posted 11-29-2005 09:36 PM            

The town of Las Cruces has been lost. It’s not even a ghost town, because there aren’t any “ghosts” of the buildings that were once there. The only remaining reference that there even was a town of any kind is a steel truss bridge that is practically hidden on the west side of Highway 101 as you travel south in the middle of Santa Barbara County.

Fortunately what did survive in the scrapbooks of the families of some of the service station owners and the archives of the State Highway Department were some images of what this small service town once looked like on the coast of California.

If you were traveling north on the coast highway leaving Santa Barbara in the 1930’s and 40’s you were headed into a vast open space of coastline and inland valleys all the way to San Francisco. Along this route at about 15 mile intervals you would encounter small service towns, and occasionally a town of some size like Santa Maria or Salinas.

Las Cruces was the first town you came to as you left the coastline and rounded into the Gaviota Pass, a narrow gap bordered by rock faces leading into the Santa Ynez Valley. It was situated at an Y intersection where the coast highway branched off to the west as Highway 1 to the town of Lompoc on the coast, or went straight on a winding path around the Nojoqui grade and eventually ending up in the somewhat bigger service town of Buellton about 15 miles to the north.

In the 1930’s as you traveled north on the coast highway and came to Las Cruces you first encountered the El Camino Garage.

After the El Camino Garage there was store, a restaurant, a Shell station and a row of visible gas pumps.

posted 11-29-2005 10:32 PM            

Good to see another story - I was looking forward to the next one... I really like that Grade Ahead sign on the Chevron station... I wonder what happened to everything - with the whole town gone, you'd think there was a fire or something...?

posted 11-29-2005 11:16 PM            

Back to Las Cruces and Gaviota
Las Cruces was a casualty of the ever expanding highway like many small service towns along the 101. The State Highway Department wanted to speed up traffic and avoid the slow downs involved with having to drive through a town along the way, especially every 15 miles. Modern vehicles did not require the frequency of servicing of the early automobiles.

To continue our journey though, we have to travel back to the 1920's and thirties when temperamental cars and small gas tanks required more frequent attention.

After crossing the rickety bridge at Gaviota most motorists were ready to stop in Las Cruces, at least to visit the restrooms. After 1931 the steel truss bridge at Gaviota was replaced with a concrete one that at least allowed two way traffic. The old bridge was moved to Las Cruces to replace a wooden one the crossed into the other side of town to the west of the highway as it became Highway 1.

Here is what the Gaviota bridge looked like before the concrete bridge.

Here is the concrete bridge that replaced it in 1931. The famous indian head rock still guarded the entrance to the bridge.

And here is the old wood bridge at Las Cruces that would be replaced by the Gaviota steel bridge.

The other side of the highway in Las Cruces consisted of a tavern and store. At one time there was also a brothel to service the needs of the cowboys driving cattle to the Gaviota pier from ranches to the north and the roughnecks from the oil wells along the beaches to the south. Shell, Associated, Seaside, Barnsdall Rio Grande and many other producers had drilling operations dotting the coastline from Gaviota all the way to the Seaside Company headquarters in Summerland some 30-40 miles to the south.

Still more to come...

posted 11-30-2005 11:35 AM            

Yes you can still drive across the steel bridge. To get there you have to take the exit off of Highway 101 to Highway 1 toward Lompoc. Just as you head toward Lompoc you make a left turn which takes you back in front of the Vista de Las Cruces school. This road dead ends at the old bridge.

To get to the other side of Las Cruces you go the other way off of the 101 exit which is just a quick access road along the freeway. There is nothing left but a trail to the mineral hot springs that is behind where the old garage use to sit.

posted 11-30-2005 08:22 PM            

The town of Buellton had every major and quite a few minor west coast brands that we all covet as collectors. Fortunately for me the pictures are a lot cheaper than the signs.

posted 11-30-2005 09:38 PM            

This is what the turnoff of Highway 101 looked like before today's modern freeway. This view is looking north on the 101 and the town is to the west where you would turn off to go on Highway 1 to Lompoc. The bridge in the picture above is just out of view to the left.

On the east side of the freeway was the garage, store and service stations. In this view you are looking south at it.