In 1866, Loren Coburn, now a rich man, his wife, Mary Antoinette, and son, Wally, took a long postponed vacation back home to the East Coast, to visit Vermont and Massachusetts.
We don’t know where they roomed, or the specific purpose of the visit, but they liked it enough to stay for two years. Of course they met with their relatives, including Loren’s brother, Lemmuel, a successful entrepreneur who lived in Holyoke, Massachusetts. During the visit, the Coburns met Lemmuel’s son, Arzo, who was Wally’s age.
The long vacation over, the Coburns returned to California, and Loren went on a land buying spree, picking up 10,000 acres of the San Lorenzo Rancho near King City in Monterey County. He bought 1500 acres in Merced County and building lots in Fresno.
The property in Monterey County stood near the iron rails of the Southern Pacific; Loren lobbied the company for a station to be built there, and assuming a town would grow up around the depot, suggested it be called Coburn. He was turned down but not discouraged.
Although Loren didn’t own land in the village of Pescadero, he did own everything surrounding it, including beloved Pebble Beach, he said, as well as busy Pigeon Point, site of the only nearby shipping outlet.
Believing that one day soon a railroad would appear on the Coastside, he became convinced that the best place for a station would be at the tourist attraction known as Pebble Beach. And this time he would convince the railroad owners to build the station and call it “Coburnville.”
…more coming…