Once upon a time in the West, Paso Robles was a sleepy little railroad town in central California midway on the Southern Pacific between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Freight cars rumbled through, and twice a day the spectacular orange, black, and silver steam locomotives known as the Coast Daylight would pull into the depot—one heading north, the other heading south.
In those early days, health-conscious tourists would arrive anxious to “take the waters” piped in from natural hot springs. Then the construction of U.S. Highway 101 signaled the arrival of the automobile and with it the auto court.
