05-04-2025
Soar over SLO County in aerial photos of coast from more than 40 years ago
Sometimes I don't find the negative I'm looking for but run across something too good to put away before scanning.
In February 1984, reporter Brooks Townes took a flight over the coast from Morro Bay to Port San Luis.
Townes primarily covered Morro Bay and he took a series of photos of the coast that now 41 years later have historical interest.
The Morro Bay photos show a power plant still owned by PG&E and with a large tank farm adjacent to the power plant.
Though the plant had the ability to run on fuel oil, natural gas was found to be more efficient and cleaner burning and was the fuel most often used.
In another view looking south along the coast there is a big undeveloped section of the coastline.
The Cloister's property had been the location of the Morro Beach Inn, built by Atascadero developer E.G. Lewis in 1925-27.
The Great Depression brought legal and tax trouble to Lewis but the once-luxury hotel stayed open until World War II.
It can be seen in the 1938 San Luis Obispo County Chamber of Commerce film, 'Recreation Unlimited.'.
During the war it was regularly captured by the Army, Navy and Marines during invasion training exercises at Morro Bay.
The building was later scavenged for materials and finally burned down.
The property remained undeveloped until the late 1990s.
Another photo shows the harbor mouth of Morro Bay with waves breaking on a sand bar inside the jeties.
A year earlier, in February 1983, the 44-foot whale watching boat, San Mateo, was flipped in the harbor mouth, putting 23 school children and their adult caretakers in mortal peril. None were wearing life jackets.
Heroic efforts by the Morro Bay Harbor Patrol and others saved lives.
Two deaths were attributed to the incident, both adults, including the captain of the San Mateo. The harbor mouth was once called by The Tribune, 'death's doormat.'
The harbor has had regularly scheduled dredging now as part of the federal budget since the harbor was designed by the federal government. They efforts reduce the hazard of what can be one of the roughest harbors on the West Coast.
Townes also took pictures of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
PG&E had received a license to operate both units that year after 14 years of construction, reconstruction, hearings, lawsuits and protests.
Unit 1 would begin operations on May 7, 1985, so the frothing water in Diablo Cove must be from testing as operations ramped up.
The administration complex, warehouse and extended training facilities had not yet been built and perhaps power plant historians have other observations to share.
Two images show Los Osos with Sea Pines Golf Resort and eucalyptus groves squared off where development has pushed up to the edges.
Los Osos Valley Road makes a turn and continues as Pecho Valley Road on the way to Montana de Oro State Park. Monarch Grove Elementary School has not been built yet.
The last frame shows Port San Luis and Harford Pier.
The pier was built in 1869 and became the terminus of the Pacific Coast Railway. The narrow gauge railroad would connect steam ships at the port to San Luis Obispo in 1876 and later beyond to Los Olivos.
Whaler's Island is at the top of the frame, a part of the breakwater.
Whaling operations began at the port in 1868 according to a column by Mark Hall-Patton.
The island used to be a center for whalers at Port San Luis, as did San Simeon which began whale hunting in 1864.
After a visit to Port San Luis, the Jan. 21, 1887 weekly San Luis Obispo Tribune said the smell of rotting whale blubber filled the air with the 'rankest compound of villainous smells that ever offended human nostrils.'
Whale oil, before it was replaced by petroleum, was used for illumination and lubrication. Hall-Patton said whale oil was an ingredient in typewriter oils as late as the 1920s.
