Cambria, California

Indigenous history

Ancestors of today's Chumash and Salinan peoples lived along the Cambria–San Simeon coast for thousands of years. They used resources from both the shore and inland valleys, including fish, shellfish, game, and seeds, and traded for materials unavailable locally.^[7] The Northern Chumash place name associated with Cambria is tsɨtkawayu, meaning "place of the horses". Cal Poly used the name for a residence hall in its yakʔitʸutʸu complex, whose naming recognizes Northern Chumash places on the Central Coast.^[9]

The coast around Cambria lies in a region where researchers have placed the transition between Northern Chumash and Salinan languages and cultures. Archaeological and ethnographic evidence does not establish a single fixed boundary; proposed boundaries differ, and researchers have suggested that they shifted over time.^[10]

Spanish colonization and the establishment of missions changed Indigenous subsistence and land use. Mission livestock damaged some native plant communities along this part of the coast.^[7] The yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe continues cultural education, language development, and work to recover and steward ancestral lands in the region.^[11]

Settlement and industry

The Portolá expedition camped beside Santa Rosa Creek in 1769, near the later site of Coast Union High School. During the mission period, the Cambria area was used for grazing. In 1841, Governor Juan Alvarado granted Rancho Santa Rosa, which included Cambria, to Julián Estrada.^[5]

The settlement developed during the 1860s. Its early lumber industry used local pine, and "Slabtown" became a nickname for the community.^[12] Erwin Gudde records that the names Santa Rosa and Rosaville were also suggested, the town having been built on Rancho Santa Rosa.^[13] The name Cambria was officially adopted in 1870.^[14] Gudde notes that the new name appears in a letter of November 18, 1870, and that the von Leicht–Craven map of 1874 still showed both Cambria and Santa Rosa.^[13] The Cambria Historical Society attributes the proposal to surveyor and school superintendent Peter Aloysius Forrester, whose family had come from Pennsylvania.^[15] A different account, published by Roland Dickison in the journal Names in 1968, attributes the name to a Welsh carpenter named Llewellyn, who used Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, on his shop sign.^[16]

Mercury mining in the surrounding mountains began in 1862. The Oceanic Mine, inland along Santa Rosa Creek, began operations in 1865 and expanded in 1875. Production stopped when prices fell in 1882, but the mine operated intermittently until 1958.^[17] Dairying became another local industry, with Swiss dairymen expanding production in the 1880s. Dairy products were shipped to San Francisco through San Simeon.^[12]

A fire on October 1, 1889, destroyed much of the business district and several houses. Residents began rebuilding soon afterward.^[18] In the 1920s, the Cambria Development Company acquired ranch land and sold residential lots beyond the existing village.^[12] Tracts subdivided in the surrounding hills during this period include Cambria Pines. The county records that many thousands of small lots, typically 25 by 70 feet, were platted, much of the area laid out with little regard for the natural features of the land.^[19]

On December 23, 1941, the Japanese submarine I-21 torpedoed the oil tanker Montebello off the coast. All 38 crew members survived. Cambria residents helped survivors ashore.^[20]

Chinese community

Chinese immigrants worked in the Cambria area's mercury mines and coastal fisheries during the nineteenth century. Seaweed and abalone harvesting supplied markets in California and China. Census records from 1870 and 1880 also record Chinese residents working as cooks, laundry workers, shepherds, and other laborers.^[21]

By 1886, a group of buildings near Santa Rosa Creek formed a gathering place known as the Chinese Center. It served people living along the surrounding coast as well as residents of Cambria, providing a place for social gatherings and Chinese New Year celebrations. The surviving building known as the Chinese Temple appears on an 1895 map but not an 1892 map. Historic-preservation research identifies it as a temple or association hall that probably served several community functions.^[21]

The community dispersed during the early twentieth century. Around 1925, the temple building became part of a private house. The land trust Greenspace acquired the property in 1999 and subsequently moved and restored the temple at its Creekside Reserve.^[22]