Drury James and His Outlaw Nephews, Frank and Jesse
Near Paso Robles, California
Every town has a scandalous uncle, and Paso Robles has Drury Woodson James. He was one of the founders of the hot springs resort, a respected rancher and businessman. But he had a secret that the town would only whisper about for years: his nephews were the outlaws Frank and Jesse James.
Jesse Woodson James, the most notorious bank and train robber of the American frontier, was Drury's nephew. According to local tradition, around eighteen sixty-eight, when a bank robbery in Russellville, Kentucky was blamed on the brothers, Frank and Jesse fled west to California. They are said to have stayed with their Uncle Drury at his La Panza Ranch, in the hills east of the budding town then simply called Hot Springs.
Local legend holds that Jesse James soaked in the healing sulphur waters and slept under Drury's roof while lawmen searched for him half a continent away. Drury later sold the La Panza Ranch and moved into a new home near the springs. Jesse rode back east to his violent fate, but the family name stayed rooted here, tying this quiet spa town to one of the wildest chapters of the Old West.
