17-Mile Drive

File:Hotel Del Monte, Cal, by Watkins, Carleton E., 1829-1916.jpg

In 1602 the Monterey Peninsula was mapped by Spanish explorers. By 1840 the area now called Pebble Beach was a rancho left to widow Carmen Garcia Barreto Maderiaga Maria by her husband. She sold the {{convert|4000|acre|ha|adj=on}} property for $500 in 1846. Ownership passed several times until 1862 when the property was purchased at auction for 12 cents for {{convert|1|acre|ha|adj=on}} by David Jacks. At the time, the area was called "Stillwater Cove". Jacks leased the land to the "China Man Hop Company", a small village with a population of about 30 Chinese fishermen living in shacks built upon the rocky shoreline.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PETIxLAjsmIC&dq=history+of+Pebble+Beach&pg=PA33 | title=Insiders' Guide to the Monterey Peninsula | publisher=Insiders' Guide | edition=4th | author=Owens, Tom | author2=Bellon Chatfield, Melanie | year=2004 | pages=31| isbn=9780762729708 }}

In 1880, Jacks sold the land to the Pacific Improvement Company (PIC), a consortium of The Big Four railroad barons: Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis Huntington and Leland Stanford.Michael Norman, 2008, Haunted Homeland: A Definitive Collection of North American Ghost Stories, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xWi5KAGHEc0C&pg=PA40 p. 40], Tor Books, {{ISBN|978-0-7653-2159-6}}{{cite web |url=http://www.mchsmuseum.com/jacks2.html |title=Land King: The Story of David Jack |last=Jack |first=Kenneth C. |year=2001 |publisher=Monterey County Historical Society |accessdate=July 10, 2011}} By 1892, the PIC laid out a scenic road that they called the 17-Mile Drive, meandering along the beaches and among the forested areas between Monterey and Carmel.{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CztEAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA65 |page=65 |title=To San Francisco |journal=American Machinist |volume=15 |date=June 2, 1892 |accessdate=July 10, 2011}} Within short order, the area became a tourist destination with the building of the Hotel Del Monte.

The hotel was the starting and finishing point for 17-Mile Drive, (originally called the 18-mile Drive by hotel operators). The drive was offered as a pleasure excursion to hotel guests, and was intended to attract wealthy buyers of large and scenic residential plots on PIC land. Sightseers riding horses or carriages along the 17-Mile Drive sometimes stopped at Pebble Beach to pick up agate and other stones polished smooth by the waves, and they commented on a few unusual tree formations known as the Witch Tree and the Ostrich Tree—the latter formed by two trees leaning on each other. At that time, the Chinese fishing community continued in existence despite mounting anti-Chinese sentiment among Monterey residents of European heritage.{{cite web |url=http://www.mchsmuseum.com/chinesefishing.html |title=Chinese Start Monterey Fishing Industry|last=Kemp |first=Jonathan |year=2010 |publisher=Monterey County Historical Society |accessdate=July 10, 2011}} At roadside stands, Chinese-American girls sold shells and polished pebbles to tourists. In the 1900s, the automobile began replacing horses on 17-Mile Drive, and by 1907 there were only automobiles.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QHzsuDuVPZ4C&pg=PA87|title=Monterey's Hotel Del Monte |last=Cain |first=Julie |publisher=Arcadia |year=2005 |series=Images of America|isbn=0-7385-3032-8}} The drive featured region's historical sites, forests, and on to the coastal scenic attractions in the Hotel Del Monte Park Reservation, as it was known at the time.http://lgdata.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/docs/1314/611051/HDM_1889_Souvenir_Booklet.pdf Page 28

File:NPS herrmann hall lrg.jpg

Drawn by six bay horses, President Benjamin Harrison took the coach ride through the reservation in 1891. The coach was adorned with the national colors "and the harness on the horses was lined with bunting and roses as far as possible." In the newspaper The Monterey Cypress, President Harrison noted "This is a lovely spot. I only wish I could stay here a week."{{Cite web |url=http://libguides.nps.edu/content.php?pid=359320&sid=2940630 |title=Del Monte's 17-Mile Drive - Historic Hotel del Monte - LibGuides Homepage at Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Dudley Knox Library (DKL) |access-date=2013-07-16 |archive-date=2013-09-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130917231107/http://libguides.nps.edu/content.php?pid=359320&sid=2940630 |url-status=dead }}

In 1887, the hotel was destroyed by fire and replaced with a new structure. The Del Monte Golf Course was added in 1897 as part of the hotel and is today the oldest operating course west of the Mississippi.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QHzsuDuVPZ4C&q=17+Mile+Drive+history| title=Monterey's Hotel Del Monte | publisher=7 | author=Cain, Julie| year=2005 | isbn=9780738530321 }} In 1919, the Los Angeles Times called the 17-Mile Drive one of the "great wonders of the world."

