Big Sur, South Shore History at Mill Creek

Mill Creek in Big Sur has a history of being the home of the tough and hardworking. It was a refuge for the native inhabitants of the area, before the arrival of the Europeans. A beach at the bottom of the creek has easy access to both fishing and fresh water.

Higher up the hill are rich oak habitats with abundant acorns, which were used for food. Wild vegetables grow year-round, and herbs that are highly nutritious also grow abundantly. In fact, these same grasses contained many grasshoppers, which could be harvested, at the right time of year, for a rich feast.

Imagine eating a feast of fresh fish, shellfish, grasshoppers, and wild greens, along with acorn soup, possibly some venison as well.

People carried everything they owned with them, going from place to place finding fresh riches wherever they went.

Spanish travelers along the coast feared the Big Sur Mountains, believing they were home to malevolent spirits, and avoided them, except to make landfall in dire need.

Where they landed, they planted eucalyptus trees and then cut them down as masts and planted mustard. The yellow colors of the mustard flower let them know that they had been in that place before, serving as a beacon, visible even in the sea.

Later, Mill Creek was populated by settlers and loggers. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a working sawmill at the bottom of the creek. The redwoods were felled with hand saws six to eight feet long and then cut into sections. Mule teams hauled the sections to the sawmill or, in some cases, the section was used to make hand-sawn lumber. Trees that had fallen in difficult positions were simply left where they had fallen.

The name William Dempsey lives on in the name of the place where I live, Dempsey Flat. He came to Mill Creek in the 1860s or so, and had been here for quite some time before filing his housing claim in 1896. His claim was witnessed by the Gomez brothers, who owned a home on Chalk Peak.

Mr. Dempsey had more than 500 fruit trees and 150 goats when he applied. Some of the trees he planted are still alive and bear fruit. He would have been growing hay and also letting the goats spread out through the rich forest. He probably had pigs too, and he certainly had a lot of game to eat. However, it is unlikely that he left home much, as the journey to King City was long and arduous. Maybe he went to the Mill Creek Pier for the annual delivery of flour and produce from San Francisco. In bad weather, goods were simply thrown overboard and people had to swim to get the barrels out or wait for them to land.

The paths of the pioneers are inspiring. I live here on the roads of the mountain spirit, having seen the changes from not having a telephone or asphalt roads, to these days of being on the Internet. Amazing! However, some things are the same.

The wind and rain, the cycles of the seasons, which recall the small nature of the human mind and invite greater curiosity about what nature has to say, make deep reflection a natural way of life.