General Information

Southern Pacific Milling Company

1. SP Milling had no relationship with the Southern Pacific Railroad. There was no direct connection based upon the corporate history this according to former employees.
   

2. Andrew Merriam
   

3. 
   

4. Southern Pacific Milling shows up in both pre- and post- WW II Sanborn maps and are often shown as grain and bean warehouses.
   

5. Jon C.
   

1. They used the same lettering style for their "SP" initials as did SP at the time.
   

2. Tony Thompson
   

Grain Business

1. Mentions of the Southern Pacific Milling Company go back at least as far as 1886 and they operated grain warehouses in the years before WW II. SP Milling built a wheat warehouse in King City. The present Ventura County Agriculture Museum is housed in a former SP Milling Co. warehouse (purchased by SPM in 1894). There were also SP Milling warehouses in Salinas, San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, and Guadalupe, to name a few.These warehouses, most if not all, were served by SP sidings.
   

2. Tony Thompson
   

3. 
   

4. In 1891, the Southern Pacific Milling Company in Paso Robles, made a case against a rival warehouse named the Farmers Alliance Business Association of Paso Robles. The S.P. Railroad allegedly refused to give the rival company a siding.
   

5. Jim Lancaster
   

1. SP Milling was also in Lompoc and the Lompoc Historical Society has photos of several dozen wagon loaded with grain sacks waiting their turn to unload at the SP Milling warehouse. Also interior shots.
   

2. Bruce Morden
   

Concrete Business

1. In the 60’s, Southern Pacific Milling and its truck subsidiary were part of U. S. Industries. SP Milling had quarrying and concrete services in San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara Counties. They produced rock and sand. Their main plant was in El Rio, part of the Ventura River area. A quarry just north of Santa Margarita in the very distant past actually had a Southern Pacific spur track running several miles from the Coast Line back to the quarry area. SP Milling company later had cement trucks. They came in an off red color.
   

2. Jim Lancaster
   

1. There was an S.P. Milling aggregate operation in West Los Angeles off the old Santa Monica branch.
   

2. Bruce Morden
   

1. There was a SP Milling cement batch plant next to the Goleta Depot.
   

2. Rail hopper loads of crushed rock in and mixed cement out in trucks (cement mixers).
   

3. Lou Mandeville
   

Reference

1. Pages 75, 77, 78 and 79 of this bookhttp://tinyurl.com/8jr6r3b