The Peaceful Village of Harmony, California

Hidden behind a group of trees just off California's Highway 1 lies a town unlike many in the United States. It's the peaceful and extremely tiny town of Harmony.
Population of the little hamlet is just 18, yet no trip to Hearst Castle, about 12 miles north, should be considered complete without a brief visit to Harmony.
The obvious reason to stop is curiosity about the size. After turning off the highway onto Harmony Valley Road, pretty much the whole town can be seen in one glance, as you turn onto what passes as "main street" but is really the only street - Old Creamery Road.

And this is the key to Harmony's past. Back in the 1860's, the dairy industry was thriving in the area around San Simeon and Cambria, also known as the Harmony Valley. Swiss dairy farmers were the backbone of the industry, settling in the community that is today called Harmony.

It was a bustling operation from 1869 till mid-1955. The dairymen had farms nearby and a co-op store and garage were built in addition to the Creamery Association plant, to better serve the workers. Other buildings included a bunkhouse for those without farms, a blacksmith shop, cookhouse, warehouse and manager's residence. A post office opened in 1915.

Even publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst himself patronized the Cooperative Dairy in the early 1900's, stopping by to stock up on fresh dairy items on his way to his Castle.

The good news was that business was expanding. But in the end, this became the bad news, because eventually customers wanted the Association to expand and do more business farther north, in San Luis Obispo. But it wasn't cost-effective for the farmers to do so and competition became difficult.

Also, while there were fertile areas in Harmony for raising cattle, the next largest area of Cambria, while only six miles north, was not as suited to fields because of its closer proximity to the ocean.

The Creamery in Harmony came to a close in the mid-1950's and the town all but disappeared.