South Monterey County Writers Part II
A 2007 appreciation of Mabel herself — 'Belle' Sans Plaskett with her horse Cleo — by historian Susan Raycraft.
South Monterey County Writers Part II: Mabel Sans Plaskett by Susan Raycraft
Mabel “Belle” Sans Plaskett with her horse Cleo at her Monterey County ranch.
Photograph taken by Didi Sans Sandoval during a visit there 1943-45.
Our Fall 2007 issue
spotlights Mabel Sans Plaskett,
whose Coast Trails column
appeared in the King City
Rustler’s supplement, and
perhaps in the regular Rustler as
well, for many years. SAVHA’s
Howard Strohn went through
his copies of “The Land and Its
People” which came with the
paper monthly, and reported
that Coast Trails started in
March 1959. The last one we
have is dated September 1964.
I searched the copies of 26
Coast Trail articles I received
from Mabel’s grandson, Bill
Alderson, to find one to share
with our readers. I came
across one that felt perfect; it
touched on my early memories
of discovering Mabel’s beloved
homeland.
Twenty years ago, Dalene
Modena took me to the tiny trail head sign for Mill
Creek just above the campgrounds on Highway 1,
and we hiked past remains of lumber mill equipment
whose origins I wondered about. At that time, I had
no idea where to search them out. Many of you may
have had similar experiences with remnants of the
past, and Mabel fills in some blanks in her informative
article. It is reprinted as it appeared in The Rustler
of July 1960, with only minor changes in spacing. I
also intersperse quotes (in bold type) from a column
that appeared four years later, the last one we have
discovered, entitled “Mabel Relives Days of Her
Youth Spent on Mill Creek.”
Mabel Plaskett’s Coast Trails…
Lumber Mills Once Buzzed in the Lucias
On the coast side of the divide where the
Nacimiento road crosses the summit of the coast
Cont. from cover pg.
3
missions. The chapter on Mission San Antonio de Padua has an unusual image of a white horse wearing a
saddle, peering over a stick fence, near where rocks now fence off the front of the mission.
After visiting the Huerta Project, this book was fun to read, but I suspect that its usefulness will be
found in the plant lists - Herb Garden Plants of Alta California, Native Plants uUsed for Utilitarian Purposes
in Alta California, and so forth. There are lots of ploants which we already grow in our gardens, but a gardener
planning a landscape project, a person planting a vegetable garden or a restorer of a mission garden will find
these lists inspiring. I wanted to rush right off to the plant nursery after I had scanned the lists.
range a small stream springs
into existence. This is the
north fork of Mill Creek
which, joined by a middle
and a south fork, becomes a
good sized creek as it empties
into the ocean under the
Mill Creek bridge on Coast
Highway No. 1 officially
named Cabrillo Highway.
As the crow flies it is
about four miles from the
summit (called the Puerta
Suella) to the sea, but travels
seven miles on the winding
road. (Ed Note: See Monterey
County Place Names re
Puerto Suello). Looking down,
driving along, one sees a dense
growth of redwood in the dark
canyons where only the cry of
the blue jay breaks the silence.
It is hard to believe that in
the early 1900s the canyon
hummed with activity.
At 6 a.m., 12 noon, and 6 p.m. the mill whistle
blew starting a hard day’s work, calling the men in
for noon meal and stopping at dusk for supper and a
dreamless sleep.
About 1900 two small saw mills were established,
giving Mill Creek its name. The upper mill was owned
and operated by the Sans Brothers, Ed and Charley,
who came here from Watsonville. The lower mill was
started by Alvis H. Davis of Santa Maria.
The Sans sawmill was operated by a steam engine
whose great furnace was fed by firewood. This was
the job of an old man named Orville Olmstead
(always called “Captain” on account of a sea voyage
made with the Nautical Survey along the coast of
California in 1890). (Ed. Note: Orrville Olmsted
is listed as a boarder in the Sans household in
the 1910 Census, 65 years of age from Illinois,
father from Vermont and mother from New
Mabel Sans Plaskett, c1930
4
York. The differences in spelling are typical of
those days of minimal record keeping. In her
Sept.1964 column Mabel spells his name Orval.
She says he was known by all as “Old Cap, blew
the whistle three times daily, and “swore like a
trooper…but quoted Shakespeare, Tennyson or
the Bible eloquently.” He kept a lovely flower
garden at his own cabin and was left in charge
of the Sans children whenever their parents
went on trips.)
