History

From rolling hills dotted with sagebrush, a piece of the South County was first claimed in 1867 as part of 8,838 acres secured under a U.S. land grant by Isaac J. Sparks, who named it El Pizmo Rancho. It was Sparks who first set out to develop the area, but when he sold half of the property 20 years later, it was D.W. Grover who took advantage of the California land rush and began in earnest to try to transform sagebrush into stagecoaches.

It was D.W. (as in Dwight William) Grover, legend goes, who first recognized the potential of the area that is now Grover Beach. On August 1, 1887, he filed plans at the San Luis Obispo County Court House and founded what would become the City of Grover City.

The 35-year old lumber man from Santa Cruz is said to have paid $22,982.20 in gold to John Michael Price, the founder of Pismo Beach. Mr. Grover thus founded The Town of Grover and he had a vision of a community which included a hotel and railroad station near the beach and promoted his town as "the place where the tide lands and the rails meet".

In the 1890's, Mr. Grover attempted to have a train station built in the Town of Grover, in order to attract tourists and investors. Unfortunately for the Town of Grover, Southern Pacific constructed the sought after station in nearby Oceano, an unincorporated town in San Luis Obispo County.