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William Lucas, Doctor of the Cholera Camps
No physician within a hundred miles — so the William & Mary man nursed the cholera camps of Sacramento, and set the coast's bones ever after.
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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William Lucas Plaskett Revolutionary War Family
His father fought the Revolution; his uncle crossed the Delaware. William Lucas came from fighting stock.
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Linwood Mitchell Brings Luther Burbank Plants to Coast
In 1898 Linwood Mitchell packed Luther Burbank's cuttings down the coast and planted a legend.
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Marion Plaskett Apple Tree Famous on Coast
One gnarled survivor of Marion Plaskett's orchard fed the whole coast apples of impossible size.
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Albert Barnes Orchard on Pepperwood Ridge
Sarah's brother Albert Barnes proved up a quarter-section on Pepperwood Ridge and set it to fruit trees.
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Marno Dutton Recalls Giant Apples at Cruikshank Orchard
Marno Dutton remembered Cruikshank apples so big a child could eat only half of one.
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Mendocina First White Child
Born in Anderson Valley in 1856, Mendocina Plaskett was the first white child born in Mendocino County.
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Too Thickly Settled
When neighbors appeared on the San Joaquin horizon, William Lucas decided it was time to find emptier country.
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Symmes Land Grant Ohio Journey
In 1789 the Plasketts spent a year building a boat in Pennsylvania — their road to Ohio was a river.
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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.
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Claiming 2000 Acres
Two thousand acres between the ocean and the mountains — the Plasketts claimed the whole narrow valley.
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Building the Plaskett Creek Sawmill
First the sawmill on Plaskett Creek, then the cabins — the family carpentered its way through the first winter.