Photos

The family album, gathered story by story. Photographs marked LIVE move — rest your pointer on them, or tap. Click any photograph to see it large.

The Guano Harvest: Farming the Top of Plaskett Rock

Plaskett Rock up close from the point — seabirds whitewash the crown, kelp beds ring the base.

Plaskett Rock from the point, the jade-green serpentine of the shoreline in the foreground.

Silky surf around the tide rocks at Sand Dollar Beach, Plaskett Rock brilliant white against the blue.

Plaskett Rock: The Family Name, Written in Stone

The Pacific Valley shelf from Plaskett Ridge on a grey day — Sand Dollar Beach curving below, Plaskett Rock offshore, and Highway 1 threading the family's old valley.

Kim Alderson on the Plaskett Ridge trail, the coast her husband's family settled spread out behind her.

Kim Alderson in a wind-sculpted oak grove on Plaskett Ridge.

Looking south over Sand Dollar Beach and Plaskett Rock from the ridge, fog riding the Santa Lucias toward Gorda.

Surf lines wrap into Sand Dollar Beach — surfers in the water where Plaskett children once hauled kelp.

Bill "Bull Plaskett" Alderson above the coves south of Sand Dollar Beach, sea stacks and Plaskett Rock beyond.

Plaskett Rock up close from the point — seabirds whitewash the crown, kelp beds ring the base.

Panorama from the point at Sand Dollar Beach, Kim Alderson perched on the serpentine rocks, Plaskett Rock holding the center of the bay.

From the point, looking back across the cove to Pacific Valley and the wall of the Santa Lucias.

Plaskett Rock square-on across the kelp, from the green serpentine shelf of the point.

Plaskett Rock from the point, the jade-green serpentine of the shoreline in the foreground.

Full sweep of the bay from the point: Plaskett Rock, the sea stacks, and the coast running north toward Cone Peak country.

Kim Alderson tucked into a serpentine alcove at the point above Sand Dollar Beach.

Kim Alderson among the green rocks of the point — the same stone that names Jade Cove, one cove south.

Panorama from the point with Plaskett Rock centered in the bay.

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

From the bluff trail: Plaskett Rock, the point, and the coves running south toward Jade Cove.

Blue-sky day on Plaskett Ridge: the whole Pacific Valley shelf — Sand Dollar's crescent, Plaskett Rock, and Highway 1 on its way south past the family's valley.

From high on Plaskett Ridge, Plaskett Rock rides the blue water off the point.

Ridge-trail panorama: Highway 1 below, the point and Plaskett Rock beyond, and the coast fading south into haze.

The great sweep of the South Coast from Plaskett Ridge — all of it once Plaskett range.

A camp clearing on Plaskett Ridge frames Plaskett Rock far below — someone's fire ring holds the best view on the coast.

Plaskett Rock through the pines from the ridge trail.

Sand Dollar Beach, the point, and Plaskett Rock from the ridge on a cloudless afternoon.

Sand Dollar Beach in full sun — the biggest sand on the Big Sur coast, with Plaskett Rock standing guard offshore.

From the Sand Dollar overlook stairs: the whole crescent at once, surf stacked in rows, Plaskett Rock at the north end.

Sand Dollar panorama from the access trail — beach umbrellas below where supply boats once landed for the valley families.

On the sand at last: sea stacks, a washed-up kelp stipe, and Plaskett Rock in the channel beyond.

Plaskett Rock framed between the dark stacks at the north end of Sand Dollar Beach, a gull overhead.

Silky surf around the tide rocks at Sand Dollar Beach, Plaskett Rock brilliant white against the blue.

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

Jade Cove from the bluff, looking south down the coast toward Gorda and the Plaskett country — kelp beds offshore and Cave Rock standing in the swell.

Kim Alderson on the rope-assisted scramble down the serpentine cliff into Jade Cove — rockhounds have kept this route open for generations.

Kelp beds ride the swell off Jade Cove, dark heads bobbing clear to the horizon.

The waterline at Jade Cove: green-stained serpentine cliffs — the jade-bearing rock that draws the rock hounds Mabel wrote about.

Storm-polished pebbles at the Jade Cove tideline. Patient eyes still pick nephrite jade out of the grey.

Grey-green serpentine boulders pile the shore at Jade Cove — every stone a candidate until it isn't.

Low tide among the boulders at Jade Cove, the kelp forest laid out flat and quiet beyond.

Swirled white-and-green rock walls of the cove — the colors that give Jade Cove its name.

Looking down into Jade Cove from the descent: the rocky beach where generations have hunted green stone.

The Jade Cove pullout on Highway 1 — Kim Alderson at the trailhead, Cave Rock offshore, and the coast running south into the haze.

Return to Mill Creek: Walking Mabel's Childhood Home

Bill "Bull Plaskett" Alderson at the Mill Creek Trail trailhead, starting the hike up the canyon where his great-grandfather E.R. Sans ran his sawmill and grandmother Mabel Sans Plaskett spent her childhood.

Moss-covered oaks and redwoods above the Mill Creek Trail.

