The history of the town of Los Alamos goes back to 1839 when Jose Antonio de la Guerra was granted the almost 49,000-acre Rancho Los Alamos. The land was patented by the federal government in 1872. The Los Alamos (Spanish for cottonwoods) Valley was originally the site of a Chumash village, but was abandoned in the early 1800s. The street running north and south was named Centennial, in honor of the nation’s 100th birthday. In 1880, J.D. Snyder, the local Wells Fargo agent, built another store which he soon transformed into a hotel to serve overnight travelers. Although the building burned in 1893, it was later rebuilt and is known today as the Union Hotel. Words of history by Shirley Contreras/The Heart of the Valley #townhistory @1880union