12 POINT LOBOS RESERVE 



long been a refuge for votaries of the arts, held up their hands in horror 

 at the prospect of a state park. They visioned formal paths and artificial 

 masonry, networks of roads and the frantic rush of automobile traffic, the 

 din of crowds, the nondescript structures of catch-penny concessions and 

 tourist camps, all, they feared, to the loss of more precious, but more 

 fragile things — the spell, the mystery, the beauty of this site. 



The Carmelites sighed with relief, therefore, and so did nature lovers 

 throughout the. Nation, when the State Park Commission set its face 

 against these possibilities, pledging for all time that Point Lobos would be 

 a "reserve" — a property held in trust as nature had designed it. For the 

 commission concluded that it was in the public interest to hold this land 

 unmodified, even at the cost of considerable restriction of use, as thus only 

 could its highest values to the public be perpetuated. 



Even so, the declaration of such a policy was not enough. What were 

 the values? How could they be protected for people of many generations 

 to enjoy? To find an answer to these questions was the complex problem 

 confronting the commission. 



Gladly, therefore, they availed themselves of the offer of the Save-the- 

 Redwoods League, with financial assistance from the Carnegie Corporation 

 and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, to make a thorough study, to 

 formulate a policy, and to recommend a plan. An advisory committee of 

 scientists, artists and conservationists was formed, with Dr. Ray Lyman 

 Wilbur of Stanford University as its chairman. Specialists in many fields 

 were engaged to make sustained observations, and to prepare an inventory, 

 as it were, of all values possessed by Point Lobos, both material and in- 

 tangible. Frequent conferences were held on the ground by the committee 

 and its advisers, to determine the interrelation and proper evaluation of 

 all the findings. It was not enough to map the topography, to analyze the 

 geological structures, to plot the vegetative cover, to chronicle the 300 

 species of plants, 178 species of vertebrate animals, 88 species of marine 

 invertebrates along the shore and in the tidal pools, the many species of 

 seaweed and marine algae. The normal balance of conditions favorable to 

 the persistence of each plant and animal species had to be studied. More, 

 the relation of this balance to human use of the area had to be gauged. 



It would be easy to become prosy in recounting the findings of the spe- 

 cialists in geology, zoology, botany, forestry, ecology, plant pathology — 

 even archeology, and early history — each of whom contributed significant 

 facts; the plotting and analysis of esthetic effects involved in the pattern 

 and composition of the landscape ; the study of forces, whether natural or 

 artificial, which might tend to lessen or destroy the qualities that all these 

 interrelated factors produced. 



It took two years to prepare an 850-page typewritten volume embodying 

 these reports and studies, and then to Frederick Law Olmsted, well-known 

 landscape architect, and his coworker, George B. Vaughan, fell the task of 

 correlating the findings in making a plan, the object of which was, with the 



The State Park Commission pledged for all 



time that Point Lobos would be a "Reserve"— a property 



held in trust as nature designed it 



