The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-05-24
By Rail and Stage From San
Luis to Lompoc and Santa
Barbara.
THROUGH GAvI0TA PASS.
A Country of Magnificent Undeveloped
Resources Anxiously Waiting the
Ginning Railroad.

SANTA BARBARA, CAL, Nav %
Our California, pulsing with hope and
energy, moves forward so steadily from
victory to victory that we sometimes for
get to note how fast a beautiful and nm
trammeled past is disappearing, and for.
ever. The great estates, or ranches, with
all that they typify, are being fenced.
divided, modernized. The railroad is
gathering up links long neglected and
welding them together. The days of the
stage coach are nearly ended. When the
Coast Railroad is finished to Santa Bar
bara we may we'll mIngle with our cup of
rejoicing drop of regret for that upon
which Ichabod is already written-the age
of the pioneer. Let Us, then, take little
journey together, dear reader. Perchance
we shall see somewhat OF that which we
shall have lost when the last spike is
hammered home.
South by rail from San Francisco on the
Coast division brings one, after nine hours
of travel, to San Luis Obispo, in the midst
| of pointed, Handicapped peaks. Here the
old route ends; here progress has already
won mastery. Beyond San Luis Obispo
lies a region as yet comparatively unknown
to the summer tourist. One can go to
Santa Barbara by two routes from San
Luis 0bispo-by the narrow-gauge and bv
stage, or by the broad-gauge to Viaduct,
the present terminus, beyond Someo.
thence by stage to Lompoc and beyond.
The former route at present gives less
staging-about forty-five miles-while the
latter requires twelve miles of staging 10
Lompoc and slxty-tive miles beyond 10
Santa Barbara, seventy-seven miles in all.
Both routes are extremely interesting. but
the longer one was selected, as il lies more
nearly along the projected route of the
railroad. 1t will shorten steadily. and as
soon as the terminus moves south of the
crossing OF the Lompoc River staging by
this route will reach its picturesque prime.
! That stretch OF weary sand dunes over
which horses can hardly drag a stage now
constitutes the worst part OF the whole
journey.
South of San Luis Obispo. in the last
hours of the afternoon, the land CLEANS
and CLOVIS with beauty. One sees half
abandoned orchards sown to grain and
well-kept orchards sloping up the hiu.
Old tarmhouses nestle in the hollows; new
villages are springing into life. One no.
tees the nearly universal use of Monterey
cypress for hedges and wind. breaks. az
around the new station of Edna, for in
stance. There are very few eucalvpti
here, but the cypress walls extend for
miles, blocking out whole quarter-sec-
tons. A lovely winding valley opens up
Price Canyon the railroad men call it.
The broadgauge crosses the narrow-gauge
track here. High, wonderful to see, a
mass OF dark bituminous rock rises like a
huge Gibraltar prom ontory. Below it,
without unduly straining ones magma
ton, you observe huge lions massive
head, nature-hewn in living rock.
Around, for miles, are scattered asphalt
tum springs and mines of asphaltum. In
warm, sheltered hooks, which seem abso-
iutely frostless, are fields of corn and
beans. Small oak groves, but not so fire
as those farther south. appear on either
hand.
Next come narrower canyons, and slop-