Salinas
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.
mabel poem
King City
Stepping off the train after two years away — her love letter to King City, the town at the end of the coast families' long road.
story
The Great Journey to Pacific Valley
July 1869: ox teams over Pacheco Pass, Indian trails over the coast range, and a valley at the end of it.
mabel article
California-Oregon Coastline Unfolds Majestic Panorama
Two coast natives drive north to Oregon and back — Mabel's own road trip up the Pacific edge she loved, September 1961.
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
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
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
Lopez Point Perpetuates Name of Early Settlers
Manuel Lopez came from Mexico about 1870 and built by the sea at the point that keeps his name — through fortune, rodeo trophies, and terrible loss.
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
Mansfields Were Pacific Valley Pioneers
From Indian shell beds to a 4,000-acre cattle empire — the Mansfields, who came to Pacific Valley when the lilac grew as tall as trees.
mabel article
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.
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 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
Parishioners’ Labor Has Built St. Luke’s
In 1884 three Plaskett brothers rode horseback from Pacific Valley to Jolon to raise a church — St. Luke's, built by its parishioners, standing yet.
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.
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
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
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.
mabel article
“The Red House,” Three Story Log Structure, Still Standing
The three-story log house on the Little Sur — Jeffers' 'zebra-striped' landmark of 1885 — still standing when Mabel wrote, paint and poetry intact.
mabel poem
Poems by Mabel Plaskett
A small gathering of Mabel's verse, opening with her poem for Mary Kirwan.
place history
History of Coast Schools Part 2
place history
Poem To Pacific Grove, Salinas and Gonzales Rebekah Lodge
story
Aerial Applicators Create New Image
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Charles Henry Plaskett Falls at Spreckels Sugar Refinery
Charles Henry Plaskett fell building the Spreckels sugar refinery in 1912, leaving five children.
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Alice Isabelle Plaskett Dies of Typhoid at 19
Typhoid took Alice Isabelle Plaskett at nineteen, at home, on an April evening in 1909.
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Jesse H. Plaskett Hit by Car on Highway
Walking back to Salinas in the dark, Jesse Plaskett was struck and killed on the highway.
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The Death of the Patriarch — 112 Living Descendants
'A Venerable Patriarch of 112 Living Descendants' — the Salinas paper's farewell to William Lucas Plaskett, 1818–1909.
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Sarah Plasketts 96th Birthday on Mothers Day
Sarah Plaskett's 95th birthday fell on Mother's Day, 1922 — fitting, for a mother of twelve who outlived the century she was born in.
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Gabriel Dani Lost His Arm in Threshing Machine
A threshing machine took Gabriel Dani's right arm. It did not slow him down.
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Marie Lopez - Rodeo Champion
Marie Lopez rode against the best at Salinas Big Week and carried home the trophies.
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.
- Billy Plaskett 1890–1961 · 4 stories
- Dudley Plaskett 1869–1949 · 4 stories
- Clarence Plaskett 1888–1916 · 3 stories
- Frank Digges · 3 stories
- Jasper Mansfield 1860– · 3 stories
- Jessie Anderson · 3 stories
- Lawson McKern Plaskett 1883–1966 · 3 stories
- Lucy Plaskett Davis 1886–1975 · 3 stories
- Marion Plaskett 1848–1906 · 3 stories
- Olive Plaskett 1882–1939 · 3 stories
- Roy Plaskett · 3 stories
- Albert Sans 1908– · 2 stories
- Alfred Davis 1912– · 2 stories
- Alvis Davis · 2 stories
- Bessie Robinson · 2 stories
- Byron Plaskett 1835–1906 · 2 stories
- Charley Digges · 2 stories
- Charley Krenkel 1906–1989 · 2 stories
- Charley Plaskett 1872– · 2 stories
- Gabriel Dani 1832–1908 · 2 stories
- George Harlan 1885– · 2 stories
- Henry Kilsdonk · 2 stories
- Jean Thomas · 2 stories
- Jim Prewitt · 2 stories
- Jimmy Smith · 2 stories
- Leta Burton · 2 stories
- Lynna Mitchell · 2 stories
- Mabel Eva Sans Plaskett 1896–1964 · 2 stories
- Martha Plaskett 1790–1844 · 2 stories
- Michelle Ann Evans · 2 stories
- Mike Harlan · 2 stories
- Olive Sans 1905– · 2 stories
- Robert Digges · 2 stories
- Ruth Lewis · 2 stories
- Sadie Plaskett –1911 · 2 stories
- Tony Vasquez 1884– · 2 stories
- Wilbur Harlan 1882–1881 · 2 stories
- William Lucas 1551–1621 · 2 stories
- Alice Dutton
- Alice Eastwood 1859–1953
- Alice Stewart Harlan
- Allen McClain
- Alonzo Davis 1880–
- Alvin Dani
- Amos Mansfield 1741–1795
- Barbara Locke Pfeiffer 1830–
- Bob Digges
- Byron Gianavil Plaskett 1846–1911
- Carsten Voss 1835–
- Charles Henry Plaskett 1872–1921
- Clifford Plaskett (Virgin Islands) 1920–1990
- Curnell H. Mansfield 1835–1906
- Curnell Mansfield 1892–1972
- Ed Dutton
- Edward Abbott Plaskett 1881–1973
- Edward Robert Sans 1875–1958
- Esther Smith
- Fanny Plaskett Mansfield 1916–1973
- Francis Marion Plaskett 1854–1906
- Frank Post 1860–
- William Lucas Plaskett 1818–1909 · died here
- Sarah May Barnes Plaskett 1827–1923 · died here
- Reason Barnes 1829–1892 · died here
- Robert Plaskett 1835–1908 · lived or worked here
- Leonidas Hamlin Plaskett 1848–1918 · died here
- Edith R Hawxhurst 1878–1962 · died here
- Mabel Plaskett 1897–1905 · died here
- Cora E Draper 1898–1969 · died here
- Ethel Mae Eade Plaskett 1915–1978 · died here
- Byron Carl Plaskett 1924–1997 · born here
- Carl Plaskett 1930– · born here
- Nicholas Marrs Alderson 1932–2005 · died here
- Alice Isabelle Plaskett –1909 · died here