The lower mill was operated by water power, the
ruins of the huge water wheel can still be seen in Mill
Creek The sawed lumber was floated to the coast in
flumes, piled in yards and shipped out by steamer. A
narrow road ended at the Sans saw mill over which
they hauled their lumber in wagons to the McKern
Place where they had a lumber yard. Residents of
Jolon, Hesperia, Pleyto and Bradley and adjoining area
came here for lumber. Not only lumber, but shakes,
shingles, pickets and posts were made in Mill Creek
and four to eight men were employed at this task.
Joe Moro and his brother Dave worked for the
Sans Bros. for 10 years. In fact, the Sans bought the
land from the Moros when they started the saw mill.
(Ed. Note: In her 1964 Coast Trails article she
writes: My father, Ed Sans, and his brother
Charles bought the upper portion of Mill
Creek from Polk Fancher around 1900 and
ran a saw mill there for 10 years. They sawed
lumber for the house (6 rooms with porch
on 2 sides) and barn (near which stood a cow
corral and several stands of beehives). Later
in that same article she tells of returning with
Forest Service Representative Ray Thompson
to discover Iris and Trillium still growing in
her mother’s garden (a whole hillside planted
in flowers, with orchard and vegetable garden
protected by a high fence) and a large oak
growing out of the hearth of the fireplace by a
tumble down chimney.)
Quite a few Indians lived in Mill Creek before the
mills were established. Gabriel Fontes lived in a cave
high up on the north slope of Mill Creek. Alberta and
Antonia Fontes were his children—Alberta was taken
in by a wealthy family and in the capacity of governess
went to Europe several times. Alberta is dead, but
Tony still lives in Jackson with relations.
Other Indians living near were Cayatan Canieti,
whose wife Lucia was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Antonio Gomez. Their daughter, Hattie Canieta,
(Ed note: both spellings used here, and spelled
Canielti in 1964 column) was a natural artist. A
pencil sketch of the Sans four-horse team and lumber
wagon, which she drew from watching the team go
past the house, was a perfect likeness and hung on the
dining room wall of the Sans house in Mill Creek for
years. Another daughter, Regina, attended Mansfield
School with the Digges and Sans children. Regina,
now Mrs. Tilly, lives in Lompoc and is a frequent
visitor with friends near King City.
Dave and Joe Moro were uncles of Regina. In
1898 Joe Moro took in horses to pasture and his place
near Chalk Peak is still called “Dave Moro’s Horse
Pasture.” This is now part of U.S. Forestry. (Ed Note:
The only “Horse Pasture” Don Clark mentions
in Monterey County Place Names is a former
Los Padres NF campsite east of Tassajara Hot
Springs; near Chalk Peak in South County a
“Corral Springs” is shown on the south side
of Nacimiento Road, just east of the USFS
facility, which is perhaps what is referred to
here.)
Linwood Mitchell and his wife lived on the south
fork of Mill Creek. They had a fine orchard, still in
existence. Their son Roy with his family lived nearby.
Mrs. Roy Mitchell still owns land at the head of Wild
Cattle Creek.
A rough looking character called Jack Dempsey
had a cabin on Mill Creek In a fight with a fellow
worker he once broke a cast iron frying pan over
the man’s head, whereupon Ed Dutton (the Jolon
constable) was summoned. Dempsey cooled his heels
in the bastile for 30 days. Ed Dutton kept the broken
skillet among his relics for a long time.
It was on the trail near the south fork of Mill
Creek that a piano was left by a salesman who had
come to repossess it, and, unable to get it out, gave
up and left the instrument which can be seen in its
rafting crate to this day.
Antonio Gomez with his wife, Marcellina,
homesteaded 160 acres about halfway between the
two mills in the early 1880’s and built a house on a
level mesa just above the fog line. Here was planted
an orchard of figs, apples, pears, cherries and citrus
trees. Of these the orange and lemon trees are still
thriving and supply fruit to anyone brave enough to
take the walk from Mill Creek up a steep narrow trail
to the orchard. To the dismay of all who know about
the trees, some vandal perpetrated an awful deed
recently. Where the sweetest naval orange tree had
grown we found a great excavation where the tree had
been taken up and spirited away – how, why and by
whom remains a mystery.
