ReCreate Los OsosHistory of Los Osos
The History of Los Osos
Los Osos, physically a gem, is located at the end of a long beautiful valley that has its terminus and the Morro Bay estuary and bounded by miles of sand dunes shielding the community from the Pacific Ocean. This stunning environment has also been the setting of much conflict for over 200 years.
When explored by Gaspar de Portola in 1769 it was home to a peaceful Chumash community, who lived in balance with the setting as hunter-gatherers of the Pacific bounty. Also populating the area was a robust population of grizzly bears. The Chumash were quickly ousted by the Spanish troops and the grizzly bears were killed to feed the San Luis Obispo mission a dozen miles inland, which blossomed into a town.
Meanwhile Los Osos – the town site and the valley- (named thusly in 1882 after the murdered bears) mostly snoozed for the next 100 years. The valley was home to several farms and dairy operations, and still is, but it was not until 1919 that a real estate entrepreneur named Walter Redfield bought acreage of seemingly useless sagebrush land and launched a real estate venture that took another 50 years to get some traction, and ultimately led to what is now the community of Los Osos.
Since the conquistadors left and the mission shut down, the promise of Los Osos having a viable civic and government structure has gone aglimmering, albeit punctuated by intermittent bouts of long and sometimes heated discussions with County government and various regulatory agencies. Yet within the community, since everyone tends to know many of their neighbors, there has also been discussion on top of discussion focused on how we can all make our town a better place to live. That is one of the great strengths that ReCreate Los Osos intends to leverage in its program activities.