One family. More than a century on the Big Sur coast.

Stories, people, and places of the Plasketts — told in their own words.

Boat Day at the Plaskett landing, restored & colorized from the family’s photographs →

Today’s featured story

story

Bears, Cougars, and Wild Animals of Pacific Valley

Winter in Pacific Valley meant bears in the stock pens and cougars in the hills.

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From Mabel’s pen

Ship Wrecks Stressed Need For Point Sur Lighthouse

The wrecks of the Los Angeles and the Ventura — 150 victims clinging to rigging, salvaged linens dressing the coast ranches — made the case for Point Sur's light.

All of Mabel’s writings →

Family spotlight

William E. Plaskett 1866–1952

William E. Plaskett was born December 28, 1866, and became the family's man of deeds — literally: the county land books of the 1910s and '20s are full of him. With his nephews he bought the 641-acre Westlake Ranch in 1916, sold Salinas lots for gold coin, traded quarter-sections along the Nacimiento…

Their story →

From the album

The photographer at the edge of the frame: panorama across the kelp-streaked bay to Plaskett Rock and the southern coast.

See the story behind this photograph → · Browse the album

More to explore

mabel poem

Wings Of Progress

Airplanes over the valley 'like giant birds of commerce' — Mabel watches the modern age arrive on wings.

gold mines

The Arrastra on Plaskett Creek

Built by William Lucas Plaskett about 1885 and turned by a water wheel on the creek, the family arrastra ground the Western Star's gold ore — and its timbers, iron and basin are still there.

place history

Return to Mill Creek: Walking Mabel's Childhood Home

A hike up the Mill Creek Trail toward the old Sans sawmill site — the canyon where Mabel Sans Plaskett grew up.

place history

Jade Cove Today: Hunting Green Stone on Mabel's Coast

Sixty-some years after Mabel sent her readers to Jade Cove, her great-grandson climbed down the rope to the same tideline — and the green stone is still there.

place history

Plaskett Rock: The Family Name, Written in Stone

Off Sand Dollar Beach a white-crowned sea stack carries the family's name on every chart of the coast. Bill and Kim photographed it from ridge, point, and sand.

story

The Guano Harvest: Farming the Top of Plaskett Rock

Ed Plaskett and his brothers built a way to the top of Plaskett Rock — where centuries of seagulls had left a crown of first-rate fertilizer, free for the scraping.

232 stories · 1762 family members & friends · 674 places — and the home page changes every few days. Come back soon.