Big Sur
place history
Before Big Sur: The Mendocino Years
Fifteen years before Pacific Valley, William Lucas Plaskett rehearsed his dream in Anderson Valley — where the family named a daughter Mendocina, left their name on a mountain meadow that still carries it, and stopped twelve feet short of a different life.
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.
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.
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.
gold mines
Twelve Feet from Fortune
The most told Plaskett story of all: the Nevada silver tunnel sold twelve feet short of the Comstock Lode.
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
Too Thickly Settled
When neighbors appeared on the San Joaquin horizon, William Lucas decided it was time to find emptier country.
story
Jesse James Spends the Night
A quiet stranger was fed at Sarah's table and slept under the Plaskett roof. Only later did the family learn the name he traveled under.
story
Boat Day - The Holiday That Surpassed Christmas
Not Christmas but Boat Day was the great holiday — the day the ship came in with everything the coast couldn't make.
story
Two Branches, One Name - The Congresswoman and the Pioneer
Two centuries after a Plaskett ran a Caribbean plantation, a Plaskett represents those islands in Congress.
mabel article
Camp Pico Blanco Is Ideal For Scout Summer Activity
In the Ventanas — 'the Windows' — below Pico Blanco, the Boy Scouts made a summer camp of the old Harlan country.
mabel article
Dani Family History Is Told
A shelf of level land a thousand feet above the sea: the Dani place, where Gabriel Dani built a one-armed empire and Lucia got her name.
mabel article
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.
mabel article
Few Drives as Scenic as Coast’s Cabrillo Highway
Where does Big Sur begin and end? Mabel settles it, then takes you the whole way — San Simeon to Point Lobos, stop by stop. Now with our interactive map and free PDF drive guide.
mabel article
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.
mabel article
History of Coast Schools Concluded
Part two: Pacific Valley School — kept since 1880 on the east side of the highway at Plaskett Creek — and the teachers who came to the edge of the world.
mabel article
Jaime d’Angula- A Symbol of Man’s Right to Freedom
The strangest of all the Big Sur characters: Jaime de Angulo — Paris-born doctor, cowboy, linguist — riding the ridges as a symbol of man's right to be free.
mabel article
Mailmen Are Important Link In Coast Country History
Before 1890 the mail came by horseback from Jolon. Seventy years of coast mail carriers — including the Plaskett boys swimming icy rivers with the pack mule.
mabel article
Nacimiento Homesteaders Picked Real “Beauty Spot”
Up the Nacimiento from the old McKern place, the homesteaders of the 1890s picked the prettiest valley in the Lucias.
mabel article
Pacific Hot Springs Lodge Is A Popular Coast Spa
On the old Esselen encampment above the sea, Hot Springs Lodge draws bathers from around the world — the place we now call Esalen.
mabel article
Pacific Ocean Holds Wide Fisherman, Vacationer Appeal
Byron's 'deep and dark blue ocean' — the fishermen, abalone hunters, and vacationers drawn to the coast's edge, in Mabel's salute to the sea itself.
mabel article
People From Every Walk of Life Lured by Coast Magic
Gorda: a handful of buildings against the pines, and a cast of characters from every walk of life — including an instant-portrait artist in the hills.
mabel article
Plaskett Creek Campground Is Popular Vacation Spot
The campground at Plaskett Creek sits on the family's first homesite — Mabel tells how the pioneers came over the Indian trails from Jolon.
mabel article
Post Summit Named for One Of Early Big Sur Settlers
Post's hill is the very heart of Big Sur — named for W.B. Post, who landed at a coast whaling station in 1850 and built a ranch that outlived the century.
mabel article
Quaint Big Sur Inn Is Work Of the ‘Master Builder’
Grandpa Deetjen's hand-built Norwegian inn at Castro Canyon — rustic rooms, record concerts, and the 'Master Builder' himself.
mabel article
Saddle Rock Ranch Is Now Memorial to Coast Pioneer
Who was Julia Pfeiffer Burns? The ranchwoman who shod horses and roped with the best — remembered in the park at Saddle Rock.
mabel article
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.
