Page 52 - LLR-Exploration II

Monterey County’s David Jacks had begun marketing
the mission-era semi-hard cheese that is now
associated with his name during the Gold Rush. The
Steele brothers began making this cheese in their
Marin and San Mateo County operations. With the rich
pasture to the south of San Luis Obispo, they were truly
the “cheese kings” of California.

By 1887, the San Luis Obispo Board of Trade boasted
that the county had surpassed even Marin County as
the “banner cow country” of California.

Their success caused members of the Villavicencio
family to consult attorneys in San Francisco. The Corral
de Piedra proved to be something less than a bargain.
The Villas claimed that a signature in the title to the 30,911-acre rancho was defective. The Steeles
became involved in years of costly litigation over the matter. The issue went all the way to the Supreme
Court in 1870. As a resulting of the ruling in Villa v. Rodríguez, the Steeles had to pay a $150,000
judgment — nearly three times the amount that they had originally paid for all four ranches.

With legal and court fees, the Steeles had to spend nearly a quarter of a million dollars during the
economic bust of the early 1870s. It momentarily destroyed their reputations and nearly ruined them.

But their success started the dairy boom in our region on the very lands that had been ruined by drought
just a few years earlier.

Soon dozens of dairy farms stretched between Point Sal southwest of Santa Maria and Point Piedras
Blancas north of Cambria. The necessity of shipping cheese and butter caused wharves and lighthouses
to be built and drew the attention of the railroad builders.

“Cow Heaven” marked the beginning of a modern San Luis Obispo.