Old Cabo History: Wow, How it’s Changed!

Before the beach clubs: Cabo’s earliest inhabitants

The early history of Cabo San Lucas and the surrounding area stretches back some 11,000 years.

Nomadic Indigenous groups called this rugged land home. They lived in rock shelters, painted their bodies, hunted desert animals and fished the rich waters of the Sea of Cortez – which Jacques Cousteau later famously called “the world’s aquarium.”

Pssst! You can still see traces of this indigenous legacy in ancient cave paintings – figures of people and deer pierced with arrows – hidden in Baja’s rocky hillsides.

Pirates, pearls and failed conquests

Sir Francis Drake drops in

The British adventurer and privateer Sir Francis Drake even briefly stopped at the southern tip of Baja after attacking Spanish ports and ships.

The heist of the 16th century

But it was Thomas Cavendish who made pirate history in Cabo in 1587.

He captured the massive 700-ton Spanish galleon Santa Ana, said to be “the richest ship to ever leave the Philippines.” It was so overloaded with treasure – gold, pearls, perfumes, precious silks and spices – that it couldn’t carry cannons.

Cavendish plundered what he could, loaded the loot onto two smaller ships, and set sail for England.

Gold, silver and tuna?

Fast forward to the 1800s, and Cabo began attracting interest for its mineral wealth, mostly gold and silver. But for locals, the real livelihood came not from the mines, but the sea.

Between 1927 and 1977, the Elias Pando Tuna Packing Plant was one of the town’s few major employers.

At its peak, it was the largest cannery in Latin America, cranking out about 75% of Mexico’s canned seafood. A small community of extended families grew up around it in Cabo San Lucas.

The Hollywood effect: Cabo’s “Golden Age” begins

By the 1940s and ’50s, Cabo still wasn’t on most travelers’ maps. But it was starting to cast its spell. Deep-sea fishing was the big draw.

Only the adventurous (and well-heeled!) could get here – think private yachts and chartered seaplanes. And, so, Cabo caught Hollywood’s eye.

Rancho Las Cruces: Where Old-Hollywood met Baja

In 1950, Don Abelardo Rodriguez (son of Mexico’s then-president) and William “Bud” Parr built Rancho Las Cruces, Baja’s original elite escape.

Tucked at the base of a remote arroyo near La Paz (about 100 miles from Cabo San Lucas on the Baja California Peninsula’s east coast), the private fly-in club had its own airstrip, pool, tennis courts and palm-shaded bungalows.

It quickly became the ultimate hideaway for Hollywood royalty and political powerhouses. John Wayne, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Desi Arnaz – even President Dwight Eisenhower – all came to fish and relax. Crosby loved it so much, he bought out Parr’s stake.

Although it briefly operated as a hotel, Las Cruces soon went back to being strictly members-only. (Today, it’s a wonderful hotel again, located in a secluded 10,000-acre slice of Baja paradise with seven miles of coastline.)

Enter Palmilla: Cabo’s first true hotel

In 1956, they opened the 15-room Palmilla Hotel. With Spanish colonial style and an ultra-private vibe, it drew a high-wattage guest list.

It was also about this time that the Mexican government shifted gears – deciding Cabo San Lucas would no longer be a cannery town, but a sportfishing and tourism hub. (A new cannery was later built in San Carlos at Magdalena Bay.)

The Palmilla Hotel set the tone for luxury tourism in Cabo. By the 1980s, it had grown to 53 rooms.

Then in 2004, it underwent a $90 million revamp to become today’s legendary One&Only Palmilla.

And the golf course that exists today? It used to be the hotel’s landing strip.

Pssst! We’ve stayed here and loved it! (See our Palmilla review.) Fronting Playa Palmilla, one of Cabo’s best swimming beaches, it’s still one of the most pampering retreats in the world.

A glimpse of what was coming

Anyway, after the Hacienda, a few more hotels popped up in the early ’70s: Mar de Cortez (1972), Finisterra (1972), Solmar Suites (1977) and the original Twin Dolphin (1977).

At the time, Cabo’s marina didn’t even exist. It was just a dry mudflat with a landing strip and a scattering of cannery worker homes.

A yacht, highway, marina, ferry, airport – and tourists

Each new hotel brought a trickle of wide-eyed travelers.

