The Plaskett Family

More than a century on the Big Sur coast

Places

Plaskett Creek

Plaskett Creek runs down off Plaskett Ridge to the sea at the south end of the family’s valley, entering the Pacific by Sand Dollar Beach. William Lucas Plaskett built a water-powered arrastra on it about 1885 to grind the gold ore his sons dug from the Western Star mine on the ridge above, and Dudley Plaskett picked nuggets from its mouth in 1911. Today the creek gives its name to Plaskett Creek Campground on Highway 1 — the old family orchard ground.

Stories set here

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

The Rattlesnake on the Mail Trail

A rattlesnake struck Ed Plaskett's horse on the mountain mail trail. The horse left the county. The story has a happy ending — eventually.

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

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.

mabel article

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.

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.

The people of Plaskett Creek

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.