es based on tanoak bark harvesting, gold mining, and limestone
processing, the local economy provided more jobs and supported a larger
population than it does today. In the 1880s, a gold rush boom town named
Manchester sprang up at Alder Creek in the far south. 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 20th century and burned
to the ground in 1909. There were no reliable roads to supply these industries,
so local entrepreneurs built small boat landings at a few coves along the coast
like Bixby Landing. None of these landings remain today, and few other signs of
this brief industrial period are visible to the casual traveler. The rugged,
isolated terrain kept out all but the sturdiest and most self-sufficient
settlers. A 30 miles (48 km) trip to Monterey could take three days by
wagon, over a rough and dangerous track that ended in present day Big Sur
Village. Travelers further south had to follow a horse trail that connected the
various homesteaders along the coast.
Before
Highway 1
After the brief industrial boom faded, the
early decades of the 20th century passed with few changes, and Big Sur remained
a nearly inaccessible wilderness. As late as the 1920s, only two homes in the
entire region had electricity, locally generated by water wheels and windmills.
Most of the population lived without power until connections to the California
electric grid were established in the early 1950s. The California coast south
of Carmel and north of San Simeon was one of the most remote regions in the
state, rivaling nearly any other region in the United States for its difficult
access.
