San Luis Obispo County History

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://calarchives4u.com/

These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit 
or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations 
desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain 
the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of 
the submitter. All persons donating to this site retain the rights to 
their own work.

Source:
A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Santa Barbara,
San Luis Obispo, and Ventura, California
by Yda Addis Storke
Published in 1891 in Chicago by the Lewis Publishing Co.


THE SOUTHERN BORDER. 

The Santa Maria River, which in its upper part bears the name of Cuyama, forms 
the southern boundary of the county, separating it from Santa Barbara. The Cuyama 
Valley is an extensive region, stretching like a division between two systems of geological 
formations from the Mojave Desert on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west. The 
greater portion of the region is unoccupied or devoted to grazing, and its resources unknown 
and undeveloped. It opens a feasible railroad route from the high interior to the coast, 
and when such a road is constructed an undoubtedly valuable section will be opened. 
A few streams run from the Santa Lucia to the Cuyama, as the Alamo, Huasna, Suey and 
others, and on these are valuable ranches, the Huasna grant of five leagues and the Suey of 
the same, being of these, and with the Santa Margarita and the speculative purchases the 
principal ones of the county not subdivided. North and east of these grants the land was 
all public, there being much yet remaining unsurveyed and unoccupied, yet very suitable 
for culture and grazing. Upon the Suey, the property of Messrs. Newhall, of San Francisco, 
large quantities of wheat are produced, and oranges, lemons and grapes are grown 
successfully.