Mabel Eva Sans was born February 5, 1896, in Ben Lomond, Santa Cruz County, and grew up at the mouth of Mill Creek on the Big Sur coast, where her father, Edward R. Sans — the famous government trapper known as the “Coyote Man” — ran the sawmill that gave the creek its name. Her childhood, she wrote, could not have been happier: no toys, but trees to climb, a creek to wade, and the whole wild coast for a playground.
At fifteen, riding to school in a two-horse buckboard beside 32-year-old Edward Abbott Plaskett, she heard him say: “Well Mabel, isn’t it about time we got married?” It was — and the marriage joined the Sans family of Mill Creek to the Plasketts of Pacific Valley for the rest of her life. She raised her family on the coast until the 1922 sale to Hearst scattered the old families, then in the Jolon and King City country.
In the 1950s and ’60s Mabel became the coast’s chronicler: the well-known south county journalist behind the “Coast Trails” column in the King City Rustler Herald and the pages of The Land, writing the histories of the pioneers, mines, schools, shipwrecks, and characters of the Big Sur country she had known first-hand — and, when prose wouldn’t hold it, poems. Her collected writings are preserved on this site, in her own words.
She died October 16, 1964, at Pioneer Hacienda in King City after a long illness, age 68, and was buried at King City Cemetery. She was survived by her husband Edward, sons Cyril and Gilbert, daughters Peggy Horn and Marianne Alderson, fifteen grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren — and by every page she wrote.
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Story of an ‘Empire’ Symbolized by Chimney
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Few Drives as Scenic as Coast’s Cabrillo Highway
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Mansfields Were Pacific Valley Pioneers
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Camaldoli Hermits Live in Seclusion
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Willey Cruikshank - Mining Was His Life
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Tony Vasquez – Story of a Horseman
All 66 of Mabel Eva Sans Plaskett’s writings →
Parents: Edward Robert Sans · Lydia Margaret Rich Sans
Married: Edward Abbott Plaskett
Children: Gordon Laurence Plaskett Sr · Cyril Edward Plaskett · Amy Belle Plaskett McCandless Mozzini · Ethyl Margarette Plaskett Horn · Gilbert Atherton Plaskett · Byron Carl Plaskett · Marianne Ellen Plaskett Draper Alderson
Brothers & sisters: Olive Hyacinth Sans Sans · Carl Ezekiel Sans Sans · Olive Hyacinth Sans Plaskett · Albert Edward Sans · Elsie Lenora Sans Shickley Hays · Edward Edmund Sans · Charles Harrison Sans
Parents: Edward Robert Sans · Lydia Margaret Rich Sans
Grandparents: Charles Sans Sr · Charles Jans · Harrison R Rich · Sarah E. Ray Sans · Sarah E Sans · Janetta McCoy
Great-grandparents: Elizabeth Creek Springer · James Sans · James Lester Rich · Lavina Ray · James McCoy · Elizabeth Creek · James Rich · Ezekiel Uriah Ray · Lovina Jane Wagner · Elizabeth Johns · Lavina Jane Wagner · Ezekial Ray
2× great-grandparents: Sidney Rich · Jacob Johns · Jane Johns · Martha Collin · Jeremiah Rich\Reach, Sr. · Killian Creek · Sarah "Sally" Saxton · Phebe Ryan · John Waggoner · Rachel Ray · Rachel H Moore · Lavina Ray · Elizabeth Creek · James Rich
3× great-grandparents: John Collin · Sidney Rich · Rebecca Krieg · John C. Thomas · Anne · William "Billy" Alfred Rich\Reach, Sr. · Mary Ellen "Polly" Hooker-Rich · Samuel Saxton · Dorothy "Dolly" Fair · Jeremiah Rich\Reach, Sr. · William Manton Moore · Mary "Polly" Thomas Moore · Killian Creek · Sarah "Sally" Saxton
4× great-grandparents: Rebecca Krieg · Sara Klass Classen · Hans Jakob Krieg · Jeremiah Parker Rich (Reach) · Mary Hunter · Nancy Roberts · Thomas Sexton · Elizabeth "Betsy" Newman · Evan Irwin Thomas · William "Billy" Alfred Rich\Reach, Sr. · Mary Ellen "Polly" Hooker-Rich · Samuel Saxton
place history
The Schoolteacher Brides of Pacific Valley
The county kept sending young women to teach the coast's children — and the Plaskett boys kept marrying them. How two brothers married two sisters, and the schoolhouse became the town.
story
Riding with Ed Culver: When the Mailman Was the Coast
Mabel wrote him up in 1961: the mailman who filled grocery orders and played bass viol in the symphony. Her grandson rode in his van to Monterey — back when the coast ran on trust.
