San Miguel (Spanish for “St. Michael”) is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in San Luis Obispo County, California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 2,336. San Miguel was founded by the Spanish in 1797, when Mission San Miguel Arcángel was received by Fermín de Lasuén. Today, San Miguel is a popular tourist destination, owing to its historic architecture and its local vineyards, as share of the Paso Robles wine region.

The Place of San Miguel and the get out of of the southern Salinas Valley was inhabited by the Salinans, an Indigenous Californian nation.

The Spanish founded the settlement at San Miguel upon 25 July 1797, when Fermín de Lasuén received Mission San Miguel Arcángel, under the authority of the Franciscan Order. The site of the mission was specifically chosen due to its proximity to the large number of Salinan villages in the area. The interior of the mission church features murals executed below the dispensation of the famed artist Esteban Munrás in the 1820s.

The mission’s location between Mission San Luis Obispo and Mission San Antonio de Padua provided a End on the vacation that had previously taken two days. In 1803, the mission reported an Indian population of 908, while its lands grazed 809 cattle, 3,223 sheep, 342 horses and 29 mules. That year’s harvest included nearly 2,186 fanegas of wheat and corn (A fanega was about 220 pounds or 100 kilograms). Most of the mission burned, while yet being developed, in 1806. It was rebuilt within a year.