mabel article
Tale of the Evans Family
From a green valley in Wales to the Big Sur coast — the Evans family's voyage on a side-wheeler with their cattle penned above the paddle wheel.
mabel article
Tony Vasquez – Story of a Horseman
Born in the Palo Corona hills, burned out at five, an expert rider by eight — Tony Vasquez, the coast's legendary horseman.
place history
History of Coast Schools Part 1
place history
History of Coast Schools Part 2
story
Alice Eastwood and Reezy Plaskett: The Plants of the Plaskett Coast
In five months of collecting, a self-taught Big Sur carpenter sent Alice Eastwood six plants new to science — and she named two of them for him.
story
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.
story
William Lucas Plaskett - Educated at William & Mary
A William & Mary man on the frontier: William Lucas set bones and doctored neighbors a hundred miles from help.
story
Coast Road Opens - 1937
In 1937 the pavement finally reached the coast the Plasketts had settled 68 years earlier.
story
Henry Rich Marries Jolon Indian Woman
Mabel's uncle Henry Rich married a Jolon Indian woman — one of the frontier's quiet unions of two worlds.
story
William Brainard Post - From Whaling Station to Empire
W.B. Post started at a whaling station near Lucia in 1850 and ended with a ranch that carried his name.
Everyone the family archive records in the story of this place. Descendants: if one of these is yours, we’d love to hear from you.
- Mabel Eva Sans Plaskett 1896–1964 · 8 stories
- William Lucas Plaskett 1818–1909 · 6 stories
- Paul Harlan · 5 stories
- George Harlan 1885– · 4 stories
- William Nicholas Alderson 1956– · 4 stories
- Alice Stewart Harlan · 3 stories
- Billy Plaskett 1890–1961 · 3 stories
- Clarence Plaskett 1888–1916 · 3 stories
- Dudley Plaskett 1869–1949 · 3 stories
- Edward Abbott Plaskett 1881–1973 · 3 stories
- Esther Smith · 3 stories
- Kimberly Dawn Mueller Alderson 1964– · 3 stories
- Marion Smith · 3 stories
- Reason Alpha Plaskett 1852–1933 · 3 stories
- Wilbur Harlan 1882–1881 · 3 stories
- Albert Sans 1908– · 2 stories
- Alfred Davis 1912– · 2 stories
- Alice Eastwood 1859–1953 · 2 stories
- Alvis Davis · 2 stories
- Bessie Robinson · 2 stories
- Byron Gianavil Plaskett 1846–1911 · 2 stories
- Charley Digges · 2 stories
- Charley Krenkel 1906–1989 · 2 stories
- Corrine Harris · 2 stories
- Edward Robert Sans 1875–1958 · 2 stories
- Esther Harlan · 2 stories
- Frank Digges · 2 stories
- Geneva Evans · 2 stories
- Henry Kilsdonk · 2 stories
- Innocenti Anselmo Post 1830– · 2 stories
- Jean Thomas · 2 stories
- Jessie Anderson · 2 stories
- Jimmy Smith · 2 stories
- Lawson McKern Plaskett 1883–1966 · 2 stories
- Leta Burton · 2 stories
- Lynna Mitchell · 2 stories
- Marion Plaskett 1848–1906 · 2 stories
- Michael Dani 1840– · 2 stories
- Michelle Ann Evans · 2 stories
- Mike Harlan · 2 stories
- Olive Plaskett 1882–1939 · 2 stories
- Olive Sans 1905– · 2 stories
- Robert Digges · 2 stories
- Roy Plaskett · 2 stories
- Ruth Lewis · 2 stories
- Sadie Plaskett –1911 · 2 stories
- Sarah May Barnes Plaskett 1827–1923 · 2 stories
- William Brainard Post 1820– · 2 stories
- Alvin Dani
- Barbara Locke Pfeiffer 1830–
- Byron Plaskett 1835–1906
- Cape Horn
- Charley Plaskett 1872–
- Curnell H. Mansfield 1835–1906
- Frank Post 1860–
- Fred Harlan 1890–
- Gabriel Dani 1832–1908
- George Ames 1849–1931
- Helmuth Deetjen 1892–1972
- Henry Rich