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.
story
Sale to Hearst — The End of an Era
Ten dollars on paper for 1,523 acres: the 1922 deed to Hearst's agent that scattered the families and ended 53 Plaskett years in Pacific Valley.
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Dolan Creek Named After Early Coast Homesteader
Eccentric Phillip Dolan trusted no bank, drove his cattle to Monterey alone, and left a thousand dollars sewn in an old coat.
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Forget Your Worldly Cares At Nepenthe Restaurant
'Wherever you may go, people ask about Nepenthe' — the cliff-top restaurant where the coast forgets its worldly cares.
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History of Coast Schools
Part one of her history of the coast schools — starting with the Redwood School of 1878, built of notched logs without a single nail.
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Huge, Spouting Whales a Common Sight Along Coast
Every October the gray whales stream south past the coast to calve in Baja — a migration the coast families set their calendars by.
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Lumber Mills Once Buzzed in the Lucias
Where the Nacimiento road tops the divide, Mill Creek springs to life — and once powered the sawmills of the Lucias, including her father's.
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Parishioners’ Labor Has Built St. Luke’s
In 1884 three Plaskett brothers rode horseback from Pacific Valley to Jolon to raise a church — St. Luke's, built by its parishioners, standing yet.
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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.
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South Monterey County Writers Part II
A 2007 appreciation of Mabel herself — 'Belle' Sans Plaskett with her horse Cleo — by historian Susan Raycraft.
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View from Lucia Lodge Draws Thousands of Guests Each Year
In 1932 the road ended at Krenkel Corners; beyond lay wilderness. Lucia Lodge grew where the trail gave out — and the veranda still hangs over the sea.
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“Old Rocky” – A Tale of the Mighty Hunter of the Lucias
Absolam Beasley — 'Old Rocky,' raised with an Indian tribe in the Rockies — the mighty hunter who kept the Lucias' lions honest.
place history
History of Coast Schools Part 1
story
Olive Plaskett Dies During Pregnancy
Olive Sands married at fifteen, dark-eyed and sun-browned from the coast — and died carrying her child.
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The Mabel Plaskett Columnist
How a coast pioneer's wife became the beloved historian of the Big Sur country in the pages of The Land.
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Coast Road Opens - 1937
In 1937 the pavement finally reached the coast the Plasketts had settled 68 years earlier.
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The Piedmont Land and Cattle Company Sales
In 1921 the Plasketts signed away Township 23 land for ten dollars in gold coin — and 54 dollars in revenue stamps.
story
Mabel Plaskett Poem to Peggy on Her Birthday
'When first I held you in my arms, Oh twenty years are long…' — Mabel's poem for her daughter Peggy.
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.
- birth 1896-02-05 · Ben Lomond — Born in Ben Lomond, Santa Cruz County
- residence 1900 · Mill Creek — Childhood at her father's sawmill on Mill Creek
- marriage 1911-09-28 · Pacific Valley — Married Edward Abbott Plaskett of Pacific Valley
- residence 1922 · King City — Moved from the coast after the Hearst sale; later Jolon and King City
- occupation 1955 · King City — Coast Trails columnist, King City Rustler Herald and The Land
- death 1964-10-16 · King City — Died at Pioneer Hacienda, King City, age 68
- burial 1964-10-19 · King City Cemetery — Buried at King City Cemetery
- burial · Jolon Cemetery
- 1922 Edward & Mabel Plaskett → Joseph K. Barbree (agent for W.R. Hearst) · 1523.3 acres · $10
- 1925 Edward & Mabel Plaskett → Hearst Corporation
- 1926 Edward & Mabel Plaskett → Joseph K. Barbree · 1523.3 acres · $10
born life events land died