The earliest human inhabitants of the local area were the
Chumash people. One of the earliest villages lies south of San Luis Obispo and reflects the landscape of the early
Holocene when estuaries came farther inland. The Chumash people used marine resources of the inlets and bays along the Central Coast and inhabited a network of villages, including sites at
Los Osos and
Morro Creek. The tribal site on present-day San Luis Obispo was named .
Spanish period established
Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. During the
Spanish Empire expansion throughout the world, specifically in 1769, the Franciscan
Junípero Serra received orders from Spain to bring the Catholic faith to the natives of
Alta California; the idea was to unify the empire under the same religion and language.
Mission San Diego de Alcalá was the first
Spanish mission founded in Alta California that same year. On September 7, 1769, an expedition led by
Gaspar de Portolá entered the San Luis Obispo area from coastal areas around today's
Pismo Beach. One of the expedition's three diarists, padre
Juan Crespí, recorded the name given to this area by the soldiers as
Cañada de Los Osos ("cañada" translates as "valley" or "canyon," and Osos translates to "bears"). The party traveled north along San Luis Obispo Creek, turned west through Los Osos Valley, and reached
Morro Bay on September 9. In 1770, Portola established the
Presidio of Monterey and Junípero Serra founded the second mission,
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo in
Monterey. The mission was moved to
Carmel-by-the-Sea in the following year. In 1772, as the people of
Presidio of Monterey and Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo faced starvation owing to a lack of supplies, Commander
Pedro Fages, a member of the
Portolá expedition, led a hunting expedition to la Cañada de los Osos ("Bears Canyon") to bring back food. Over twenty-five mule loads of dried bear meat and seed were sent north to relieve the missionaries, soldiers, and neophytes (baptized natives). After this, Junípero Serra decided that la Cañada de los Osos would be an ideal place for the fifth mission. The area had abundant food and water supplies, the climate was also very mild, and the local
Chumash were very friendly. With soldiers, muleteers, and pack animals carrying mission supplies, Junípero Serra set out from Carmel to reach the Valley of the Bears. On September 1, 1772, Junípero Serra celebrated the first Mass with a cross erected near San Luis Creek. The next day, he departed for San Diego, leaving Fr. José Cavaller with the difficult task of building the mission. Fr.
José Cavaller, five soldiers and two neophytes began building the
Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, which would later become the town of San Luis Obispo. Both the mission and town were named after
Louis, bishop of Toulouse, France, known in Spanish as "Luis, obispo de Tolosa".
Mexican period When the
Mexican War of Independence from Spain broke out in 1810, all California missions had to become virtually self-sufficient, receiving few funds or supplies from Spanish sources. Beginning soon after
Mexico won her independence from
Spain in 1821, anti-Spanish feelings led to calls for expulsion of the Spanish Franciscans and
secularization of the missions. Because the fledgling Mexican government had many more important problems to deal with than far-off California,
actual secularization did not happen until the mid-1830s. After 1834, the mission became an ordinary parish, and most of its huge land holdings were broken up into land grants called
ranchos. The ranchos were given by Mexican land grant from 1837 to 1846, with the mission itself being granted in the final year. The central community, however, remained in the same location and formed the nucleus of today's city of San Luis Obispo.
American period Following the American
Conquest of California, San Luis Obispo was the first town incorporated in the newly formed
San Luis Obispo County. It remains the center of the county to the present. Early in the American period, the region was well known for lawlessness. It gained a reputation as "Barrio del Tigre" (or Tiger-Town) because of the endemic problem. Robberies and murders that left no witnesses were carried out on along the
El Camino Real and elsewhere around San Luis Obispo for several years. Finally a gang of eight men committed a robbery with three murders and a kidnapping at the
Rancho San Juan Capistrano del Camote in May 1858, that uncharacteristically left two witnesses alive. This brought about the formation of a
vigilance committee in the County that killed one, the suspected leader of the gang
Pio Linares, and lynched six others, a total of seven men suspected of such misdeeds (the most lethal in California history). Members of the committee remained influential members of the community for decades. The ranchos remained focused on cattle after the
conquest of California. With the discovery of gold, the county experienced a major economic surge with the rising price of beef, with the highest prices coming in 1851. The county remained focused on cattle until 1863, when a drought left most ranchos devastated. Residents quickly turned to other venues, leading to the breaking up of many of the ranchos and a major change in the economic climate of the town, which focused less on cattle ranching and more on dairies, agriculture, and mined goods from then onward. San Luis Obispo once had a burgeoning Chinatown in the vicinity of Palm Street and Chorro Street. Laborers were brought from China by
Ah Louis in order to construct the
Pacific Coast Railway, roads connecting San Luis Obispo over the
Cuesta Pass to
Paso Robles and from Paso Robles to
Cambria, and also the 1884 to 1894 tunneling through Cuesta Ridge for the
Southern Pacific Railroad. The town's Chinatown revolved around
Ah Louis Store and other Palm Street businesses owned and run by Chinese business people. Today, Mee Heng Low chop suey shop is all that remains of the culture, although a slightly Chinatown-themed commercial development has been planned. A display of some of the unearthed relics from this period can be seen on the first floor of the Palm Street parking garage, which was built over the location where Chinatown once stood. The San Luis Obispo Historical Society (adjacent to the Mission) also contains rotating historical exhibits. San Luis Obispo was also a popular stop en route to Los Angeles.
U.S. Route 101 and
California State Route 1 were constructed with the rise of car culture. Due to its popularity as a stop, it was the location of the first
motel in the world, the
Milestone Mo-Tel. File:San Luis Obispo in 1864.png|San Luis Obispo in 1864 File:Barrio del Tigre (San Luis Obispo, California) 1865.jpg|San Luis Obispo was known as the in the late 19th century, owing to the multitude of robberies and murders taking place there. File:San Luis Obispo (late 19th century).jpg|San Luis in the late 19th century ==Geography==