[edit]
Native Americans[edit]
Archaeological evidence shows that the Esselen lived in Big Sur as early as 3500 BC, leading a nomadic, hunter-gatherer existence.
The native people hollowed mortar holes into large exposed rocks or boulders which they used to grind the acorns into flour. These can be found throughout the region. Arrows were made of cane and pointed with hardwood foreshafts. The tribes also used controlled burning techniques to increase tree growth and food production.: 269–270  The population was limited as the Santa Lucia Mountains made the area relatively inaccessible and long-term habitation a challenge. The population of the Esselen who lived in the Big Sur area are estimated from a few hundred to a thousand or more.
Spanish exploration and settlement[edit]
The first Europeans to see Big Sur were Spanish mariners led by Juan Cabrillo in 1542, who sailed up the coast without landing. When Cabrillo sailed by, he described the coastal range as "mountains which seem to reach the heavens, and the sea beats on them; sailing along close to land, it appears as though they would fall on the ships".: 272 
Two centuries passed before the Spaniards attempted to colonize the area. On September 13, 1769, an expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá were the first Europeans to enter the Big Sur region when they arrived at San Carpóforo Canyon near Ragged Point.: 272  While camping there, they were visited by six indigenous people who offered pinole and fish and received beads in exchange. They explored the coast ahead and concluded it was impassable. They were forced to turn inland up the steep arroyo. The march through the mountains was one of the most difficult portions of the expedition's journey. The Spanish were forced to "make a road with crowbar and pickaxe". Crespi wrote, "The mountains which enclose it are perilously steep, and all are inaccessible, not only for men but also for goats and deer." From a high peak near the San Antonio River, they could see nothing but mountains in every direction.: 190  They reached Monterey on October 1. When they attempted to explore further south, the scouts found their way blocked by "the same cliff that had forced us back from the shore and obliged us to travel through the mountains".: 205 
After the Spanish established the California missions in 1770, they baptized and forced the native population to labor at the missions. While living at the missions, the aboriginal population was exposed to diseases unknown to them, like smallpox and measles, for which they had no immunity, devastating the Native American population and their culture. Many of the remaining Native Americans assimilated with Spanish and Mexican ranchers in the nineteenth century.: 264–267 
In 1909, forest supervisors reported that three Indian families still lived within what was then known as the Monterey National Forest. The Encinale family of 16 members and the Quintana family with three members lived in the vicinity of The Indians (now known as Santa Lucia Memorial Park west of Ft. Hunger Liggett). The Mora family consisting of three members was living to the south along the Nacimiento-Ferguson Road.
Spanish ranchos[edit]
Along with the rest of Alta California, Big Sur became part of Mexico when it gained independence from Spain in 1821. But, due to its inaccessibility, only a few small portions of the Big Sur region were included in land grants given by Mexican governors José Figueroa and Juan Bautista Alvarado.: 8 
Rancho Tularcitos
Main article: Rancho Tularcitos (Goméz)
Rancho Tularcitos, 26,581-acre (10,757 ha) of land, was granted in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to Rafael Goméz. It was located in upper Carmel Valley along Tularcitos Creek.
Rancho San Francisquito
Main article: Rancho San Francisquito (Munrás)
Rancho San Francisquito was a 8,813-acre (35.66 km2) land grant given in 1835 by Governor José Castro to Catalina Manzanelli de Munrás. She was the wife of Esteban Munrás (1798–1850), a Monterey trader, amateur painter, and grantee of Rancho San Vicente. The grant was located in the upper Carmel Valley, inland and east of Rancho San Jose y Sur Chiquito.
Rancho Milpitas
Main article: Rancho Milpitas (Pastor)
Rancho Milpitas was a 43,281-acre (17,515 ha) land grant given in 1838 by governor Juan Alvarado to Ygnacio Pastor. The grant encompassed present-day Jolon and land to the west. When Pastor obtained title from the Public Land Commission in 1875, Faxon Atherton immediately purchased the land. By 1880, the James Brown Cattle Company owned and operated Rancho Milpitas and neighboring Rancho Los Ojitos. William Randolph Hearst's Piedmont Land and Cattle Company acquired the rancho in 1925. In 1940, in anticipation of the increased forces required in World War II, the U.S. War Department purchased the land from Hearst to create a troop training facility known as the Hunter Liggett Military Reservation.
Rancho El Sur
Main article: Rancho El Sur
On July 30, 1834, Figueroa granted Rancho El Sur, two square leagues of land totalling 8,949-acres (3,622 ha), to Juan Bautista Alvarado.: 21  The grant extended from the Little Sur River to what became known as Cooper Point. Alvarado later traded Rancho El Sur for the more accessible Rancho Bolsa del Potrero y Moro Cojo in the northern Salinas Valley, owned by his uncle by marriage, Captain John B. R. Cooper. About one-half of Rancho El Sur is still an operating cattle ranch.
