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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.
Stories
True stories of the Plasketts and their neighbors — bears and gold, shipwrecks and weddings — drawn from letters, newspapers, and family memory.
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Hunter Liggett Military Reservation
The Army took the Jolon country in 1941 — but the church the Plasketts built still holds services for soldiers.
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The Soapstone Fireplace Still Visible
Where William Lucas built his first cabin in 1869, campers now pitch tents — and his soapstone hearth is still there.
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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.
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Fifty Children Grew Up Happy and Healthy
Fifty children grew up in the isolated valley — every one of them, the family said, happy and healthy.
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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.
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Coast Road Opens - 1937
In 1937 the pavement finally reached the coast the Plasketts had settled 68 years earlier.
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Navy Pilot Parachute Failure in Panama
Myrtle Sans's son jumped from his crippled plane over Panama so the others might make it. His parachute failed.
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Charles Sans Kills Grizzly with Poison Honey
A grizzly kept raiding Charles Sans's stock — so he answered with honey laced with poison.
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Manuel Sans Shoots Grizzly from Tree Platform
Manuel Sans waited all night in a tree over a honey bait for the grizzly that came at dawn.
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Cholera Kills Half the Sans Family on Overland Trail
Fourteen-year-old Charles Sans watched cholera take half his family on the wagon road to California.
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Six-Year-Old Sarah Finds Indian Baby on Trail
On the 1859 wagon train, six-year-old Sarah Ray found a baby abandoned by the river — and refused to leave it.