The Resources And Attractions Of San Luis Obispo County California…For The Homeseeker, Capitalist And Tourist – 1887

Recently, we discovered a pamphlet entitled “The Resources and Attractions of San Luis Obispo County California…for the Homeseeker, Capitalist and Tourist” from the Board of Trade of San Luis Obispo County California dated 1887. The board of trade was an organization that served to advance and protect business interests; it played a significant role by promoting and protecting the interests of its members. Seven prominent citizens and members of the San Luis Obispo Board of Trade wrote on subjects in this compelling pamphlet with authoritative voices. The authors included: C.H. Phillips, E.W. Steele, P.H. Dallidet, Jr., R.E. Jack, Myron Angel, W.M. Armstrong, and W.D. Haley.

The purpose of the pamphlet was to explain and boast  “this is the garden county of the State – a land of milk and honey” and that the “resources of the county are rapidly becoming recognized, and the dawn of a new era is upon us”. Their main messages included convincing future settlers that they could obtain more land, with a richer and more fertile soil, for less money than anywhere else, and with the same amount of time and energy spent in San Luis Obispo County, that they might apply in other places, the reward to the future new settlers would be greater.

1887 Viticulture Business In San Luis Obispo County 

The pamphlet contains a section advertising their horticulture and viticulture reputations and capabilities. The members of the board of trade continue with a statement that reaffirmed assuredly to its readers that at “not far distant a date” that San Luis Obispo County will become a high-ranking grape and wine producing area of the State of California. It continues with that “the hill land of the county is particularly adapted for the grape” for every species. Because of the successes attained by cultivating the Mission grape, the viticulturists of the county tried other favorite species with success. These included: Black Prince, Flame Tokay, Muscat, Black Hamburg, Black Morocco, Zinfandel, Riesling and Frontingnan.

The message was that the wine industries were rapidly increasing, and the profits were large. These gentlemen encouraged prospective settlers to the county by focusing on viticulture as a pleasant and profitable business. 

They mentioned that the principal market for grapes and wines produced in San Luis Obispo County was the city and port of San Francisco.  Due to San Francisco’s growing population driven by the Gold Rush, San Francisco had become the significant center for wine production and trade in the 1880s. The city hosted numerous wine houses, which functioned as large-scale operations for purchasing grapes, producing wine, and shipping the wine globally. The cooler, fog-influenced climate around San Francisco Bay made it particularly well-suited for wine storage. Wine houses on the production and trade aspects for the processed grapes grown in the surrounding wine country.

Observances Of P.H. Dallidet, Jr. In Article Entitled “Specific Instances”

“From the information acquired through that and other sources in the last twenty years in the county, I am of the opinion that the wealth of San Luis Obispo County can and will be greatly increased by the planting of vineyards, because of the certainty and abundance of their returns. I will endeavor to give facts in a few cases of people living at considerable distances from each other in the county and any one desiring the full particulars can write to them for further information and I have no doubt that they will be pleased to give it. Mr. W. M. Short in the neighborhood of the Temblor ranch on the eastern border of the county has a young vineyard which surprised him by the numbers of bunches each vine yielded on the 4th year, the bunches filling well and berries growing to perfection. On the Temblor and Cuyama Ranches, fifty miles apart on the same belt, there may be found trees and vines growing without any attention that do wonders in the way of yield. Mr. Gillis near Adelaide told me three years ago, that his two-year-old vines, Muscats, and wine grapes, bore from 10 to 30 pounds each, berries very large and sweet, with a beautiful bloom on them. His place is thirty miles from San Luis Obispo in a northerly direction. On W.S. Hinkle’s farm some three miles from this city are some ten vines in arbor form that were literally purple with grapes of the Mission variety every year from the year 1860 to 1882, yielding three to five tons of grapes annually. Mr. Dolores Herrera, near Pozo, planted some vines near his house that have borne very well, but said Mr. Herrera, “I had a few cuttings left over after planting my vineyard so I thought I would experiment and I therefore set them out on a dry looking hill about half a mile away from the house and left them there to live or die as they chose. After some months I saw they grew nicely so I pulled up some of them and left the others till the next year. When my grapes were ripening, I thought of the hill vines and went to see if they were yet alive. Imagine my surprise on finding from 3 to 5 bunches on each little vine, each bunch weighing from a half to three- quarters of a pound of the finest white grapes I ever tasted”. Pozo is 30 miles east of us and 40 miles from the ocean. Mr. E.W. Howe, near Morro, has a very nice little vineyard which yields good crops of thirty pounds and upwards to the vine.

“F. Guillemin, just over the mountain to the east of us, has a small vineyard set out after the manner of his country, that is the vines from 2 to 4 feet apart, which bear from 5 to 15 pounds each, and of part of his crop he makes a light wine which connoisseurs pronounce to be equal to the famous petit vin du Jurat of France.

“Mr. Hasbrouck has some twenty acres or more of vines at the Ranchita which are growing very nicely. Mr. Henry Ditmas, of Musick, has some boxes of raisons made by him in his place that were equal in size, color and taste to the best San Bernardino raisins.”

“Mr. P.H. Dallidet, Sr., has a vineyard from 4 to 20 years of age, and he has taken from his oldest vines, which at seven years of age had had good care, as high as twenty pounds to the vines, and out of eight acres of grapes made one season 6,300 gallons of wine.

“Hon. Frank McCoppin, Dr. W.W. Hays, E.W. and Hon. Geo. Steele, J.P. Andrews, Goldtree Bros., W.H. Taylor and E.A. Atwood all have fine young vineyards and orchards. Besides these gentlemen who are largely interested, there are a great number of persons who have from one acre and upwards in full bearing who all say that vines are a success with only moderate attention. Out of perhaps a hundred and fifty persons who have vineyards, I know of but two that irrigate. Of the persons named above only Mr. Guillemin irrigates.”

“Having observed closely the yield of grapes for a number of years past, I can say without fear of exaggerating that vines of full bearing age will yield an average one year with another of thirty pounds to the vine.”

Summary

The county of San Luis Obispo was little known until the 1880s and difficult to access. But with the development of roads, the railroad, and shipping ports, there was a dawn of a new era. Rich and fertile valleys, streams with continuous running water, and a variety of climates helped reinforce the board of trade’s claims. This pamphlet’s publication in 1887 led to an invigorating new blood to San Luis Obispo County.

Sources

“The Resources and Attractions of San Luis Obispo County California” was microfilmed in 1985 by the University of California – Berkeley as part of the Cooperative Preservation Microfilming Project by the Research Libraries Group, Inc. and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation