More than a century on the Big Sur coast
mabel article
Her earliest known piece, under the pen name Belinda Brown - eighteen years before Coast Trails. How Cox's Hole became Pacific Valley, who named it, and the July the family left Fresno because San Joaquin was getting “too thickly settled”.
From Mabel’s pen
Eccentric Phillip Dolan trusted no bank, drove his cattle to Monterey alone, and left a thousand dollars sewn in an old coat.
Family spotlight
From Connecticut. First job at whaling station near Lucia 1850. Opened first grain warehouse in California at Moss Landing. First butcher shop in Castroville. Homesteaded 640 acres on Post Summit 1860. Married Innocenti Anselmo, Indian girl from Carmel mission.…
mabel poem
Stepping off the train after two years away — her love letter to King City, the town at the end of the coast families' long road.
mabel poem
The dance is over, but the waltz won't leave her — a young woman haunted by one last melody.
mabel poem
An elegy for her sister Olive, who died too young — the shadowed redwood canyon of their childhood, 'home to you and me.'
mabel poem
The DMV meets a coast driver: a wry confession from a woman who found it 'very hard to keep my eyes upon the road' with mountains in view.
mabel poem
Under a sheltering white oak on the San Antonio River, a weary pilgrim finds the Paulsen Place — and peace for a tired soul.
mabel poem
For a golden-haired, blue-eyed friend whose visit ended too soon — happiness relived in memory.
235 stories · 1762 family members & friends · 678 places — and the home page changes every few days. Come back soon.
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