Los Alamos is a contempory destination with a relaxed atmosphere just minutes from Los Olivos, Buellton, Solvang and superb Central Coast wineries. With restaurants like Full of Life Flatbread and Cafe Quackenbush, Twin Oaks Restaurant and Charlie's Burger Shack, wine tasting at Bedford Thompson, Art viewing, Antiquing and gorgeous low traffic roads, Los Alamos will delight and inspire you.

Spanish for "the Cottonwoods" which line the stream banks running through the Valley, Los Alamos is located approximately fifty miles north of Santa Barbara beside Highway 101.

It was founded in 1876 by John Bell and James Shaw, both formerly of San Francisco, who had purchased adjoining 14,000 acre ranches from the area's original Mexican land grants. They jointly determined to build a town and allocated one-half square mile from each of their ranches for that purpose.

Los Alamos became a stagecoach stop in 1876 and by 1882, it hosted a depot for the narrow-gauge Pacific Coast Railway that linked San Luis Obispo and Los Olivos. It is now the only surviving depot of the Pacific Coast Railway and Houses the Depot Mall.

By 1901, the Southern Pacific Railroad built a wider-gauge line that bypassed Los Alamos and the smaller railway couldn't compete. It finally shut down in 1938, and Los Alamos became "frozen in time", preserving much of the charm and atmosphere of a bygone era.

"It is hardly possible to conceive the existence of a pleasanter location than the Los Alamos Valley, or one combining more valuable resources with natural beauty." - John Bell's biographer, 1883