Salinas Dam

Santa Margarita Lake, also called Salinas Reservoir, is a lake several miles southeast of the town of Santa Margarita in San Luis Obispo County, California. The lake was created by the building of Salinas Dam on the southern end of the Salinas River, very close to the river's origin in the Santa Lucia Range. The dam was built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1941 to provide water for Camp San Luis Obispo. It now provides the city of San Luis Obispo with a portion of its drinking water. The city also uses water from Lake Nacimiento and water from Whale Rock Reservoir in Cayucos. The lake is relatively small, with a capacity of 23,843 acre-feet (29,410,000 m3). Since it is a municipal water source, human contact is prohibited. Boating, fishing and rowing are popular activities on the lake and there are camping sites on the shore. The lake is home to the San Luis Obispo Rowing Club. The lake is home to largemouth bass, catfish, carp, and various sunfish. There are dirt roads that provide access to almost the entire perimeter of the lake. There is a 15-mile per hour (24 km/h) speed limit, as the roads are bumpy and vehicles kick up a lot of dust, even at slow speeds. In addition, many visitors park on the side of the road to fish. The default speed limit on the lake itself is 5 miles per hour (8 km/h), but boats can travel up to 30 miles (48 km/h) per hour in certain areas, depending on conditions. There is a proposal to raise the dam by 19 feet (8 m) with the addition of a spillway gate, which was part of the original design. The loss of trees from the additional capacity has been a major concern. In the area to be flooded there are 1,639 coast live oaks, 633 blue oaks, 198 valley oaks and 469 gray pines. The loss of oak trees is of ecological concern, since oak trees in the area are already contending with sudden oak death.

San Luis Obispo County ( ), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo.Junípero Serra founded the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa in 1772, and San Luis Obispo grew around it. The small size of the county's communities, scattered along the beaches, coastal hills, and mountains of the Santa Lucia range, provides a wide variety of coastal and inland hill ecologies to support fishing, agriculture, and tourist activities. California Polytechnic State University has almost 20,000 students. Tourism, especially for the wineries, is popular. Grapes and other agriculture products are an important part of the economy. San Luis Obispo County is the third largest producer of wine in California, surpassed only by Sonoma and Napa counties. Strawberries are the largest agricultural crop in the county.The town of San Simeon is located at the foot of the ridge where newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst built Hearst Castle. Other coastal towns (listed from north to south) include Cambria, Cayucos, Morro Bay, and Los Osos -Baywood Park. These cities and villages are located northwest of the city of San Luis Obispo. To the south are Avila Beach and the Five Cities region. The Five Cities originally were: Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach (then known as Grover City), Oceano, Fair Oaks and Halcyon. Today, the Five Cities region consists of Pismo Beach, Grover Beach, Arroyo Grande, Oceano, and Halcyon (basically the area from Pismo Beach to Oceano). Just south of the Five Cities, San Luis Obispo County borders northern Santa Barbara County. Inland, the cities of Paso Robles, Templeton, and Atascadero lie along the Salinas River, near the Paso Robles wine region. San Luis Obispo lies south of Atascadero and north of the Five Cities region.

Rancho Santa Margarita was a 17,735-acre (71.77 km2) Mexican land grant in the Santa Lucia Mountains, in present day San Luis Obispo County, central California. The rancho was granted by Governor pro tem Manuel Jimeno Casarin in 1841 to Joaquín Estrada. The grant encompassed present day Santa Margarita. It remains an active ranch.

The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) is a California 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, incorporated in 1982, which owns all the copyrights of the estate of L. Ron Hubbard and licenses their use. CST does business as L. Ron Hubbard Library. The Church of Spiritual Technology points to Hubbard as the “focal point,” with the structure designed to realize what Scientologists understand to be his vision. The stated purpose of the archive in CST, according to the church is “so that future generations will have available to them all of L. Ron Hubbard’s technology in its exact and original form, no matter what happens to the society.”

