HomeMy WebLinkAboutJan14SLOWhatIt’s a New Year and the first anniversary of our attempts to review the evolution of the modern
City of San Luis Obispo. We wrote then: “There is never a definitive history, but only one that
captures – hopefully, accurately – some of the past.” In all honesty, it really hasn’t
been “the” history of the City but “a” history - underscoring that all history is a
selective process. For our college students, the Cal Poly campus and environs
is the community with forays into downtown at night when most businesses and
offices are closed. Residents tend to see local history as the day they arrived to
live (or were born) within the expanding City limits. For those reading this, it’s
a job site. Only for an historian is San Luis Obispo replete with “ghosts” of the
municipal past roaming the highways and byways of the community.
Given the resources available to capture the time before anyone’s memory, “the” history will never
be possible. But hopefully, this history will provide a valid impression of some of the currents
flowing through the municipal saga.
A key source of information, newspapers provide printed clues as to the interests and events
of any era. Just what was of interest to our civic ancestors? The county’s first newspaper – The
San Luis Obispo Pioneer – billed itself as an independent reporter of the news. Edited by Rome
G. Vickers, at $5 a year, the four page, six column weekly newspaper needed readers and ads
to survive. Expenses for Vickers included subscriptions to other newspapers as much of the
Pioneer’s news was “old news”.
Almost a century since the first bell rang and Junipero Serra proclaimed the establishment of
the fifth mission in what he termed the “ladder” of spiritual centers, the now “progressive” civic
community had a municipal voice in the Pioneer. With the first issue on January 4, 1868, owner/
editor/reporter Vickers provided a mirror reflecting local interests and news. Fortunate for us, the
paper is available on microfilm at the library but requires excellent vision to read.
First, Vickers wanted to assure his readers that the Pioneer was not a partisan publication and
was “devoted mainly to the interests and advancement of San Luis Obispo County.” Having
recently emerged from the national nightmare of the Civil War, the Nation had not recovered from
the devastation of the terrible conflict. As with all politics, views ranged and raged across the
landscape. The Pioneer promised to stay above the fray. There was national and international
news with plenty of space devoted to advertisements to defray printing costs, including some
wildly extravagant medicinal claims. News of the small community and County seat is sparse.
Seemingly, there was no need for much local fare as neighbors simply passed on any item of
interest. After all, the population probably wasn’t more than a thousand residents.
If you'd like to read selected transcribed articles from the first year of the Pioneer in 1868, please
let me know & I will send them to you. Also available are the full first year of the “History of San
Luis Obispo” articles from the SLOWhat. They have been revised from the original articles.
Contact: jacarotenuti@gmail.com
History of San Luis Obispo By: Joseph A. Carotenuti
City Historian/Archivist, Admin Volunteer