By the Paso Robles Area Historical Society & Museum with excerpts from “Smith’s Sporting Goods” by Gary Smith and Nancy Wimmer Bodendoerfer in The “Pioneer Pages” publication by the Pioneer Museum.
Many locals will recall C.S. Smith’s Sporting Goods store on Park Street in downtown Paso Robles. Now home to the Paso Robles & Templeton Chamber of Commerce. Clark Sherwood Smith came to Creston, California, with his family in 1885. Moving to Oakland, California, in 1888, he returned to Paso Robles three years later on a 51-inch Columbia Ordinary, also known as the “Big Wheel” or “Penny-Farthing.” It took him four days and the loss of 30 pounds to finally arrive back in Paso Robles. In 1893, Clark opened Smith’s at 1225 Park St. The business continued for almost 100 years.
Bicycling became a popular sport, and many events were organized in Paso Robles to highlight the sport.
The following is by Don McMillian, dated January 18, 1945, from the “Horse Sense and Nonsense” column in a local paper.
It’s July 4, 1895, and the city of Paso Robles seethes with a massive crowd of humanity out to celebrate. At least 200 people have watched the parade tour its way through town and are now lining the course laid out for the bicycle race. This is the race that will decide the burning question … who is the fastest cyclist in the area?
The favorite is Lomax, whose mighty leg drive can tear the rubber off the rear tire. Then there’s Jay Triplett and Harry Wetzel, not to be shrugged off by anyone in an event of this kind. Last, there’s this young fellow, Clark Smith, who runs a gun and bicycle store downtown who has been in strict training for weeks, going without ice cream and pedaling out to his dad’s ranch each day to keep his muscles in shape. No one gives him much chance against the other speed demons of the track. But here he is, full of confidence. He is wearing what someday will be called “shorts” and, for modesty’s sake, has a pair of long stockings on. He’s riding a “76” Falcon, while the others are pinning their faith on lower-geared” 63” vehicles.
The crowd is betting wildly as the four line up, with Clark getting the undesirable outside position. They’re off! And the crowd gasps as the “gun store kid,” with a terrific “get-off,’ leaps into the lead, takes the pole position, and literally “gets it into overdrive” as they circle Engle’s corner. In fact, he’s so far ahead when they pass Blackburn’s barn, south of 8th Street, that Herb Lathropp, seeing only the others bunched together, offered to bet Will Lewis that Clark will come in last. Clark increases his lead and at the end of the third lap and the approximately three-mile race, no one denies that he’s the champion and well entitled to the six-dollar prize.
For more Paso Robles history, visit pasorobleshistorymuseum.org
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