Santa Margarita (Spanish for "St. Margaret") is a town and census-designated place located in San Luis Obispo County, California. It was founded in 1889 near Cuesta Peak and San Luis Obispo along State Route 58. The town's name comes from the Mexican Alta California land grant of Rancho Santa Margarita. It is home to the Santa Margarita de Cortona Asistencia site. The population was 1,259 at the 2010 census.

The Cuesta fire was a wildfire that started on 16 August 2015 near U.S. Route 101 and the Cuesta Grade, in the Santa Lucia Range just north of San Luis Obispo in San Luis Obispo County, California. The fire was contained on 28 August, and had burned 2,446 acres, some within the Los Padres National Forest.

The Santa Margarita de Cortona Asistencia was established in 1787 as an asistencia ("sub-mission") to Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, then in the Spanish Las Californias Province. Its site is near the present day city of Santa Margarita, in San Luis Obispo County, central California.

The Pacific Coast Railroad is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge tourist railroad located at the Santa Margarita Ranch in Santa Margarita, California. Established in 2000 and completed in 2004 by San Luis Obispo entrepreneur Rob Rossi, the railroad sees only limited public operation. Phase 1 consisted of a 1.5 mi (2.4 km) loop around the most historic part of the ranch. The railroad currently operates three steam locomotives built between 1897 and 1968, and four of the original Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad Retlaw 1 passenger cars. One of the locomotives, the No. 2 Roger Linn, was used in the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman TV show. Other equipment includes an ex-International Railways of Central America caboose, business car Cuscatlan, and several ex-Denver & Rio Grande freight cars.

Cuesta Pass or La Cuesta Pass (Spanish for "the slope") is a low mountain pass in San Luis Obispo County on California's Central Coast. It crosses the southern Santa Lucia Range at an altitude of 1,522 feet (464 m), and connects San Luis Obispo, roughly 5 miles (8.0 km) to the south, with Atascadero, Paso Robles, and the Salinas Valley to the north. It is traversed by U.S. Route 101 and the Coast Line of the Union Pacific Railroad, and is better known for the long slope up to the pass from San Luis Obispo, in the canyon of San Luis Obispo Creek, which is redundantly named the "Cuesta Grade".The railroad line through the pass includes a segment with a 2.2% grade, the steepest point of the coast line between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It traverses six tunnels, including one at an altitude of 1,380 feet (420 m) bypassing the summit of the pass.

Pozo (Spanish for "Well") is an unincorporated community along the former Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route, in San Luis Obispo County, California. The closest communities appearing on road maps are California Valley and Santa Margarita. A USGS-provided set of coordinates for the town are on the Santa Margarita Lake 7.5-minute quadrangle.Pozo was named by George Washington Lingo, Esq., "a well known citizen" who proposed the name for the post office because the village is in a holelike valley—pozo means "well" or "hole" in Spanish.Pozo is home to the still thriving Pozo Saloon, established in 1858. During its early years, the Pozo Saloon was the primary watering hole for weary travelers making their way over Pozo Summit. Today it is a well-known live music venue, hosting internationally-known acts including Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and G Love and Special Sauce.The ZIP Code is 93453. The community is inside area code 805.

Tunnel Number 6, or the Summit Tunnel, is a railway tunnel between Santa Margarita, California and San Luis Obispo, California. It is the longest tunnel along the Union Pacific Railroad Coast Line at 3,610 feet (1.10 km) in length and is wide enough to carry a single track. The tunnel under the Cuesta Pass represents the highest point along the line at 1,323 feet (403 m) above sea level.The tunnel was constructed between 1893 and 1894 by the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was enlarged between 1940 and 1959. One daily passenger train, the Coast Starlight, operates through the tunnel.

Garden Farms is a census-designated place in San Luis Obispo County, California. Garden Farms sits at an elevation of 955 feet (291 m). The 2010 United States census reported Garden Farms's population was 386. Garden Farms is a subdivision located between Santa Margarita and Atascadero, California.