CHAPTER II 



A MASTER PLAN FOR THE FUTURE* 



"The greatest meeting of land and water in the world." 



Extravagant praise for any one portion of the earth 's surface ; yet these 

 are the words of a noted student of landscape, the painter Francis Mc- 

 Comas. And there are many who agree that on Point Lobos there have been 

 brought to a distinguished climax many elements that make for landscape 

 beauty and significance. 



Deriving its name from the colonies of sea lions whose hoarse barkings 

 are carried inland from the offshore rocks, Punt a de los Lohos Marinos 

 (point of the "sea wolves" to the early Spaniards) has scientific interest 

 because the habitats of two species of sea lion — California and Steller — 

 here overlap ; because it holds the farthest-north breeding place of the Cali- 

 fornia Brown pelican ; because many forms of land and marine life remain 

 here undisturbed, in remarkable relationship to their environment and to 

 each other. But the outstanding distinction of the Point — and the element 

 which produces most of its unique atmosphere — unquestionably lies in the 

 presence here, associated with other diverse plant life, of the most out- 

 standing natural grove of Cupressus macrocarpa, the Monterey cypress, 

 widely distributed in earlier geological time, but now in its native state 

 making a last stand in the Monterey region. Clinging precariously to the 

 cliffs above the surf, shaped into picturesque forms by wind and weather, 

 shrouded sometimes in the smoke of drifting fog, the living trees rich 

 green in foliage, the dead ones standing stark in silhouette, their bleached 

 white twisted branches red with algae, these cypresses are the characteristic 

 note in a landscape beloved of artists for its form and color, and the 

 dramatic story revealed by its oceanward pinnacles — the never-ending con- 

 flict between sea and land. 



It was the recognition of such distinction that inspired the State of Cali- 

 fornia, after long negotiations and at considerable cost, to acquire Point 

 Lobos in order to preserve it as part of the Nation's heritage of beauty. 



Escaping almost miraculously from the destruction of native landscape 

 values that had occurred around it, passing from owner to owner who 

 regarded it lightly — once in the free-and-easy early days of the Mexican 

 regime, tradition says, lost as the stake in a game of cards — site of a 

 whaling station, shipment point for a coal mine, laid out on paper as a 

 townsite with its harsh gridiron of streets, grazed over by cattle, in parts 

 occasionally burned — this rare and exceptional landscape .was finally pos- 

 sessed by an owner who appreciated its full value ; and, when it passed 

 into the trusteeship of the State of California, fortunately held most of the 

 essentially primitive character that had lured increasing thousands to it. 



Yet when the State acquired Point Lobos, apprehension as to its future 

 still remained. Residents of Carmel, quaint and leisurely village which had 



• By Newton B. Drury, Chief, Division of Beaches and Parks, State of California ; Director, 

 National Park Service, from 1940 to 1951; for many years active as Secretary of the 

 Save-the-Redwoods League and Point Lobos Advisory Committee ; Research Associate in 

 Protection of Primitive Landscape, Carnegie Institution of Washington, D. C. 



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