Point San Luis | The Lighthouse that George Built

MAKING THE GRADE

History of the Cuesta Pass

BY CAMILLE DEVAUL AND THE PASO ROBLES AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM

over the Cuesta, eight miles from San Luis Obispo.

However, the new road came with new challenges plaguing travelers. Horse teams disappeared at full speed down the slope, turning over wagons. And with Wells Fargo Express boxes being transported on the route, the Cuesta Pass became a hunting ground for stage robbers. Passengers were encouraged to leave their valuables at home.

Then the world entered the 20th century, and a new era brought new challenges. As “horseless carriages” became more popular, it became clear a new road was needed over the Cuesta Grade.

For well over 100 years, the Cuesta Pass has been a vital route linking the Northern and Southern regions of San Luis Obispo County. We know it now as the Cuesta Grade, just a section of one of the busiest highways in California. But, what many don’t know is the valley of the Cuesta Grade holds at least two other roads once used by travelers long ago.

Climbing through the center of the valley was the Old Cuesta Road. Being one of the earliest roads, it was a broad trail used by hundreds of horses, pack animals, and cattle being driven north to supply the gold-mining regions. In 1912, Cuesta Road became part of the California State Highway System. Two years later, the California State Highway Division switched Cuesta Road from the western side of the canyon to the eastern slope. By 1915, a two-lane concrete surface roadway winded up the grade.

This new section of Highway #2 was the pride of the county. In 1922, a contract was awarded for paving, reshaping the road’s surface and curves. The new concrete 20-foot wide road had two lanes with reinforced concrete curbs. There was no shoulder or divider stripe but was regarded as “a fine example of mountain highway construction,” according to a 1924 issue of California Highways Magazine.

Due to the rougher terrain on the Cuesta, many early travelers avoided this route and used flatter, more established routes through the Central Valley. Yet, a horse stage wagon did make the weekly ascent up the Cuesta to carry mail between San Luis Obispo and Monterey. Passengers in this wagon would often have to assist the stage by pushing it up the steep slope or by holding its sides to keep it from overturning on hillsides. In rainy weather, passengers would help the driver by digging the wagon out of the mud. Coaches often flipped over on the precarious turns of the road, spilling passengers, baggage, and freight.

In 1872, a Cuesta toll road was proposed, and by 1876 “The Stagecoach Road” was born. Bonds of $20,000 were issued to construct a wagon and stagecoach road up the canyon to replace the center crossing, which was proving to be too steep and dangerous. The new road was built along the wooded west side of the canyon and was expected to be safer than the east side.

Contractors J. Lemon and W. Wing were hired to build a 15-foot wide road for $11,100. Once the new road was completed, a buggy ride to the top of the Cuesta Pass became a doable day’s outing. In 1877 the Bean Brothers built a two-story hotel, the Eight Mile House,

By 1928, the Cuesta Grade became part of the federal intrastate road system and received its new number, 101.

Despite adding a fine coat of cement, the Cuesta Grade was again determined a hazard by the 1930s. Automobiles were going faster, and drivers were attempting to pass slower-moving traffic on dangerous curves. In 1936, one particular curve just north of the SLO city limits was the site of a collision between a truck and a northbound Greyhound bus. Three people were killed, and 27 were injured.

Trucks were hauling products by 1938 and had replaced freight wagons. Greyhound buses replaced the wooden stages. The increase in traffic led to doubling traffic lanes to four at the cost of $1,050.

The newly improved Cuesta Road was celebrated with banquets, speeches, and finally, a ribbon-cutting ceremony. It was stated by District Engineer Lester Gibson that “modern engineering has at last conquered the Cuesta. The last traffic bottleneck has been eliminated from the main highway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.”

The El Paso de Robles Area Historical Society and Museum are honored to be located in the historic Carnegie Library at the center of City Park. To learn more, visit pasorobleshistorymuseum.org. 

POINT SAN LUIS The [Light] House

that George Built

BY KATHY MASTAKO

We do not know who designed the Point San Luis Lighthouse. Nor do we know very much about the man who built it. What we do know, though, is that its construction was a messy business.

