Cholame, California ʃəˈlæm is an unincorporated community in San Luis Obispo County, California

San Luis Obispo County, California

San Luis Obispo County is a county located along the Pacific Ocean in the Central Coast of the U.S. state of California, between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2010 census its population was 269,637, up from 246,681 at the 2000 census...

, USA. It sits within a mile of the San Andreas Rift Zone

San Andreas Fault

The San Andreas Fault is a continental strike-slip fault that runs a length of roughly through California in the United States. The fault's motion is right-lateral strike-slip...

 fault line at an elevation

Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

 of 1,157 feet (351 m) above sea level and is located at 35°43′26"N 120°17′44"W. Cholame is reached via State Route 41

California State Route 41

State Route 41 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California, connecting the Cabrillo Highway in Morro Bay with Fresno and Yosemite National Park via the San Joaquin Valley. Except between US 101 in Atascadero and SR 46 near Shandon, SR 41 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway...

, just southwest of the junction of Route 46

California State Route 46

State Route 46 is an east–west state highway in the U.S. state of California. It is a major crossing of the Coast Ranges, connecting SR 1 on the Central Coast near Cambria and US 101 in Paso Robles with SR 99 at Famoso in the San Joaquin Valley. East of Paso Robles, where it carried U.S...

. Rainfall data from a nearby ranch shows that the area around Cholame only receives about eight to nine inches (229 mm) of rain in a normal year.

The town is best known as the place where James Dean

James Dean

James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...

 died on September 30, 1955. However, Dean actually died at the intersection of State Highways 41 and 46, located one mile to the northeast, when college student Donald Turnupseed made a left turn without seeing Dean's Porsche 550

Porsche 550

The Porsche 550 was a sports car produced by Porsche from 1953-1956.Inspired by the Porsche 356 which was created by Ferry Porsche, and some spyder prototypes built and raced by Walter Glöckler starting in 1951, the factory decided to build a car designed for use in auto racing. The model Porsche...

 Spyder approaching in the oncoming lane. On September 30, 2005, the 50th anniversary of Dean's death, a few hundred people gathered in Cholame to pay tribute to Dean. Cholame has a restaurant and a memorial to James Dean erected on the site in 1977 by wealthy Japanese businessman Seita Onishi at the base of a tree.

Cholame's ZIP Code is 93461. The community is inside area code 805

Area code 805

North American area code 805 is a California telephone area code. Area code 805 includes most or all of the California counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura, plus southernmost portions of Monterey County....

.