Rancho San Jose y Sur Chiquito
Main article: Rancho San Jose y Sur Chiquito
In 1839, Alvarado granted Rancho San Jose y Sur Chiquito, also about two square leagues of land totalling 8,876-acre (3,592 ha), to Marcelino Escobar, a prominent official of Monterey. The grant was bounded on the north by the Carmel River and on the south by Palo Colorado Canyon.
In 1848, two days after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, Mexico ceded California to the United States as a result of the Mexican–American War.
First survey[edit]
During the first survey of the coast conducted by the U.S. Coast Survey in 1886, the surveyor reported:
The country between the shoreline and the Coast Range of mountains, running parallel with the shoreline from San Carpojoro to Point Sur is probably the roughest piece of coastline on the whole Pacific coast of the United States from San Diego to Cape Flattery.
The highest peaks of the crest of the coast range are located at an average distance from the coast of three and a half miles [5.6 km]. In this distance they rise to elevations of from three thousand six hundred to five thousand feet [1,100 to 1,500 m] above the sea-level. From San Carpoforo Creek to Pfeiffer's Point, a distance of 54 miles (87 km), the shore-line is iron-bound coast with no possible chance of getting from the hills to the shore-line and back except at the mouths of the creeks and at such places as Coxe's Hole and Slate's Hot Springs, where there are short stretches of sandy and rocky beaches from fifty to one hundred yards [meters] in length. In many places the sea bluffs are perpendicular, and rise from one thousand to one thousand five hundred feet [300 to 460 m] above the sea. The country is cut up by deep cañons [canyons], walled in with high and precipitous bluffs. These cañons are densely wooded with redwood, oak, and yellow and silver pine timber.
The redwood trees are from three to six feet [0.91 to 1.83 m] in diameter and from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet high [30 to 46 m]. The oaks and pines are of the same average dimensions. Beautiful streams of clear cold water, filled with an abundance of salmon or trout, are to be found in all the canyons. The spurs running from the summits of the range to the ocean bluffs are covered with a dense growth of brush and scattering clumps of oak and pine timber. The chaparral is very thick, and in many places grows to a height of ten or fifteen feet [3–5 m] ... The spurs, slopes, and canons are impenetrable ...
Homesteaders[edit]
The first known European settler in Big Sur was John Davis who in 1853 built a cabin near the present-day site of the Mount Manuel Trail trailhead.: 326  In 1868, Native Americans Manual and Florence Innocenti bought Davis' cabin and land for $50.
John Bautista Rogers Cooper, born John Rogers Cooper, was a Yankee from the British Channel Islands who arrived in Monterey in 1823. He became a Mexican citizen, converted to Catholicism, and was given a Spanish name at his baptism. He married Native American Encarnacion Vallejo and acquired considerable land, including Rancho El Sur, on which he had a cabin built in April or May 1861. The Cooper Cabin is the oldest surviving structure in Big Sur.
Joseph W. Post House, a historic structure built in 1867–1877
William B. Post arrived in California in 1848 and was the foreman of the Soberanes Ranch when he built a single-room cabin in 1867. His son added to it in 1877, when the family moved there full-time. The Post House is a historic landmark and is on the grounds of the Ventana Inn resort.
Michael Pfeiffer, wife Barbara Laquet, and four children arrived in Big Sur in 1869 to settle on the south coast. After reaching Sycamore Canyon, they found it to their liking and decided to stay.: 326  He filed a land patent on January 20, 1883, claiming two sections of land he already resided on near and immediately north of the mouth of Sycamore Canyon. They had six more children later on.
Another important pioneer-era historic resource is the Swetnam / Trotter House, a late 19th-century dwelling located at the mouth of Palo Colorado Canyon.
The Cooper Cabin is the oldest structure on the Big Sur coast, built in 1861 for Captain J.B.R. Cooper.
After the passage of the federal Homestead Act in 1862, a few hardy settlers were drawn by the promise of free 160-acre (65  ha) parcels. After the claimant filed for the land, they had gained full ownership after five years of residence or by paying $1.50 per acre within six months. Each claim was for 160 acres, a quarter section of free government land.
Other settlers included William F. Notley, who homesteaded at the mouth of Palo Colorado Canyon in 1891. He began harvesting tanoak bark from the canyon, a lucrative source of income at the time. Notley's Landing is named after him. Isaac Swetnam worked for Notley and built a house at the mouth of Palo Colorado Canyon, which as of 2018[update] is still a residence. Sam Trotter, who also worked for Notley, later bought Swetnam's house. He married Adelaide Pfeiffer, the daughter of Micheal Pfeiffer, and they raised a family there from 1906 to 1923.
William and Sarah (Barnes) Plaskett and their family settled in Pacific Valley in 1869. They built several homes and a saw mill.: 38  Homesteader John Junge built a one-room redwood cabin in 1920. The John Little State Natural Reserve straddling the mouth of Lime Creek preserves the original 1917 cabin of conservationist Elizabeth K. Livermore.
