipped enough oil to make Port San Luis the largest crude oil shipping port on the globe.

The artist spent the better part of 50 years carving out the terraces with only a pick and shovel (you could say he was creating his own “castle on the hill”). Located on 2.5 acres, some parts of the dwelling are said to be sourced from Hearst Castle, where the artist reportedly worked for a time. It's an artistic statement that will cause folks to pause in wonderment for decades to come! Once the home of reclusive artist Arthur “Art” Harold Beal, who bought his hillside lot in 1928, this real-life Pee Wee's Playhouse is an ode to one man's creative spirit.

They regarded the Dunes as a center of creative energy and published a magazine called "The Dune Forum." At the same time, oil companies had started buying up Dune land, and in 1948, oil was discovered in the Dunes.