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A Brief History of Big Sur

Lewis Josselyn Photo, from the Pat Hathaway Collection

excerpts from Big Sur, a Complete History and Guide

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One need not be a geologist to realize that some of nature's greatest forces combined to form this unusual region. The energy behind these forces is as great in our time as it was millions of years ago, yet our brief stay on earth is not long enough to make one realize that changes are still taking place.

Over 200 million years ago a solid mass of sedimentary rocks accumulated in the area, most of it below sea level. Sometime later these rocks were taken over by molten (liquid) rock which crystallized. Today these rocks are known as the SurSeriesGneiss and Santa Lucia Granite, respectively, two of the major rock formations of the Santa Lucia Mountains...

The natural and cultural history of Big Sur is outlined from geologic times through the present in the Tommie Lussier's Complete History and Guide. Some more excerpts on Big Sur history are posted below - 

The Naming of Big Sur  | Building of Highway One
Homesteaders to Henry Miller | From the Forties to the Present

Big Sur -
A Complete History and Guide

by Tommie Kay Lussier

Order today online

"A fantastic look at one of the most beautiful places in the world. 

The author does a magnificent job of documenting all of the wonders of Big Sur."

Naming of Big Sur 

The overall area of Big Sur encompasses some 300 square miles, about 192,000 acres.  The federal government owns most of this undeveloped mountain region as the northern section of the Los Padres National Forest, while California state parks occupy some of the land.  Only a small portion, about 58,000 acres  is held in private ownership and most of this borders the highway on the northern coast, and in the valley region.
      Like so many California place names, the early Spanish are responsible for giving Big Sur its unusual name.  When Spain decided to officially claim California in the early 1770s, soldiers treked up the coast from Mexico, constructing forts and Catholic missions at strategic locations.  The rugged mountains of Big Sur left an impression on these foot travelers, prompting the Carmel Mission occupants to refer to the formidable wilderness to their  south as "el pais grande del sur," "the big country to the south."  Big Sur has two rivers, which were called "el rio grande del sur," "the big river to the south" and "el rio chiquito del sur," "the little river to the south."  The bilingual names evolved and in the early 1900s, residents petitioned the government to officially call the post office Big Sur.  The correct pronunciation of sur sounds like a softly spoken "suwehr."

Building Highway One

In June of 1937, Highway 1 was officially opened by a ribbon cutting ceremony after almost twenty years in the making (due to a lack of funds). The total cost for construction was ten million dollars; eight and a half million over the first appropriation in 1919. Prior to the official designation of the highway as the Cabirllo Highway, it was referred to as the Carmel-San Simeon section of the Roosevelt International Roadway. Today it is known more freely as Highway 1, or Coast Highway 1.

The highway travels a distance of 136 miles between Monterey and San Luis Obispo, but the Big Sur Portion takes in 93 miles between Carmel and San Simeon. Over twenty bridges span creeks and canyons of the Big Sur Coast between Malpaso Creek, south of Carmel and the southern Monterey County line.

The new highway is six miles shorter than the old county road between Big Sur and Carmel. To the old timer, the new highway meant going to town once a week, instead of three of four times a year. Most of the Big Sur folks were not over-joyed with the highway. First of all, they felt that their land had been raped by the landscape. They also felt that hoards of people would come through and commercialization would begin. Land prices would go up and so, as a result, would their property taxes. This, for most, was the biggest problem. Coast residents had very little money to spend - land, yes, but money, no. The advent of the Highway  was a turning point in the lives of the early Big Sur residents, and changes were yet to come.

In 1937 when the Coast Highway was officially opened, advertisements by real estate and investment companies such as the following ran in the Monterey newspaper: "Sunshine, scenery, views, water, all in 30 minutes time from Monterey. Cabin sites as low as $100; acreage from $25 up. We are also agents for Partington Canyon properties, a high class residential subdivision about 40 miles from Monterey - on the highway with a magnificent view."

Homesteaders to Henry Miller

The oldest residents descend from some of the original homesteaders who settled in the 1860s and thereafter.  The Post, Pfeiffer- Ewoldsen, Trotter and Harlan families fit into this category.  Other long time residents include a number of retired people, and others who simply came here years ago, loved the country and decided to make it home.  For decades, artists and writers, preoccupied with emotion and imagination have found inspiration in the pure mountain and sea air.
      A number of resort employees, forest service and state park personnel comprise a large portion of the population.  Some live in staff housing and some of the people live in town and commute to work from the Monterey Peninsula.  Rentals are practically non-existent.
      Many who choose to live here have escaped the so-called "concrete jungles" in search of a less complicated and hurried lifestyle.  Some residents are professionals who maintain second homes with aspirations of full time living.  Land values have soared in the 1990s and home ownership is usually attainable only for the wealthy.
      Henry Miller arrived here in 1944 and first lived at Anderson Canyon.  Later he settled high above the fog line on Partington Ridge.  His under- the- counter books brought him notoriety and his devotees often traveled to Big Sur in search of a glimpse of this man who wrote so honestly and eloquently about life.  More than any other resident, Miller brought worldwide recognition to Big Sur.  Even today, people still come in search of his legacy.
      In his 1957 book Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, Miller writes of his Big Sur neighbors:  "I have talked of Big Sur as if it were a place apart, having little or no connection with the world.  Nothing could be less true.  Nowhere else in my travels have I found individuals more alert to what is going on in the world, or better informed.  It is rare that a community so small as this can boast so many world travelers.  Nearly all of the women are excellent cooks, and the men as well oftentimes.  Every other home possesses a connoisseur of wines; and every other father has the makings of an excellent mother.  Never have I known a community in which there was so much talent, so many capable men and women, so many resourceful, self-sufficient souls."

From the Forties to the present

In 1948, residents complained that Big Sur was becoming too crowded.  This same grievance had been expressed in the early 1900s and would be repeated every decade thereafter.
      Eric Barker, another well known poet of the coast, settled here in the early 1950s.  His verse characterized the Sur country's inspirational elements.  Barker's poetry attracted the literary world's attention in 1956 when he was recognized for several awards.  The following poem expresses his love for this country: 

 Big Sur
I lose faith in words in this country.
Better to leave unsaid
The poems that cannot describe the highest arcs
Of turning and turning hawks, the mountainous
Voyaging leisure of animal-changing clouds.
What words released from this granite shoulder
Can return like a cliff-falling gull
Translating a mood of the sea?
Or strike such wild notes as two hawks now
Down- circling their hazardous air?
Better let the truth be spoken
By what inhabits here from birth:
The autochthonous voice
Interpreting its own environment.
Better to stand and listen
To sounds not alien here.

      The 600-plus homes of Big Sur conform only to the lay of the land, which often dictates the design.  From the coast highway, one sees a seemingly inaccessible house perched high on the crest of an eastern ridge.  Looking west, a cliff-side home hangs hundreds of feet above the sea.  Many rustic and unrefined homes, as well as luxurious ones sit hidden from view on private dirt roads.  Big Sur's homes are as varied and unconventional as their inhabitants.