San Luis Obispo County
Location and origin
This town lies about 180mi/300km northwest of Los Angeles, at the junction of the U.S. 101 coast road and the CA 1. It is the site of the fifth mission station built by Father Serra. Serra thought that two volcanic hills nearby resembled a bishop's mitre, and
so he gave this otherwise unimportant mission the name of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (St Louis, Bishop of Toulouse).
Importance
Originally the town lived by dispatching products from surrounding ranches; gradually tourism and official bodies concerned with the town's development became more important. The California Polytechnic State University, which has about half as many students as San Luis Obispo has inhabitants, boasts important agricultural and scientific engineering faculties.
The first olive trees in North America are said to have been planted in the mission; two of the 200 year-old trees still exist.
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