Shelley Alden Brooks - Big Sur: The Making of a Prized California Landscape

I have had the good fortune of being surrounded by inspiring and supportive people as I worked on this project, though my gratitude extends to people who set me on this path well before any research and writing began. My first exposure to California history happened when I moved from northern Virginia to Californias central coast. While working for the Monterey History and Art Association, I began to learn about the rich history of this region. I have Marilyn Erickson to thank for that opportunity. Two of my colleagues there, Tim Thomas and Dennis Copeland, who are steeped in Monterey history, inspired me to follow my love of this subject into graduate school. I respect the work that they, and others, do to preserve and interpret the history of Monterey County.

Research trips brought me deep into Big Sur and its environs, where several excellent archivists and others helped me locate sources and refine my project. Jeff Norman, the most knowledgeable person I know regarding Big Sur history, kindly took the time to sit down with me at Deetjens Inn to share some of his wonderful stories of the people and places of this coastline. An early-morning breakfast meeting lasted well into the lunch hour, and I am thankful that I had this time with him before he passed away. He is greatly missed, but his many excellent writings about the region continue to inform discussions about Big Surs past. Further up the road, from his utterly charming Big Sur River Inn, Alan Perlmutter provided insight into the challenges facing Big Sur and its community, and the ways that he and some of his neighbors have sought to address the issues over the past many years. Martha Diehl, a particularly involved member of this community, generously shared many thoughts with me about Big Surs past, present, and possible future. I admire the time and effort that these residents and many others have put in over the years to protect and build the best features of this small community.

Tony Miller, to my delight, shared with me memories and insights into the life of his father, Henry, in Big Sur. State Park Ranger Kathy Wilson spent time reflecting on the issues relating to land use, preservation, and community in Big Sur. Staff at the Big Sur Library, the Harrison Memorial Library, the Henry Miller Library, and the Central Coast office of the California Coastal Commission have all been helpful in providing me access to documents. The Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute also generously opened their archive to me, as did the Monterey County Historical Society. I have always found the Monterey County offices in Salinas to be staffed with professional and helpful people. Morgan Yates and Matthew Roth of the Auto Club Archives in Los Angeles have helped me track down information about the early history of the highway through Big Sur while providing good cheer and collegiality.

Two editors at the University of California Press, Kate Marshall and Bradley Depew, have been nothing but professional and delightful. Paul Psoinos provided copyediting as well as numerous thoughtful and helpful suggestions. I am grateful to Kate Marshall for her keen sense of California and its stories, and for steering me toward the final shape of this project. Her suggestions led me to reach out to Coastal Commissioner Mary Shallenberger, who took her valuable time to discuss matters of conservation and habitation along the California coast. I am grateful for the work that she and others do to preserve what is best about our beloved coastline. I also thank scholars Eric Boime, David Rich Lewis, and Dan Selmi for sharing valuable insights on California and the West. In the end, the interpretations found in this book are my own, and I hope will prove satisfactory to the many people who helped me form them.

I worked with wonderful historians at UC Davis, one of whom is Louis Warren, my dissertation advisor. I continue to benefit from his compelling ideas about the West and its environments. I also thank Kathy Olmsted, who I have long admired for her superb teaching, scholarship, and mentorship. Fellow graduate studentsLizzie Grennan Browning, Katharine Cortes, Jessie Hewitt, Chau Johnsen Kelly, Bob Reinhardt, and Alison Steinerhelped make my studies more meaningful and enjoyable. For the past six years I have had the good fortune to work with an exceptional team of historians and educators at the California HistorySocial Science Project, including Shennan Hutton, Nancy McTygue, Beth Slutsky, and Tuyen Tran. I am continually impressed by their dedication to enhancing K12 history education. Their work inspires me, and their friendship is a gift.

I have been blessed with a wonderful network of friends outside the university as well. The Armstrongs, Elizabeth Cellinese-Dickinson, Yvonne Hunter, Leah McMillan, and other friends and neighbors in Davis have all made life here quite rich indeed. I am grateful for the many years of friendship with the Darwish-Pochapin and Rosenberg-Burbank families, who have opened their hearts and doors to me as if I were family. Farther afield, my lifelong friends Melissa Mason and Katie Hodgdon have consistently buoyed my spirits, and it is not a stretch to say that their friendship over the past many decades has helped me see the world as brightly as I do.

If ever there were angels in my life, they have been Vino and Nava Roy. These amazing friends have provided guidance, encouragement, and love over the past fifteen years, in addition to room and board during numerous research trips to the Monterey area. No trip to Big Sur was complete without a many-hours-long conversation around their dinner table, where we delved into matters both large and small. I could not ask for truer friends or more admirable mentors.

I thank my mother, Ann Brooks, not only for taking the time to read and edit this manuscript, but for the much larger gift of her constant encouragement and love. Long ago she set me on the path of a good education, and for this I will be forever grateful. I thank my brother Adam for introducing me to California on that cross-country adventure so many years ago, my sister, Rachel, for enjoying the wildflowers with me, and my brother Josh for sharing his enormous heart and his priceless wit.