In 1893 Bob Digges, a well-known cattle man
5
of King City, bought the Gomez place and married their beautiful
daughter, Maria, better known as “Chiquita.” They had nine children,
Pearl, Julius, Charley, Marguerite, Frank, Sally, Robert, Louis and May.
These children, with the Ed Sans family – Carl, May Belle, Olive,
Albert and Elsie – attended Mansfield School situated between the
two families on Mill Creek. Ida Davis, daughter of Alvis Davis was
the first teacher. Miss Frances Starr, sister of Mrs. Frank Gause of
Jolon was the second, and Elizabeth Mulcahay, who later married
Charley Sans, was the third.
This school was moved near the Davis Mill after the Sans left Mill
Creek in 1910 move to the McKern place on the Nacimiento River
purchased by Ed Sans from Reil Dani. Mr. and Mrs. Charley Sans
moved to Hollister at that time. While living on the McKern place,
another son, Charles, was born to the Ed Sans’.
At that time a very rough, virgin road from Jolon to the mill
was the means of travel. There were 52 crossings of the Nacimiento
River in less than 10 miles. (Ed. Note: Nacimiento Road was
completed in 1935.)
The Sans Bros. sold out to Henry Kilsdonk, who operated the mill
for several years. Klisdonk also bough the lease of the Davis mill and
lived with his wife (Angie Potter) on Mill Creek for several years. In
the course of time all of the property on Mill Creek was acquired by
the U.S. Army, which, in recent years, traded the coast side to the U.S.
Forestry.
(Ed. Note: In her 1964 column she wrote: When they left
the mill our folks sold the land to Joe and Dave Moro (above
she writes they had bought the land originally from the same
brothers) and the mill and equipment to Henry Kilsdonk
who moved it to Canielti Canyon. About this time a fire broke
out and all the buildings where we lived were destroyed.
There was no road into the new location so Kilsdonk rigged
up a hoist from the mill site to the summit where posts,
pickets and shakes were sent up by means of cable. Later he
moved to the lower part of ill Creek, leasing the Davis mill
which he operated for some years, shipping all material by
sea.
By the time the Nacimiento Road was finished in 1935
all of the families had moved out of Mill Creek. The land was
sold and finally came to be a part of the U.S. Forestry. Last
year the Forest Service renewed the (jeep) road from the
summit to our old house and extended it around the point to
Canielti Canyon. …Cayatan Canielti’s cabin still stands a few
hundred feet above the mill site of Henry Kilsdonk, on the
middle fork of Mill Creek.
Many cuts of timber were still there and they were
used in making posts and more recently a fence around the
parking area near Sand Dollar Beach. After all these years
the cuts yielded sound posts from the heartwood of the
redwoods.)
All the early homes are gone, silence reigns where once the
laughter of children rang beneath the redwoods. A great gravel pit
occupies the site of the Davis Mill warehouse on the edge of the
The collection of Mabel’s writing
SAVHA received from grandson Bill
Alderson contained 15 poems, most
undated; the earliest was written
January 4, 1927. I have selected this
example because it relates to one of the
few local historic buildings remaining,
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Jolon.
Most of Mabel’s poems were tributes
to friends, family and the local places
she loved. This memorial to her sister,
Olive Sans Plaskett (who married
Mabel’s husband Ed’s brother Lawson)
honors the St. Luke’s Guild, which
was a community institution for many
decades.
To the Ladies of St. Luke’s Guild
In Memory of Olive
These familiar scenes remind me
Of my childhood in Jolon—
Gone the brother, so beloved,
Now the sister, too, is gone.
To my aching heart comes rushing
Memories of long ago,
Bringing back those days of gladness,
That I never more shall know.
And I think of her, my sister,
Who received that early call,
She whose greatest source of
pleasure
Was to be among you all.
As her life was made the brighter,
By your thoughtful kindliness,
So I pray her Guardian Angel
All your lives and homes to bless.
Now I come with fresher courage,
Here, among you, as of old,
Like a prodigal, returning
Or a lost sheep, from the fold.
For although my path has drifted
To another countryside,
Here, among my native people,
Ever will my heart abide.
May the Guild beneath your guidance,
Pure and stronger grow, apace,
And the blessing of the Father,
All your fine endeavor grace
6
bluff above Mill Creek beach, were in the early days
frequent dances were held where everyone from
Lucia, Gorda and Mill Creek danced until dawn to
the squeaky fiddling of “Old Man Reeder.” (Ed Note:
In 1964 Mabel wrote, “At the time we lived on Mill
Creek at least a dozen families resided in the area.”)
