Gorda
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.
story
Phil McGuire the Instant Portrait Artist
Phil McGuire of Gorda could look at your face and hand you your portrait minutes later.
gold mines
The Los Burros Mining District and the Lost Town of Manchester
Organized 1876, transformed by Willey Cruikshank's Last Chance strike in 1887 — and gone by 1897, burned and grown over. The rise and fall of the coast's gold district, and the lost town of Manchester.
mabel article
Henry Melville Attracted to Coast by Los Burros Gold
Giant-strong Henry Melville came to Los Burros for the gold — and left stories they still tell: robbers thrown from his cabin, a loaded wagon lifted bare-handed.
mabel article
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.
mabel article
Pacific Valley Gold Claims Still Producing
A dozen mining claims on Plaskett Ridge — including the arrastra her husband's grandfather built — and the gold still waiting in the family's hills.
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
Three Mills Shipped from San Francisco by Sled
Three sawmills came down the coast by ship in 1886 — then went up the mountain to Los Burros by sled.
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.
- Dudley Plaskett 1869–1949 · 2 stories
- Henry Melville · 2 stories
- Mabel Eva Sans Plaskett 1896–1964 · 2 stories
- Reason Alpha Plaskett 1852–1933 · 2 stories
- William Lucas Plaskett 1818–1909 · 2 stories
- Alice Dutton
- Alice Eastwood 1859–1953
- Alonzo Davis 1880–
- Alvis Davis
- Augusta Stringle Cruikshank
- Byron Gianavil Plaskett 1846–1911
- Dave Moro
- Ed Dutton
- Edward Abbott Plaskett 1881–1973
- Edward Robert Plaskett 1924–1995
- Francis Marion Plaskett 1854–1906
- Henry Kilsdonk
- James M. Krenkel 1862–1943
- Jim Trickle
- Joe Moro
- John Bushnell 1870–
- John D. Cruikshank
- Leonidas Hamlin Plaskett 1848–1918
- Linwood Mitchell 1860–
- Lucy Plaskett Davis 1886–1975
- Luneta Thelen
- Margaret Voss Krenkel 1874–1964
- Marion Plaskett 1848–1906
- Roy Mitchell
- Tiburcio Vasquez
- William Cruikshank Sr. 1835–
- William D. "Willey" Cruikshank 1862–1937
- William Lucas 1551–1621
- William Nicholas Alderson 1956–
- William Plaskett 1812–
- Edward Abbott Plaskett 1881–1973 · lived or worked here
- Irere Plaskett 1882– · born here
- Sherman Tecumseh Mansfield 1885– · born here
- Fanny Harriet Plaskett Mansfield 1889–1973 · born here
- Isabel Plaskett 1894– · born here
- Jess Plaskett · born here
- Nick Yost –1954 · died here