On February 27, 1919, Samuel Finley Brown Morse formed the Del Monte Properties Company, and acquired the extensive holdings of the Pacific Improvement Company, which included the Del Monte Forest and the Hotel Del Monte.[http://www.pebblebeach.com/page.asp?id=1378 Pebble Beach Company History] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100723090003/http://www.pebblebeach.com/page.asp?id=1378 |date=July 23, 2010 }}{{cite web|title=History of NPS and the Infamous Hotel Del Monte|url=http://www.nps.edu/About/NPSHistory/History.html|publisher=Naval Postgraduate School|accessdate=22 June 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130701053235/http://www.nps.edu/About/NPSHistory/History.html|archivedate=1 July 2013}} Another fire destroyed that structure and was replaced by a third hotel. This new hotel was finished in 1926 and requisitioned by the United States government as a training facility in 1942. After World War II, the Hotel del Monte building and surrounding grounds were acquired by the United States Navy for its Naval Postgraduate School and the building was renamed Herrmann Hall. The Del Monte Forest, including the famed 17-Mile Drive, remained under the ownership of Del Monte Properties Company.

On March 30, 1977, the Del Monte Properties Company was reincorporated as the Pebble Beach Corporation. In May 1979, 20th Century Fox, later bought by Marvin Davis, purchased the Pebble Beach Corporation. When the film company was sold to Rupert Murdoch in 1985, Davis kept several company assets not directly related to the film and TV industry, including the Pebble Beach Company. In 1990 Davis sold the company to Japanese businessman Minoru Isutani, who made it a subsidiary of the Japanese resort company Taiheiyo Club Inc. under a holding company called the Lone Cypress Company. In 1999 the Pebble Beach Company was acquired from Cypress by an investor group led by Clint Eastwood, Arnold Palmer, and Peter Ueberroth.

File:17 mile drive at Pacific Grove entrance.JPG

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At the north end, a portion of the early route through Pacific Grove begins at the intersection of Del Monte Blvd and Esplanade Street. The famous portion of 17-Mile Drive then begins a few miles south of this point{{Where|date=January 2023}}. The crossing of Highway 68 (Holman Highway/Sunset Drive) and 17-Mile Drive marks the entrance to Pebble Beach.

From the Sunset Drive/Pacific Grove gate, the drive runs inland past Spanish Bay, then adjacent to beaches and up into the coastal hills, providing scenic viewpoints. The route allows for self-directed travel and stopping, with frequent turnouts along the roadway in many locations along the route. Without stops, it takes a minimum of 20 minutes to reach Carmel. The numerous turnouts allow stopping to take pictures, or getting out to stroll along the ocean or among the trees. Visitors receive a map that points out some of the more scenic spots. In addition, a red-dashed line is marked in the center of the main road to guide visitors, and help prevent them from venturing into the adjacent neighborhood streets.{{cite web | url=http://www.pebblebeach.com/activities/explore-the-monterey-peninsula/17-mile-drive | title=17-Mile Drive at Pebble Beach | publisher=Pebble Beach Resorts | accessdate=2011-04-05}}

File:Lone Cypress.jpg ]]

Primary scenic attractions include Cypress Point, Bird Rock, Point Joe, Pescadero Point, Fanshell Beach & Seal Point. The famous "Witch Tree" landmark, often used as scenic background in movies and television, was formerly at Pescadero Point. The tree was blown down by a storm on January 14, 1964. Pescadero Point is also the site of the Ghost Tree, a landmark Monterey Cypress tree. The tree gives its name to a dangerous extreme surfing location known to have storm waves.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwcUL8HXSMgC&pg=PT82|title=Extreme Waves |last=Smith |first=Craig B. |publisher=Dockside Consultants |year=2006 |edition=2nd}} Currently, the surf break of Ghost Tree is off limits to surfers and watercraft.{{cite news|last=Yount|first=Maggie|title=PWCs Officially Extinguished At Ghost|url=http://www.surfermag.com/features/pwcs_officially_extinguished_at_ghost_tree/|accessdate=September 16, 2012|newspaper=Surfer Magazine|date=July 22, 2010}}

Chief among the scenic attractions is the Lone Cypress, a salt-pruned Monterey cypress (macrocarpa) tree which is the official symbol of Pebble Beach and a frequent fixture of television broadcasts from this area. In 1990 the Monterey Journal reported that Pebble Beach's lawyer, Kerry C. Smith, said "The image of the tree has been trademarked by us," and that it intended to control any display of the cypress for commercial purposes. The company had warned photographers that "they cannot even use existing pictures of the tree for commercial purposes".[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4DC1031F931A3575BC0A966958260 Monterey Journal; Trees and Trademarks: The Disputes Run Deep] Katherine Bishop, Special To The New York Times, August 2, 1990

File:17 Mile Drive photo D Ramey Logan.jpg|Beach near the Pacific Grove entrance of the 17 Mile Drive

File:17 Mile Drive cropped.jpg|Beach access near golf links at Pebble Beach

File:17 Mile Drive Bird Rock.jpg|Bird Rock

File:Seal Curiosity.JPG|Seal seen along 17-mile drive

{{Reflist|2}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://www.pebblebeach.com/17-mile-drive/ Pebble Beach Resorts: 17-Mile Drive]
• [http://www.lkjh.biz/bike/california/monterey/carmel/index.html Photographic] description of the whole of 17-Mile Drive.

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{{Pebble Beach}}

{{Monterey County tourist attractions|state=collapsed}}

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Category:Roads in Monterey County, California

Category:Toll roads in California

Category:Non-freeway toll roads

Category:Tourist attractions in Monterey County, California

Category:Pacific Grove, California

Category:Pebble Beach, California