bjgreen
By Betsy J. Green
An old-timer from Los Angeles visited Santa Barbara in July 1918 and told the local papers what our city had been like in the mid-1800s. He still recalled the debate about whether the coming of the railroad and steamboats would be a boon or a bane.
He remembered that folks in Santa Barbara were, “all torn up and aroused over the problem of permitting the Southern Pacific to build through the pueblo. … The stagecoach interests fought the advent of the locomotive … ‘Why, the tooting of locomotive whistles, clanging of bells, and the smoke, that awful smoke, will ruin our town,’ they shouted.” [The first train arrived here in 1887.]
My next Way Back When book — 1918 — will be available in local bookstores in November, and at Amazon.com. This will be the fifth book in my series of the history of Santa Barbara, one year at a time.
Learn more about me at my website:
Flicka, it’s not so much a question of travelling by stagecoach as not wanting other people to be able to get here easily. After we lost to the railroad, along comes the motor car and the town went bad. Sooner or later they’ll build flying machines and visitors will be dropping from the skies. People living here don’t need to travel, and we sure don’t need the touristas.