| Cholame, California | |
| Settlement Type: | Unincorporated community |
| Pushpin Map: | USA California#USA |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within the state of California |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | California |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | San Luis Obispo |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Population As Of: | 2000 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Timezone: | Pacific (PST) |
| Utc Offset: | -8 |
| Timezone Dst: | PDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -7 |
| Elevation Ft: | 1157 |
| Coordinates: | 35.7239°N -120.2956°W |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP codes |
| Postal Code: | 93461 |
| Area Code: | 805 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank1 Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank1 Info: | 252871[1] |
Cholame (; Salinan: Tco'alam) is an unincorporated community in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. It sits within a mile of the San Andreas Fault at an elevation of above sea level.
Cholame is reached via State Route 41, just southwest of the junction of Route 46. Rainfall data from a nearby ranch shows that the area around Cholame only receives about eight to nine inches (200–230 mm) of rain in a normal year.
Cholame was originally a rancheria of the Salinian Indians.thumb|200px|Jack Ranch Cafe|leftRancho Cholame was an 1844 Mexican land grant. In 1867, William Welles Hollister (1818–1886) purchased Rancho Cholame. Hollister sold a half-interest in the rancho to Robert Edgar Jack in 1869.[2]
Jack studied at Maine Wesleyan Seminary, and he later was an accountant at a shipping house in New York City. In the Civil War he enlisted in the 56th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and he served in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, during the Battle of Gettysburg and then in New York to quell "anti-Negro riots" there. Near the end of the war, he moved to California and became Hollister's accountant and secretary on the latter's San Justo Ranch surrounding the present city of Hollister. When that property was subdivided, the two bought the Cholame land.
Jack married Hollister's daughter, Lucy Ellen (Nellie) in 1870 and became the largest wool grower in Central California, later switching to cattle and agriculture. Jack organized the County Bank of San Luis Obispo.
The land was sold to the Hearst Corporation in 1966 and is still a working cattle ranch.[3]
On September 30, 1955, actor James Dean died in a car crash when Cal Poly student Donald Turnupseed made a left turn without seeing Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder approaching at the junction of State Highways 41 and 46. Dean was the driver of the car that slammed into the car driven by Turnupseed. His passenger, named Rolf Wutherich, was thrown from the vehicle but survived. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
On the same date in 2005, the State of California observed the 50th anniversary of Dean's death by naming the intersection as the James Dean Memorial Junction.[4] A few hundred people, including state officials, a Dean family member, several Dean archivists and fans gathered at the junction and in Cholame to pay tribute to the actor.[5]
A memorial to Dean was erected in 1977 near the Jack Ranch Cafe (then Stella's Country Kitchen) by a retired Japanese businessman from Kobe, Seita Ohnishi, costing $13,000 at the time.[6] The monument is made of stainless steel and surrounds a tree of heaven.[7] In particular, Ohnishi was fond of Dean's movie East of Eden, inspiring him to fund the memorial, which was designed in such a way to reflect both the beautiful and unfinished nature of the actor's life.[8] [9] [10]