PASO DE ROBLES
Paso de Robles (pass of the oaks), known far and wide for its hot sulphur springs, where the sick of many lands find surcease from their pain, is situated twenty-nine miles north of San Luís Obispo. It was named for the reason indicated by Father Crespi, who says: “....in a valley in the hollow of the Santa Lucía Mountains, called Los Robles, for the great abundance of these trees with which it is populated.”
It should be explained that the roble is not the evergreen, or live-oak, which is called encino. At Leland Stanford Jr. University the names of these two species of oaks have been rather poetically used for the students’ dormitories,—Encina Hall for the men, and Roble Hall for the women.
MISSION OF SAN MIGUEL, FOUNDED IN 1797.
“It once had its work-shops and little factories where good padres taught the Indians useful arts.”