Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month – Ah Louis, Builder of Transportation Infrastructure

On Wong, who is better known today by his nickname Ah Louis (pronounced Ah-Lou-ee), was born in China in 1840. Sometime between 1856 and 1861, Ah Louis left China for California to seek his fortune. His efforts to mine for gold were unsuccessful, so he instead started working for several years as a laborer at various points along the west coast of the United States. It was during this period of his life that he was most likely given his now-famous nickname by an Oregon storekeeper with whom he was acquainted.

In 1870, Ah Louis ended up settling in the city of San Luis Obispo in southern California’s San Luis Obispo County. He subsequently worked for a few years as a cook at a local hotel. In 1874, he opened a store in the city of San Luis Obispo that catered to the needs of the steadily growing Chinese American community in the region.  (Originally a wooden structure, this store was replaced by a brick building in 1885; that still-intact version of the Ah Louis Store has been designated a California State Historical Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.) Ah Louis quickly established himself as one of the more prosperous and prominent merchants in San Luis Obispo’s Chinatown neighborhood.

Ah Louis also assumed a major role in the development of southern California’s transportation infrastructure. One of his accomplishments in this regard involved building a horse-powered tramway to transport passengers and freight between the town of Port Harford (no longer in existence) and a wagon road at the community of Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County.

Ah Louis was likewise instrumental in the construction of the steam-powered Pacific Coast Railway in that county. The Pacific Coast Railway was originally a 10-mile (16-kilometer) link between Port Harford and the city of San Luis Obispo, and Ah Louis organized work crews of Chinese American men to help build that segment. At one point, he even arranged to have 160 of those workers transported via a schooner from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo County.

In 1877, Ah Louis was awarded contracts for the construction of two roads in the county. The first of these roads connected the town (now city) of Paso Robles with the village of Cambria, and it constitutes the westernmost section of present-day California State Route 46. The other road was the initial part of a route between San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles; a still-drivable portion of that route is known today as Old Stagecoach Road.

Starting in the mid-1880s, Ah Louis organized Chinese American work crews to help build the stretch of the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Coast Line running through San Luis Obispo County. For that part of the project, the most daunting challenge faced by workers was digging a total of eight tunnels through the county’s section of the rugged Santa Lucia Mountains range.

Other than an extended stay in his native China during the early 1930s, Ah Louis continued to reside in San Luis Obispo throughout the remainder of his long life. He died in that city in 1936.

For more information on Ah Louis, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ah_Louis