Many other local sites retain names from settlers during this period: Bottcher, Cooper's Point, Gamboa, Anderson, Partington, Dani, Harlans, McQuades, Ross, and McWay are a few of the place names. Wilber Harlan, a native of Indiana, homesteaded near Lucia in 1885. His family descendants are as of 2017[update] still operating the Lucia Lodge.
Industrial era and gold rush[edit]
A major forest product of the Big Sur coast was the bark of Tanbark Oak.
Bixby Landing in 1911 was used to transport products to and from ships offshore.
The local industries provided more work and supported a larger population than it does today. Jobs included harvesting lumber and tanoak bark, gold mining, and limestone processing.
From the 1860s through the start of the twentieth century, lumbermen cut down most of the readily accessible coast redwoods. Redwood harvesting further inland was always limited by the rugged terrain and difficulty in transporting the lumber to market. Redwood was cut in large amounts for use onsite in limestone kilns. Two companies operated large-scale limestone extraction and processing. The Monterey Lime Company operated near Long Ridge, east of Bixby Creek, and the Rockland Lime and Lumber Company operated a kiln at what later became known Limekiln Creek in the south.
William F. Notley was one of the first to harvest the bark of the Tanbark Oak from the Little Sur River canyon. Tanbark was used to manufacture tannic acid, necessary to the growing leather tanning industry located in Santa Cruz, and to preserve fish nets. The tanbark was harvested from the isolated trees inland, left to dry, corded, and brought out on mules or hauled out on "go-devils". The go-devil was a wagon with two wheels on the front, while the rear had rails for pulling. A point on the Palo Colorado road is still nicknamed "The Hoist" because of the very steep road which required wagon-loads of tanbark and lumber to be hoisted by block and tackle hitched to oxen. The old block and tackle on a beam is still mounted between mailboxes.
The 30 mi (48 km) trip from Monterey to the Pfeiffer Ranch usually took all day by wagon. If the road was in bad shape, the stage driver only took a lightweight spring wagon. The rough road ended at the Pfeiffer Resort on the Big Sur River. It could be impassible in winter. Notley constructed a dog-hole port at the mouth of the Palo Colorado River, and a small village grew up from 1898 to 1907 around at what is known today as Notley's Landing. Bixby built a sawmill on his property, and to get the lumber and lime to market, built a similar doghole port at the mouth of what was then known as Mill's Creek, today as Bixby Creek. The tanbark was loaded by cable and a chute onto waiting vessels anchored offshore. In 1889, as much as 50,000 cords of tanbark were hauled out from the Little Sur River and Big Sur River watersheds.: 330  A cable hoist and chute were used to move goods to and from schooners anchored just offshore. Near the start of the 20th century, the tan oak trees were becoming seriously depleted, which slowly led to the demise of the industries they had created. Only the foundations of the doghole ports remain today.
In the 1880s, gold was found in the Los Burros District at Alder Creek in the mountains east of present-day Gorda. The gold rush town of Manchester at 35°52′48″N 121°23′31″W / 35.880°N 121.392°W / 35.880; -121.392 existed for a few short years. The town boasted a population of 200, four stores, a restaurant, five saloons, a dance hall, and a hotel, but it was abandoned soon after the start of the twentieth century and burned to the ground in 1909. Miners extracted about $150,000 in gold (about $5.81 million in 2025) during the mine's existence.: 30 
Residents also received supplies by steamship that would make a trip once a year in the fall from San Francisco to Big Sur to drop off supplies that could not be transported by wagon. In 1894, ranch owners Post, Pfeiffer, and Castro hired the Pacific Coast Steamship Company's 180 feet (55 m) steamer Bonita to bring lumber and seed oats to the mouth of the Big Sur River and Big Creek, north of Lucia. Lightering was used to transport freight to and from the beach. A large crowd gathered to receive supplies from and to load butter, honey, beans, wool, hides, and other products onto the ship.
In the late 1800s, the Ventana Power Company operated a sawmill near present-day Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. They began planning to build a dam on the Big Sur River just downstream of the confluence of Ventana Creek and the Big Sur River. They hoped to sell the electricity to the City of Monterey. They built a diversion channel along the Big Sur River, but the 1906 San Francisco earthquake bankrupted the company and they abandoned the project. The stonework from the diversion channel is still visible. Few other signs of this brief industrial period are visible. The rugged, isolated terrain kept out all but the sturdiest and most self-sufficient settlers. Travelers who ventured south of the Post Ranch rode horseback along trails that connected the various homesteaders along the coast.
The 1900 Monterey County voting register indicates 61 male voters in the Big Sur area. The majority (47) were either farmers or ranchers. Other trades included a gardener, apiarist, fruit grower, woodsman, laborer, lighthouse keeper, blacksmith, surveyor, miner, and teamster. Lumber-related occupations include bark peelers, woodchoppers, and wood overseers.