Pssst! We’ve had the pleasure of connecting with Beverly through her Facebook group dedicated to vintage Cabo photos. Several of the vintage photos in this article were taken by her. And her and Bob’s love story, which blossomed into 52 years of marriage, was just published in CNN Travel.

The road that changed everything

In 1974, the Transpeninsular Highway (Federal Highway 1) was completed, allowing tourists to drive the full length of the Baja California Peninsula.

Suddenly, it wasn’t just wealthy anglers, celebs and the adventurous visiting. Middle-class road trippers in VW vans and RVs also came.

That narrow two-lane road sparked a peninsula-wide tourism boom, with roadside taco stands, motels and campgrounds popping up from Tijuana to Todos Santos. For many Baja families, the highway brought their first taste of prosperity.

The marina digs in

Cabo’s marina was dredged between 1974 to 1975, transforming the sandy flats with its airplane landing strip into a hub for yachts, fishing charters and future waterfront hotels.

Ferry from Puerto Vallarta

Around the same time, the story of Pedregal was taking root.

In December, 1973, architect Manuel Diaz Rivera and his family flew to Baja in search of a peaceful escape from Mexico City. After landing in La Paz – and spending the night at their taxi driver’s home because both of the town’s two hotels were fully booked! – they made their way to Cabo San Lucas.

A couple of months later, they returned. This time, they stayed at the just-opened Solmar Suites, where the hotel’s owner showed them plots of hillside land for sale.

Rivera’s daughter, Leticia Diaz Rivera, writes inThe Beginning of Pedregal: “Greatly excited, we decided to walk all over the mountain and like city kids brought no water with us. When we reached the beach we were beyond thirsty.”

Luckily, they discovered that barrel cactus holds enough moisture to survive the Baja heat!

Back in Mexico City, Diaz Rivera began sketching out a master plan, complete with streets, parks, lookout points and everything needed for a future hillside community. On September 8, 1975, the first stone of Pedregal de Cabo San Lucas was placed.

Today, Pedregal is the epitome of exclusive coastal living, where cobblestone roads wind around luxury villas with sweeping ocean views.

Pssst! We’ve walked the neighborhood several times, all the way to the top – it’s one of our favorite ways to sneak in some cardio exercise in Cabo! (But these days, you have to get past the security guards and find a gate that’s open.)

When Sammy Hagar first rolled into Cabo San Lucas in the early 1980s, Cabo had no phones, no TV, no newspapers. In Sammy’s words: “I fell in love with the town.”

Then in 1990, Hagar – now lead singer for the heavy metal Van Halen band – decided he needed a place to rock out whenever the mood struck. So he and his bandmates opened the Cabo Wabo Cantina – a tequila bar, live music venue and a bold dream rolled into one.

At the time, Cabo was still too sleepy for such a flashy nightclub – and it flopped at first.

But Sammy didn’t quit. He bought out his bandmates, stuck with it and watched Cabo take off.

Hurricane Odile and the resilient Cabo spirit

In 2014, Hurricane Odile devastated Cabo. It tore off roofs, flooded roads and buildings, downed palm trees and caused $1.6 billion in damage. The storm killed several people, injured more than 135 and stranded thousands of tourists.

But Cabo bounced back.

The One&Only Palmilla reopened in 2015, more polished than ever.

Our own timeshare club resort’s buildings, made mostly of white stone, lost their thatched roofs – but their structures held strong. Insurance covered the damage, renovations improved it and we were back visiting a couple of years later.

Some other properties weren’t as lucky. The Westin Los Cabos near San Jose del Cabo sat empty for years, tied up in insurance disputes and a change in ownership structure. We know timeshare owners who lost their interests.

Today, unless you’re a longtime visitor, you’d never guess such a storm ever hit Cabo.

Final thoughts: A love letter to Cabo

Cabo has changed – wildly, wonderfully, and at times, overwhelmingly.

But the reasons we fell in love with it in the first place haven’t disappeared. The natural beauty is still breathtaking. The locals remain as warm and welcoming as ever. And the mix of sheer escapism and adventure (from scuba diving at Cabo Pulmo to hiking in Fox Canyon) is as potent as ever.

And if you squint past the swim-up bars and infinity pools, you’ll still find Cabo’s old soul – in a humble taco stand, the sea lions barking around Land’s End and the way the sun melts into the Pacific behind the rock Arch.

Cabo’s journey has been one epic tale. After more than 20 years of visits, we’re still not done writing our own Cabo chapter.

Photos: 1, Beverly Parsons