Cambria

By Wayne Attoe

Located on the Pacific coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Cambria developed as a hub for lumbering, mining, whaling, and dairying in the 19th century. Situated in a pine forest and populated by immigrants from the eastern United States and numerous Swiss-Italians, it became the second largest town in San Luis Obispo County. When the railroad bypassed Cambria, the pace of life quieted for a time, and ranchers raised cattle for beef. But affordable automobiles and the construction of roads to the north and east turned the locale into a vacation destination. The cool climate, rugged cliffs, beaches, and signature Monterey pine forest brought a sizable new development called Cambria Pines. The opening of Hearst Castle as a state park assured Cambria's future as a tourist destination. The ways in which people have engaged with the local forest is a leitmotif in the account of these developments.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: May 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781439651261

Wayne Attoe

Wayne Attoe has lived in Cambria for more than two decades and works with others to conserve its natural environment. An earlier career teaching architecture stressed the value of historic buildings and neighborhoods. The Cambria Historical Society and the History Center of San Luis Obispo County are sources for many of the images included.

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INTRODUCTION

Thousands of years ago, the Cambria forest was part of a much larger pine-oak forest that stretched from north of San Francisco to San Diego. Its characteristic tree is the Monterey pine (Pinus radiata). The forest, mountains, and ocean were home to Native Americans beginning about 10,000 years ago. Chumash and Plano Salinans were the people making their home in this landscape when Europeans first sighted it. They remarked on the trees and how they might be useful for ships’ masts. The journal of Don Gaspar de Portola’s expedition along the California coast in 1769–1770 described a particular site near the future Cambria that would be suitable for a mission.

When mission lands were laid out, the Cambria area was made part of Mission San Miguel Archangel, which is 35 miles inland from the coast. It was only after missions began to be secularized in 1836 and land grants were distributed that land could actually be subdivided and sold. Rancho Santa Rosa had been granted to Don Juliano Estrada in 1841. In 1864, through foreclosure and sale, 12,000 acres of it were transferred to Don Domingo Pujol of San Luis Obispo. The remainder of the original rancho was purchased by Sen. George Hearst in 1865 and 1890. In 1866, Don Pujol subdivided his holdings and sold them to settlers. By some, this is taken as the date of Cambria’s founding. It took four more years and some confusion over names before a post office was designated Cambria in 1870.

But fortune-seekers and entrepreneurs had not waited for a town to be named. Cinnabar was discovered in the mountains in 1862, and mining flourished. Whaling was underway at the bay named San Simeon, and the forest was being logged. There was a drought that killed most of the Spanish cattle brought during the mission era. They were replaced with dairy cattle, which made the production of butter and cheese possible. Cambria became the second-largest town in San Luis Obispo County and a popular destination for festivities like Swiss Independence Day, the Fourth of July, and rodeos. The area had been populated by an array of nationalities. Portuguese Azoreans were prominent in whaling and Swiss Italians in dairying. Americans and other Europeans were among entrepreneurs setting up businesses. The Chinese found a niche market in drying sea lettuce and abalone for export to China. For these activities, the Cambria forest provided timber and firewood and then became a backdrop.

The Great Fire of 1889 devastated Cambria’s business district. The railroad coming north passed the town. The market for mercury was volatile; mines closed, opened, and closed. With the decline of migrating whales, the whaling station at San Simeon closed in 1894. The local pine forest had been quickly logged over, and as a building material, pine could not compete with more durable redwood, so sawmills quieted. In the 20th century, government regulation of dairies became more stringent. Beginning about 1925, dairy farms were consolidated and converted to beef cattle ranches.

During these decades, a regular source of jobs came from the Hearsts. George Hearst had gradually acquired an enormous ranch that needed ranch hands. His son, William Randolph Hearst, began building La Cuesta Encantada in 1920, which similarly provided employment for local people.

Automobiles and improved roads signaled a new era. In the eyes of Los Angeles developer Harry E. Jones, the Cambria forest had a new use: second homes for southern California’s growing urban populations. Jones and his brothers purchased forested land adjacent to Cambria, then subdivided and marketed it as Cambria Pines beginning in 1927. At one time, there were sales offices in Los Angeles, Fresno, Long Beach, and San Francisco, and a singing cowboy promoted Cambria Pines on Long Beach radio. In physical size, Cambria Pines was 20 or 30 times as large as Cambria. Lots in the pine forest came with a water supply, and there was a small, new, and separate business district. For decades, people carefully distinguished between the two communities. Cambria was a town with stores, saloons, a post office, a bank, and churches. Cambria Pines was a resort with businesses that catered to vacationers. Gradually, the distinction between the two entities has been lost, with the influx of retirees and urban escapees who did not experience the twinning of Cambria.

Cambria’s attractiveness and accessibility increased with the completion of the coastal highway to the north in 1937. Though often closed by landslides, it nonetheless made Cambria part of a journey rather than the end of the road. The area grew, too, when it took on a wartime role with the military monitoring and defending the coast. The opening of Hearst Castle as a state park in 1958 swept the town into a new era of tourism. Improved highway access and people’s desire to escape urban centers led to growth and development. This was accompanied in the 1970s by a growing awareness in America of the environment, its importance, and its fragility. Locally, people became concerned about the impact of development on the forest, which by that time had become just a remnant of the prehistoric woodland. It became evident that living in the forest meant removing its trees. A new attitude toward Cambria’s forest, watersheds, ranchland, and the rural landscape emerged in the last 20 years. Consequently, there have been numerous successful efforts to conserve natural resources and wildlife habitat. About 68 percent of the Cambria pine-oak forest is protected, and the community of 6,000 remains unincorporated.

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THE FOREST BEFORE

For many people, Cambria means pines. License plate holders proclaim, Cambria Pines by the Sea. More specifically, Cambria’s trees are Monterey pines. Elsewhere in the world, they are known as Pinus radiata, the scientific name. Thousands of years ago, these trees could be found along the California coast all the way from San Diego to well north of San Francisco. (Courtesy of BS.)

To understand what those long-ago pine forests might have looked like, one needs to travel to the Southern Hemisphere, where a remarkable 10 million acres are under cultivation in New