Editing San Luis Obispo, California (section)

==History==
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, California|Los Osos]] and [[Morro Creek]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18502 |title=The Megalithic Portal |publisher=Mwegalithic.co.uk  |access-date=September 7, 2015}}</ref> The tribal site on present-day San Luis Obispo was named {{langnf|obi|tiłhini|Place of the full moon}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.housing.calpoly.edu/ytt |title=yakʔitʸutʸu resources - University Housing - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo |publisher=Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo University Housing  |access-date=November 1, 2018}}</ref>

===Spanish period===
[[File:San_Luis_Obispo_(Edwin_Deakin,_1899).jpg|thumb|left|The Spanish founded San Luis Obispo on September 1, 1772, when [[Junípero Serra]] 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 missions in California|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, California|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, California|Morro Bay]] on September 9.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bolton |first=Herbert E. |pages=184–187 |year=1927 |title=Fray Juan Crespi: Missionary Explorer on the Pacific Coast, 1769-1774 |url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000288788 |publisher=HathiTrust Digital Library  |access-date=December 7, 2019}}</ref>

In 1770, Portola established the [[Presidio of Monterey]] and Junípero Serra founded the second mission, [[Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo]] in [[Monterey, California|Monterey]]. The mission was moved to [[Carmel-by-the-Sea, California|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.{{citation needed|date=April 2014}}

[[File:Arrest of Padre Martínez at Mission San Luis Obispo in 1831.jpg|thumb|left|The arrest of Padre Martínez at Mission San Luis Obispo in 1830]]

The area had abundant food and water supplies, the climate was also very mild, and the local [[Chumash people|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 of Toulouse|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, [[Spanish missions in California#Mission period|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 of California|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, California|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.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|title = The History of San Luis Obispo County|last = Angel|first = Myron|publisher = Thompson & West|year = 1886 |location=CA |pages=294–304}}</ref> It gained a reputation as "Barrio del Tigre" (or Tiger-Town) because of the endemic problem.<ref name=":1">{{cite book|title = San Luis Obispo County: Looking Backward into the Middle Kingdom|last = Daniel|first = Krieger|publisher = Windsor Publications|year = 1988|pages = 34–49}}</ref> Robberies and murders that left no witnesses were carried out on along the [[El Camino Real (California)|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).<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>A list of vigilance committee victims for the whole of California history may be found in Ken Gonzales-Day, ''Lynching in the West'', NC: Duke University Press, 2006, 207–228.</ref> 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, California|Paso Robles]] and from Paso Robles to [[Cambria, California|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/5views/5views3h2.htm |title=''Five Views: An Ethnic History Site Survey'' |publisher=Nps.gov |access-date=January 13, 2014}}</ref>

San Luis Obispo was also a popular stop en route to Los Angeles. [[U.S. Route 101 in California|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 [[Motel Inn|Milestone Mo-Tel]].

<gallery widths="200px" heights="135px">
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 {{langnf|es|Barrio del Tigre|Tiger Town}} 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
</gallery>