A Santa Barbara man, George W. Kenney, won the job with a low-ball bid. But the project, due for a December 1889 finish, dragged on until the following May. The weather was bad, the builder complained, and the man sent by the 12th district lighthouse engineer to inspect the work was an impediment. Kenney pleaded repeatedly for the government to rescind enforcement of its penalty for late completion, as did his daughter long after his death.

What Kenney had in mind when he bid the job is not hard to fathom. No doubt, he thought landing a government contract would be a lucrative business. However, he had no experience building lighthouses. And there is no evidence he ever built anything else.

In June 1889, W. H. Heuer, the 12th district engineer, published this advertisement:

Proposals will be received at this office until noon on Monday, the 15th day of July, for furnishing all the materials and labor necessary for the construction of a tower and keeper’s dwelling, a double keepers’ dwelling, fog-signal house, oil house, coal shed, three cisterns, two privies, and draining, grading, etc., the grounds of the Light-Station at Point San Luis, California.

When the bids were opened, the lowest by far — at $18,893 — was Kenney’s. He was awarded the contract.

What Kenney may not have taken seriously enough, however, was one particular contract clause:

The work must be completed and delivered at the dates named in the specifications, and for each and every day’s delay in completing and delivering the work beyond such dates, the sum of $25 per day will be forfeited, the forfeiture to be enforced at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, and it is understood that the time of completion of the contract must be especially observed, and is to be considered as part of the essence of the contract, and that the penalty for failure will be strictly enforced.

The completion date was set for December 15, 1889.

Another contract clause stipulated that the work would be under the “personal supervision of an agent of the Light-House Establishment.”

These two contract clauses would come to haunt Kenney and, along with Mother Nature and his own underestimation of the cost of the work, prove to be his undoing.

Having secured the contract, Kenney set about hiring workmen and buying materials. For a time, construction seemed to be moving right along. In October 1889, a local paper reported:

Mr. Kenney, the contractor for building the Point San Luis Lighthouse, was in town yesterday. The foundations of the buildings are well underway, and the work is progressing favorably.

However well the work started out, by December 1889, the local press was reporting construction issues. A series of severe rainstorms slowed down progress, finally causing a layoff of the work crew and a temporary halt to the project. It will come as no surprise that Kenney wasn’t finished when the due date came and went. On December 30, 1889, Heuer wrote to the Lighthouse Board about the delay in the contract’s completion, recommending, in spite of Kenney’s protests, that the $25 per day penalty be enforced.

Fortunately, by late January 1890, work had started up again, at least temporarily. A local paper reported:

…we hear that the lighthouse building, by vigorous exertions, had all been closed in, and the windows all put in before the storm had reached its height so that work can now proceed without regard to the weather. There are fourteen men at work on the interior, and it is reported that the contract will be completed and ready to turn over to the government in about three weeks. The government inspector seems to have occasioned a great deal of unnecessary trouble and delay, and the season has been anything but a favorable one for the rapid prosecution of the work.

1890 photo of Point San Luis light station under construction. Double keepers’ dwelling at right, fog signal building at left, Keeper’s dwelling and tower in back. Courtesy of the National Archives.

The government inspector the paper referred to was George W. Bolan, one of three construction superintendents employed in the 12th district office. Heuer assigned Bolan to oversee Kenney’s work.

1894 photo of the living quarters Kenney built for the use of George Bolan, the construction superintendent sent by the government to oversee Kenney’s work. Photo by Herbert Bamber. Courtesy of the National Archives.

In late April 1890, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reported:

At last the construction of the lighthouse for the government may be considered practically completed. It is to be turned over to Uncle Sam on the 10th of next month…The lighthouse contract has been a disastrous business…It was taken several thousand dollars too low, has been unfortunate in management and in other ways.

Finally, on May 14, 1890, the contract was completed.

A July 1890 letter from the Lighthouse Board to the Treasury Secretary sets down the government’s version of what caused the delay:

…the contract entered into July 27, ‘89 by Mr. Geo. W. Kenney, of Santa Barbara, Cal., with the Engineer of the 12th Light-House District Continued on page 18