Editing Nipomo, California (section)

==History ==
[[File:Rafael, a Chumash who shared cultural knowledge with Anthropologists.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Late 19th-century photograph of Chumash [[Tribal chief|chief]] Rafael Solares]]
[[File:Lange-MigrantMother02.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Dorothea Lange]]'s famed portrait, ''Migrant Mother'', taken in Nipomo in 1936.]]

The original settlers of Nipomo were the [[Chumash (tribe)|Chumash]] Indians, who have lived in the area for over 9,000 years. [[Rancho Nipomo]] (the Chumash word ''ne-po-mah'' meant "foot of the hill") was one of the first and largest of the Mexican land grants in San Luis Obispo County.
[[File:Rancho Nipomo Dana Adobe (7816869126).jpg|thumb|[[Dana Adobe]]]]
[[William G. Dana]] of [[Boston]], a sea captain whose travels led him to California, married Maria Josefa Carrillo of [[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]]. In 1837, the {{convert|38000|acre|km2|adj=on}} Rancho Nipomo was granted to Captain Dana by the Mexican governor. The [[Dana Adobe]], created in 1839, served as an important stop for travelers on [[El Camino Real (California)|El Camino Real]] between [[Mission San Luis Obispo]] and [[Mission Santa Barbara]]. The adobe was a stage coach stop and became the exchange point for mail going between north and south in the first regular mail route in California.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.danaadobe.org|title=Dana Adobe Home|publisher=Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos|access-date=8 July 2010}}</ref> The Danas had several children, thirteen of whom reached adulthood. They learned both English and Spanish, as well as the language of the Chumash natives.

In 1846, [[U.S. Army]] Captain [[John C. Fremont]] and his soldiers stopped at the rancho on their way south to Santa Barbara and [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]].  Captain Dana hosted a barbecue and gave Fremont's men 30 fresh horses. By the 1880s, the Dana descendants had built homes on the rancho and formed a town. Streets were laid out and lots were sold to the general public. The [[Pacific Coast Railway]] ([[narrow gauge]]) came to town in 1882, and trains ran through Nipomo until the [[Great Depression]] in the 1930s. By the end of 1942, the tracks had been removed for the [[World War II]] war effort.

Thousands of [[Eucalyptus globulus|blue gum eucalyptus]] trees were planted on the Nipomo Mesa in 1909 by two men who formed the [[Los Berros Forest Company]] with the idea of selling the trees as hardwood.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The long and tangled history of California’s eucalyptus trees |url=https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2019/12/21/the-long-and-tangled-history-of-californias-eucalyptus-trees |magazine=The Economist |access-date=20 January 2025}}</ref> Groves of these non-native trees still exist in rows as they were originally planted.

Nipomo Mesa is the location of one of the most famous photographs of the Great Depression, ''[[Migrant Mother]]'', by [[Dorothea Lange]].