Welcome to Los Alamos Valley, California
Visit Los Alamos for a taste of our laidback lifestyle amidst the agricultural farmland and hills of oak trees in the heart of Santa Barbara Wine Country. Enjoy shopping for art and antiques, wine tasting and fine dining. Don't miss our annual Old Days Celebration every September.
About Los Alamos
Spanish for "the cottonwoods" which line the stream banks running through the valley, Los Alamos is located approximately fifty miles north of Santa Barbara beside Highway 101.
It was founded in 1876 by John Bell and James Shaw, both formerly of San Francisco, who had purchased adjoining 14,000 acre ranches from the area's original Mexican land grants. They jointly determined to build a town and allocated one-half square mile from each of their ranches for that purpose.
Los alamos became a stagecoach stop in 1876 and by 1882, it hosted a depot for the narrow-gauge Pacific Coast Railway that linked San Luis Obispo and Los Olivos. It is now the only surviving depot of the Pacific Coast Railway and Houses the Depot Mall.
By 1901, the Southern Pacific Railroad built a wider-gauge line that bypassed Los Alamos and the smaller railway couldn't compete. It finally shut down in 1938, and Los Alamos became "frozen in time", preserving much of yhe charm and atmosphere of a bygone era.
It is hardly possible to conceive the existence of a pleasanter location than the Los Alamos Valley, or one
combining more valuable resources with natural beauty. - John Bell's biographer, 1883
NEWS ARTICLES
Los Alamos Holds on to a Bygone Era
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Antique Allure
Monday, November 14, 2005
