In 1872 the editor of the county newspaper took a ride over the mountains to inspect the village of Pescadero. Here is a partial account:
“….Pescadero has undergone considerable change within twelve months. A new bridge has been erected over the Pescadero Creek, a handsome and substantial structure; streets arranged in ship shape style, new buildings erected, and the town generally changed . The Garretson & Co. side, as usually distinguished from the opposite side of the creek, has thrown up the sponge and gone over to the Swanton [House] side, save a store, saloon, blacksmith shop and market; and at least two of these are about to follow.
“The old Pescadero Exchange Hotel, formerly the property of Mr. Cumins, is now the property of Garretson & Stryker, and the material is being delivered to erect on the adjoining lot a two story building, 35 x 80 feet on the ground, the lower story to be occupied by the proprietors as a mercantile store, the upper as a public hall; and the first story of the Exchange by the post office, express office and telegraph office, all of which they are agents for…The hotels are the feature of the town at present, there being two of them, the Swanton and Lincoln**….livery stables: Coburn & Marston’s, Wm Pinkham’s…”
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About the Lincoln Hotel:
“1870, Charles Kinsey, proprietor. Rates reduced. I am now prepared to accommodate the public, with perfect satisfaction. I am now prepared to accommodate the public, with perfect satisfaction. My house and furniture are all new., is 50 miles south of San Francisco and may be reached daily from San Mateo in Troy coaches, that run in connection with the morning train for San Jose , leaving San Jose immediately on the arrival of the cars, and reach this place in four or five hours, via Crystal Springs and Spanishtown. Guests at this taken to the celebrated Pebble Beach*** and back free. Pot and cold baths free. Also, children taught riding, free…”
From: Daily Evening Bulletin, San Francisco, August 9, 1870
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About Pebble Beach, 1895
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 26, 1895.
PEBBLES AT PESCADERO.
Geologist Hanks Tells by What
Process They Came
There.
THE ACTION OF THE WAVES.
It Makes the Pieces of Decompos –
ing Granite Round and
Smooth.
In response to the question, “Do the
pebbles on Pescadero Beach come from the
land, or are they cast up by the sea?” pro –
pounded by L. Coburn of San Mateo, Geol –
ogist Henry G. Hanks has written the fol –
lowing opinion :
San Francisco, March 25, 1895.
I made a thorough examination of Pesca –
dero beach, and published the results officially
in the year 1884 in the Fourth Annual Report
ol the State Mineralogist of California, folio
336, as follows:
“The beach at Pescadero, San Mateo County,
has a wide celebrity for the beautiful pebbles
found there. These are nearly all quartz,
agates, carnellans, jasper and chalcedony, of
many beautiful varieties. On the shore, under
a low bluff nearly at the sea level, a stratitied
sandstone dips from 65 to 72 degrees from the
horizontal to the southwest. The strike is
northwest to southeast, magnetic. Under this,
uucomformably, lies a sedimentary formation,
more recent, in horizontal strata, consisting of
sand, water-worn bowlders and pebbles. This
formation constitutes the blurt”, and the peb –
bles on the beach result from its disintegra –
tion. The upper sedimentary seems to be
formed from disintegration of the lower, which
extends inland for an unknown distance. In
the lower formations the sandstones are of
different degrees ot fineness, from the finest
silt to very coarse conglomerate; in the con –
glomerate may be seen small bowlders of
chalcedony, jasper, agate and porphyry, which
are the same as those found on the beach; but
the latter are concentrated by long-continued
action of the waves, which have washed away
the sand, disintegrated the sandstone bowlders
and gathered the harder pebbles together on
the beach. Some of the sandstones are ce –
mented by oxide of iron, and all the loose
sands are highly ferruginous. On the way
from Pescadero to the beach the road is cut
through a formation not stratified, but in
which the bowlders are imbedded. This gen –
eral formation seems to be the same as is ob –
served in the oil regions of San Mateo, San la
Clara and Los Angeles counties.”
Although at that time I fully made up my
mind, I thought best to again visit the locality.
which I did on March 22.
I examined the beaches for a considerable
distance north of “Pebble Beach,” and the
bluff or bank and rocka, as well as the surface
of the ground for a considerable distance from
the sea; and gathered and examined pebbles
which had not been on the beaches, but were
taken from the banks hundreds of feet inland.
Some of these pebbles 1 present with this re –
port. I find them to be mineralogically identi –
cal with those on “Pebble Beach/
I also obtained specimens of the underlying
bedrock and find it to be the sedimentary
variety named “arkose,” formed apparently
from decomposed granite. I noticed at several
places in the bluffs along the beaches I exam –
ined outcropping strata of washed pebbles, a
portion of which had fallen on the rocks be –
low. These examinations fully confirm the
opinion I formed eleven years ago.
The sea along the coast of California, between
San Francisco and Pigeon Point, is encroach –
ing upon the land. The effect may be seen
along the Pescadero beaches and at the high
sedimentary bluffs between Lobetus and Half –
moon Bay. The waves, which are resisted by
the hard underlying rocks, erode easily the
softer superimposed sediments which are con –
tinually falling from the banks. The breakers
then dashing the detrital matter against the
I harder rocks, wholly disintegrate it, the re –
flux sweeps away the lighter particles in the
I condition of sand, spreads them out on the
benches and finally washes them beyond the
surf. Tbe heavier portions, including the peb –
i bles, are able in a measure to resist by their
| gravity the action of the waves, and remain for
a time exposed and concentrated; but they in
turn are also swept out to sea, and a new crop
from the caving banJc take their places.
This operation has continued for a long
period and probably will for many centuries to
come. The same kind of pebbles exist in the
banks above other beaches, but in less quan –
tity, and owing to the form of the little bays,
or other causes, the conditions differ, and the
pebbles are sooner carried out to sea or are at
once covered out of sight by the t,and.
At several other localities on the Califor –
nia coast there are pebble beaches similar
to those of Pescadero, the most noted of
which are those near Crescent City, in Del
Norte County, and at Lake Tahoe,