Think driving the Cuesta Grade is intense now? Here’s what it was like to cross as a pioneer
The tragic Russian war on Ukraine and supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic have sent gas prices bouncing up and down over the last few years.
The price at the pump seems to have little relationship to the price of crude. Prices on the street are “up like a rocket and down like a feather” as one twitter user said.
Recently, some politicians have taken a populist stand to roll back gas tax rates without explaining where road funding will come from.
Maybe they need to start thinking about it.
If the future is a majority of electric cars on the road, there won’t be much revenue from gasoline taxes to pay for asphalt and concrete.
The biggest road hurdle the San Luis Obispo County has is the Cuesta Grade.
Chinese labor built what is now known as Stagecoach Road, on the western side of the canyon, below the later railroad cut in the late 1800s.
The dirt road is scenic, steep and full of turns.
The highway jumped to the other side of the canyon in 1915, and improved in 1923 as the automobile and state highway era took hold.
That road was a winding single lane each way with 71 curves that can still be seen in portions above and below the current road.
It was badly in need of an upgrade by the 1930s.
The $826,000 project included federal money and a bridge over the Southern Pacific railroad tracks on the north side.
On Nov. 4, 1938, the Telegram-Tribune published a special edition celebrating a major upgrade of the road.
The special edition included several stories related to roads and local history and included ads from major businesses celebrating the opening.
The paper tried to get the name “La Cuesta” to stick rather than the repetitive Cuesta Grade. They called the special section commemorating the project “La Cuesta.”
But it never entered the popular lexicon and it remains with Laguna Lake and Morro Rock in our repetition hall of fame.
This was one of the unbylined stories from the special section:
Pioneer resident describes early travel over the Grade
“Motorists speeding over the new La Cuesta highway can hardly realize the difficulties of early day travel over the Santa Lucias,” said Jeff L. Anderson, of the Anderson Hotel and pioneer resident of the county, in discussing the new four-lane traffic way.
“The original road was down the bottom of the canyon and my brother, James Edgar Anderson used to drive a team of eight horses, drawing two wagons coupled together over it, taking supplies to the Cholame and Shandon sections,” Mr. Anderson reminisced.
All Day — 8 Miles
“The first day out from San Luis Obispo ended at the Eight Mile House at the north foot of the grade, as it took all day to negotiate the eight miles over the steep and twisting wagon road. The place was known as Bean’s station and was the overnight trip for drivers going north.
“For a nooning place, the drivers stopped at the Waterfall Saloon, which was so called because big timbers had been thrown across the creek there and the saloon built over the stream at the south foot of the grade. The teamsters used to take their big wagons north and east with supplies and return with wood and grain as much of the eastern part of the county was given over to sheep raising, and San Luis Obispo was the supply point for practically all the county.
“The wool and wheat was taken to Port San Luis for shipment out by boat.”
Thought it was tops
“When the county finally built a road, now called the Old Grade, people though it was tops, and that there never would be anything better. For big freight wagons, the road did not cut down the time of crossing, but it had easier grades and was smoother then the old wagon trail, and it was highly approved by all who used it. Lighter vehicles and horsemen cut down the time in half on the road and that was speed in those days.
“I remember making the trip from Santa Margarita to San Luis Obispo in the rain in a spring wagon and four horses and that was a light outfit for the grade in those days. It took us all day, the mud was so thick.
“From Pozo and that country it was a two-day trip to come into San Luis Obispo for supplies with a load, but with a buckboard and a team it could be made in a day.”
No Bridge at River
“There was no bridge at the Salinas River crossing at Paso Robles, only a ford, where there was quicksand. When there had been heavy rains, stirring up the sand, the stage used to stop and the driver would get cowboys and the neighborhood to round up a bunch of cattle and drive them across the ford, to pack down the sand so the stage could get across without being mired down.
“San Luis Obispo has advanced with the transportation facilities over the Cuesta,“ Mr. Anderson concluded, “for when I first saw San Luis Obispo there was only one street, Monterey, and it extended only from the court house to the Mission. I used to gather blackberries where the Elks building now is (then at the corner of Morro and Marsh Streets) and hunted ducks in the lake that used to be where the Modern Laundry now operates on Broad Street.”
This story was originally published March 19, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