Bill "Bull Plaskett" Alderson on the narrow Mill Creek Trail as it contours above the redwood canyon.

Bill "Bull Plaskett" Alderson walking the redwood flat beside Mill Creek, near where the Sans family lived at the mouth of the creek.

A hiker-built teepee of driftwood limbs in a redwood grove along Mill Creek.

Kim Alderson atop a fallen old-growth redwood spanning the Mill Creek ravine.

Kim Alderson on the great fallen redwood log across Mill Creek.

Kim Alderson resting above the boulders of Mill Creek on the hike to the old mill site.

Looking up into the redwood canopy along Mill Creek.

Redwood crowns over the Mill Creek canyon.

Sunlight breaking through the redwood canopy above Mill Creek.

Bill "Bull Plaskett" Alderson beneath fire-scarred old-growth redwoods above Mill Creek — giants that predate the sawmill era.

Bill "Bull Plaskett" Alderson at the base of a massive fire-hollowed redwood beside Mill Creek.

Bill "Bull Plaskett" Alderson standing in front of the fire-hollowed old-growth redwood on Mill Creek.

Kim Alderson on the Mill Creek Trail.

Sun flaring through an old-growth redwood on Mill Creek — survivors of the logging days.

Old-growth redwood trunks rising out of the Mill Creek canyon.

Boat Day - The Holiday That Surpassed Christmas

The original photograph, from the family collection: Boat Day at the Plaskett landing. The supply schooner stands off the rocks in the fog with the surf boat alongside, and on the wire between ship and bluff a hog rides the cable trolley over the water. This is the trade that supplied the South Coast — the holiday Mabel Plaskett said outshone Christmas.

The same water today. Bill "Bull Plaskett" Alderson photographed the cove at Plaskett Rock in 2023, standing out on the rocks near where the landing cable once ran — the anchorage empty, the surf unchanged.

Parishioners’ Labor Has Built St. Luke’s

St. Luke's Episcopal Church at Jolon, built in 1884 by Reason Plaskett and his brothers Robert and Marion — parishioners gathered among the oaks

Building St. Lukes Church

St. Luke's Episcopal Church at Jolon, built in 1884 by Reason Plaskett and his brothers Robert and Marion — parishioners gathered among the oaks

Reason and Robert Plaskett Build St Lukes Church

St. Luke's Episcopal Church at Jolon, built in 1884 by Reason Plaskett and his brothers Robert and Marion — parishioners gathered among the oaks

The Los Burros Mining District and the Lost Town of Manchester

Inside the Davis Saloon at Manchester, c. 1889 — four miners at the bar under papered walls and mirrors, in a town that had a hotel, two stores, a school, and 'of course saloons.'

The Grizzly Mine's water-wheel arrastra, c. 1900 — the same kind of creek-powered ore mill William Lucas Plaskett built on Plaskett Creek about 1885. Its remnants are still there today.

Henry Melville's mining company office at Los Burros, c. 1889 — a board-and-batten cabin in the pines, men at the rail, a dog on the step.

Manchester, heart of the Los Burros Mining District, c. 1889 — the lost town alive: pack horses in the street, cabins and false-front buildings under the pines, near the Last Chance Mine. Fires between 1889 and 1897 erased every trace.

Alice Eastwood and Reezy Plaskett: The Plants of the Plaskett Coast

Ribes sericeum — the Santa Lucia Gooseberry. Alice Eastwood described this species from a specimen Reason Plaskett collected at Spruce Creek in December 1897; this modern herbarium sheet was gathered in the same Santa Lucia range. Photo: Dean Wm. Taylor, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Leptosiphon parviflorus — the flower Eastwood first named Linanthus plaskettii in Reason Plaskett's honor. Photo: Steve McKay, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Nemophila parviflora — named Nemophila plaskettii by Alice Eastwood for its Big Sur collector, Reason Plaskett. Photo: Walter Siegmund, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Arrastra on Plaskett Creek

The arrastra site on Plaskett Creek. Rusted ironwork and mossy hewn timbers from the gold workings rest among the redwoods where the creek once turned the water wheel.

Hand-hewn timber from the arrastra frame beside Plaskett Creek, its iron drift bolts still seated after more than a century.

Bolted joint of the arrastra framework at Plaskett Creek — square-cut beams, iron washers and bolts, and an old iron pipe among the rocks.

Moss-grown timber from the Plaskett Creek arrastra with rows of iron bolts that once held the water-powered works together.

Under the protective platform at the arrastra basin (hand for scale): an original post still standing beneath the modern cover.

Side view of the plank cover protecting the arrastra pit at Plaskett Creek, resting on timber posts above the stone-lined basin.

Iron hardware from the arrastra set out on a timber post at Plaskett Creek — a pipe collar and a heavy bearing casting from the drive works.

The round platform over the arrastra basin at Plaskett Creek — the circular footprint marks where drag stones once ground gold ore.

Close view of the arrastra's iron drive hardware — a rusted bearing block and collar recovered at the Plaskett Creek site.