Prehistorically, the local area was inhabited by the Chumash people, who settled the coastal San Luis Obispo area around 10,000 to 11,000 BC, including a large village south of San Simeon at Morro Creek.[3]
The first European land exploration of Alta California, the Spanish Portolà expedition, traveled northwest along the coast in September 1769. On September 11–12, the party passed the future location of San Simeon. At Ragged Point, which is about 15 mi (24 km) past San Simeon, the party turned inland across the Santa Lucia Range.[4]
San Simeon was founded as an asistencia («sub-mission») to Mission San Miguel Arcángel,[citation needed] founded in 1797 and located to the east across the Santa Lucia Range. San Simeon was named for Rancho San Simeon, although the town-site is actually north of that rancho, on the former Rancho Piedra Blanca, a Mexican land grant given in 1840 to José de Jesús Pico. In 1865, Pico sold part of the rancho to George Hearst, the father of William Randolph Hearst.
The first Europeans to settle in the immediate area near the bay of San Simeon were Portuguese shore whalers under the command of Captain Joseph Clark (born Machado) from the Cape Verde Islands, around 1864.[5] In 1869, Captain Clark built a wharf near the point for his whaling station. A small community grew near the 1869 wharf, but the waves near the wharf were too high, and the wharf was abandoned. In 1878, Hearst built a new wharf, and the small community moved near the new wharf. A general store (later Sebastian’s Store) was built near the Clark wharf, and then relocated near the 1878 wharf.[6] Shore whaling continued on the point until the mid-1890s. It ceased for a short time, started up again in 1897, and continued until about 1908 when it ceased for good.[7]
In 1953, the Hearst Corporation donated the William Randolph Hearst Memorial Beach, including the Hearst Pier, to San Luis Obispo County. It is currently part of Hearst San Simeon State Park.[8] The present-day San Simeon pier was built in 1957.