Editing San Luis Obispo, California (section)

===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>