The Plaskett Family

More than a century on the Big Sur coast

Places

Gorda

Gorda is a small settlement on the South Coast, a short way up Highway 1 from Pacific Valley — long a landing, supply point, and near neighbor to the Plasketts. In 1886 two of the family’s ore mills were landed at Point Gorda; the Los Burros gold country lies in the hills just inland.

Stories set here

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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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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.

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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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Mother Krenkel- A Coast Legend

City-bred Margaret Krenkel rode a mule to her own wedding at Los Burros and dug her well by hand — the real-life 'Hannah' of the coast.

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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.

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Plasketts Among Early Coast Settlers

How the valley was settled: William Lucas Plaskett's family clearing lilac 'grown to the dimension of small trees' — her classic account of the family's beginning.

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San Simeon Rancho Story Is Told by Mabel Plaskett

Cabrillo's 'Bay of Sardines,' a whaling captain's store, the Hearst boys at play — four centuries of San Simeon in one telling. Sebastian's Store was 102 years old when she wrote it.

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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.

The people of Gorda

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.

Born, lived, or died at Gorda