Cold Spring Tavern~

Jul17

In 1860 a stagecoach pass was hacked through the California wilderness over the mountainous San Marcos Pass to connect Mission Santa Barbara to The Santa Ynez Rancho.

A rest stop was built along the stage coach route high up on The San Marcos Pass, next to a naturally running cold mountain spring.

This stage-stop was, and is still called, Cold Spring Tavern.

Back in the day the tavern served hot meals and alcohol.

It still serves both today, and the experience of eating here is one we return to enjoy whenever we pass by this area.

There was a bunkhouse,

a small store, a stable, and several small homesteads, forming a town called Gopherville, which is now a ghost town.

The town even had a jail which could hold up to eleven (crowded) souls…. rowdy cowboys and such, who likely drank too much whiskey…..

Cheers to you from Cold Springs Tavern & the still wild west~

191 thoughts on “Cold Spring Tavern~”

    • Charles. Thank you for this. I appreciate the ‘pick me up’. We are in the desert now. We were visiting our new twin grandbabies in NorCal when a faulty shut off gauge in our main water control valve malfunctioned and flooded The Holler with an endless stream of nice cold drinking water, which we found when we walked in the door on return. The Holler is now essentially organized disaster, as teams work on it, and no one can live in it. We left to the desert which I have always loved in the summer, with it’s 112+ degree heat. There are few people here, but mountain goats, roadrunners, deafening cicadas, lizard, bugs, night time bats, and other wild friends. And don’t worry about us. This is only a slightly bad thing to happen to someone in the scheme of our lives. Thank you Charles for being such a good person and friend to so many of us.

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  10. This place is so interesting via your lens, Cindy. So sorry to hear about your flooded house. How painful to see professional journals and other things got ruined…Hope cleaning and repairs are going smoothly.

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  17. Amazing, Cindy! Feeling like home. This is saving traditions. I just saw that you have a quote from Rene Descartes in the header. Did you know that Rene Descartes was a mercenary here in the Bohemian area during the Thirty Years’ War? I think it probably shocked him so much that he made that statement. Lol Best wishes, Michael

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    • Thank you for such interesting information. I knew he enlisted in his early twenties, and after an onerous battle, had a “night of visions,” where he came up with his core philosophy which really implies, “I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am”
      I imagine the war he witnessed may have contributed to his connection of doubt with thinking, and both with identity and existence. He is a fascinating person. I love the idea that doubt and thought are the core of our existence. Thank you for adding to my knowledge Michael.

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  19. What a fabulous spot, Cindy. I was surprised when you wrote that they are still serving meals, judging from the outside of the tavern, but they are being true to the historical feel of the place!

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