One happy result of all the changes over the
years is the establishing by the Forestry the lovely
campgrounds along the coast where one and all may
gather in perhaps recapture the nostalgic rapture of
those lovely days.
(Ed. Note: Mabel closes her 1964 article
with a quote from an unnamed poet, which
looking down from the trail above the creek
brings to her mind:
“Around the hill the winds are still and still blue shadows rise
A quiet bat comes winging out but down the canyon floor
The swift creek parts in dusty swirls that mind me of your eyes.
And keeps the stillness ringing here forever ever more.
Sister, sister and is it true I wonder
Out there the loud streets thunder
And somewhere there is a war.”
On a Monday afternoon in 1964 at St. Mark’s
Episcopal Church in King City, friends and
family gathered to pay their respects to my
grandmother, Mrs. Edward Abbott Plaskett, (Mabel).
She was well known throughout Monterey County,
from her writing in The Land and the Pacific Valley
News column in The Rustler. She was 68 years old
when she passed away from cancer while at the Pioneer
Hacienda.
As I sat in one of the front pews with my sisters,
brothers and cousins, I begin to think back about all
the times spent with Nana.
One of my favorite stories Nana told us was how
she met my grandfather, Ed Plaskett. She was born
in Santa Cruz and moved with her family down the
coast to Mill Creek when her father, Edward R. Sans,
bought a sawmill. She was not quite two years old. As
Nana was growing into a young girl, Ed would backpack
on horseback up the trail from Pacific Valley on
his way to pickup supplies in King City. On his way
he would stop and visit with the Sans family. Ed made
this trip over the Santa Lucia Mountains several times
a year. On one of these trips, he asked Mabel to marry
him. She was in her early teens and Ed was in his early
thirties. Nana said she would agree to the marriage if
her father consented, knowing surely he would say no
because of her age. Much to her surprise, he agreed to
the marriage.
Memories of Nana & Grandpa Ed by Patricia Plaskett Hearne
L to R: E.R. Sans, Mabel’s father, and a fellow game warden
while on a U.S. Biological Survey in Nevada c1913.
Photo courtesy of author
This c. 1935 photograph shows Margaret Voss Krenkel and an
unidentified friend on the steps of the Digges home beneath
the turnout on Nacimiento Road. Built in the early 1880s by
Antonio Gomez and wife Marcellina Moro Gomez. Their
children attended Mansfield School with the Sans’ children.
The Gomez’s sold to Bob Digges in 1893 and he married their
daughter, “Chiquita” with whom he had nine children.
7
After their marriage, they lived on the coast near
Pacific Valley and Plaskett Point. Around 1922, the
Plaskett coast property was sold to William Randolph
Hearst and they moved to the Westlake place, located
near the Hearst Ranch in Jolon, now Fort Hunter
Liggett. They lived there for a short time before moving
to their ranch south of King City, off the Jolon
Road.
Nana and Grandpa had five children; Gordonborn
August 4, 1913 (I remember how sad it was when
he was killed in a plane crash), Cyril Edward - born
March 11, 1915 (my Dad), Ethel Margaret (Peggy)-
born December 12, 1916, Gilbert (Gilly) - born November
17, 1922, and Marianne Ellen Jeannett - born
March 24, 1931 (she was one of my favorite aunts). I
remember her fear of mice and one time us kids put a
dead rat in a candy box and gave it to her. She took the
box and said, “Thank you, it s nice to know you kids
can be sweet sometimes.” When she opened the box
she went screaming out the front door and down the
porch steps, breaking one of the high heels off her
shoe, and yelling at us kids, but we all high tailed it
over the hill to my house. Later we really felt bad
and boy, were we in trouble. To show she wasn’t a
sore sport, she didn t kill us. Aunt Marianne, was
fun to be around and had a beautiful smile.
Nana was a great cook. She was head cook
at the old King City Hospital, where some of us
grandkids would hangout and help her peel potatoes
and take the garbage out. A young Harry
Casey would stop by to pickup her news notes.
Nana introduced him to a pretty young nurse by
the name of Shirley. The two, later got married
and the rest is history.
I remember at the coast, when Nana was
in the kitchen, she would often hand you a dish
towel or a broom if you happen to walk through
when she needed help. She made the best jam and
jelly and we got to help wash the canning jars and
pick blackberries from Grandpa s garden below
the cabin, and gooseberries from up the road at
Brown’s Corner .
When Nana was in the yard, she would often
send us off with a burlap sack to gather redwood
mulch from the park below the cabin. There was
a little creek that ran through a grove of redwoods
and we would sometimes get side tracked making
forts and playing in the creek. After awhile we
would hear her calling for us to get back up the hill
with the mulch. She always had a beautiful garden
in that red clay soil with the help of redwood
mulch and livestock manure.
One day my cousin and I wanted to hike down
to Sand Dollar Beach. It was a beautiful summer day
and we told Nana we were on our way. Not before
you help me in the yard she said. She instructed us
to cut all the dead blooms off of her beautiful hydrangea
bush. Armed with clippers, we begin trimming all
the old blooms off, but we were in such a hurry, we
got carried away and cut all the blooms off. When we
told Nana we were done, she unfortunately came and
inspected the bare shrub. After seeing our damage,
boy was she mad. I think that is one of the few times
I can remember seeing my Grandmother cry. I felt
so bad and needless to say we didn’t get to go to the
beach that day.
However, a few days later, we got to go to Jade
Cove with Nana and Grandpa to go fishing. There was
a steep trail going down but they both had the strong,
safe footing of a mountain goat. Not long after we
started fishing, Nana was throwing her fishing line out
into the ocean and it got tangled and the fish hook
Mabel Sans & Ed Plaskett at their wedding. Seated is Mabel’s
mother, Lidia Rich Sans. Photo courtesy of author
8
came around and caught her hand between the lower
part of her thumb and finger. I could see it went clear
through her hand. She yelled at Grandpa, ” Ed get over
here with a pair of pliers and cut this fish hook out
of my hand .” Boy was she brave. I almost fainted
watching Grandpa trying to get it pulled through,
because the hook was not backing out of there. On
the upside, we had some great tasting bullhead fish for
dinner, with a couple of abalone thrown in to boot.
I remember going to the little brown church
across from Gorda, on Sundays with Nana. I haven’t
checked lately, but I think it’s long gone. I also remember
riding with Nana in their big, green Dodge pickup.
Among other things she used it to gather rocks for
her garden, haul supplies from King City, and travel to
Cambria to visit Grandpa’s sister Aunt Mamie Shaug.
Aunt Mamie had the cutest little house with climbing
roses all around. She worked as a chambermaid
at Hearst Castle and she always had wonderful stories
to tell us about William Randolph Hearst. My Grandmother
also knew him and said that they both shared
the love of writing.
I also remember, going along with Nana when
she visited friends and neighbors along the coast,
gathering news for her newspaper column. One of my
favorite places to visit with her was when we hiked
up Limekile creek and visited with the owners. Darn
if I can remember their names, but I remember the
beautiful trail along the creek.
Nana was one of a kind. She didn t hesitate to
praise you when you were good and whack you when
weren’t. Fortunately, I can only remember the hydrangea
event, when I got whacked.
Grandpa Ed Plaskett on the Naciemiento Rd. overlooking
Pacific Ocean, c1770. Photo courtesy of Marie Merritt
Bernard.
Nana had a good friend, Marno Dutton
Thompson who would come to the coast and visit
for a few days. I can remember when Marno would
get tired of us kids running around the cabin, and it
was time for her afternoon nap, she would take out
her hearing aids and was soon fast asleep snoring in
peace and quiet.
As we sat in St. Mark’s Episcopal Church that
day, though young adults we were, some of us began
to giggle, remembering all the times we had with
Nana. We began poking each other to be serious
and reminding ourselves this was neither the time
or place to have a laughing fit. The harder we tried
the more we giggled. All the time holding our
hands over our mouths trying to muffle our sounds.
I guess it began to sound like we were sobbing to
those around us, and one kind lady sitting behind
us gently touched our shoulders and said, “That’s
alright kids, go ahead and cry, I know you will all
miss your Nana.”
I’m sure Nana knew we meant no disrespect
and hopefully she was having a little chuckle with us.
L to R: Lawson, Mabel, Olive and Ed Plaskett. Mabel’s sister
Olive married Ed’s brother Lawson. Photo courtesy of author.