Created by June Morrall
Follow the 1930s bathing beauties at El Granada beach–see the bountiful sand dunes? Today this beach is better known as “Surfer’s Beach”. You won’t find any sand dunes, though….
(From a Chamber of Commerce Promotional Film, 1930s that appeared in my 1981 documentary, “The Mystery of Half Moon Bay”)
In 1913 a âSee America Firstâ? travel campaign captured the imagination of new car owners, and hot on the trail of the trend, the California-based editors of âMotoringâ? magazine recommended that readers âsee Half Moon Bay firstâ?.
What they called the âKings Mountain to Half Moon Bayâ? tour caught on quickly. âMotoringâ? advised âcamera fiendsâ? to brings rolls of film to capture âthe picture primeval and beautiful, as it is restless and wild.â?
Clutching the steering wheel of the latest model Kissel Kar, the driver and his party of motor enthusiasts sampled the much talked about 1-day tour from Kings Mountain to Half Moon Bay.
For the jaunty motorists in the Kissel Kar, the Kings Mountain âroadâ? resembled not a rocky brown trail but rather verses from an 18th century poem: âa long green lane canopied overhead with interlacing boughs.â?
Traveling west over Tunitas Creek Road, they paused to contemplate an abandoned sawmill, overgrown with ferns. The Kissel Kar passed through the shadow-filled canyons bordered with vibrant green ferns and Redwood trees. The canyons opened up as the Pacific Ocean and the rolling hills came into view. The air felt cooler and the color of the landscape changed from green to earthy brown tones.
The new Kissel Kar swung north toward Half Moon Bayâthen better known as âSpanishtownâ?. The townâs mood was sleepy, compared with the wheeling and dealing that had dominated the area during the Ocean Shore Railroad real estate boom.
But when the automobile continued heading north to enjoy the spectacular views from Pedro Mountain Road near Montaraâthe editors of âMotoringâ? magazine discouraged readers from following in their tire tracks.
âEven with a thoroughly reliable driver and trustworthy car,â? advised the magazine, âPedro Mountain road is in such poor condition that anyone going this way is simply inviting disaster.â?
Underscoring the danger was a large sign that read: âDANGEROUS FOR AUTOMOBILESâTAKE ROAD VIA SAN MATEOâ?
If they chose to ignore this sign, motorists encountered grades as steep as 25 percent in some places. The hairpin turns called for âthe coolest heads, firmest hands and strongest brakes that a car can have.â?
But while the driver and his passengers in the Kissel Kar warned others not to drive Pedro Mountain Road, they took the risksâand as a result, we can enjoy the photographs they took more than 90 years ago.
Hello June,
Thanks for running the SF Examiner piece on the shuttle bus.
I used to read the Examiner regularly but these days the only place I can get reliable information about Devil’s Slide is online, mostly from you.
Maybe I’m a bit dim but I don’t understand what this shuttle is supposed to do.
Does it run just north and south, on highway 1? I thought we already had buses that do that (the ones I see are always empty).
One thing’s for sure. May the Good Lord protect us from any organization that’s called the Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance. It’s bound to cause more trouble than any good.
And who, in heaven’s name, ever heard of the Parking Company of America? Just what we needed– another entity sucking up taxpayer money.
Well, I hope these shuttles are well marked so at least we’ll know who these folks are that are making traffic even worse.
Why didn’t they just take the $160,000 and apply it to fixing the Slide? Maybe that would help get Devil’s Slide open an hour sooner.
Montara Bob
So the politicians have a “solution” to the Devil’s Slide Crisis:
an expensive government shuttle, with the dough going to
the Parking Company of America (how appropriate).
It will enable Coastsiders to sit in a dirty
bus for hours, and then drop you off in inconvenient locations
on the Coastside and elsewhere, so you can take more
socialist buses.Talk about time-wasting, money-wasting baloney.
Let’s put the bureaucrats and politicians on the bus permanently,
and Open Devil’s Slide, Now.
Lew From Far Away
I don’t understand this story: tell me more about the shuttle. Is it crossing Devil’s Slide? Will we be able to see what construction crews are doing? Can we keep our cars on the Pacifica side and get a free ride over the Slide to Half Moon Bay? What will the shuttle look like? Air conditioned for those hot summer days? Who are the drivers? Will you be hiring local drivers?
(From S.F. Examiner, June 16, 2006)
“County plans shuttle to, from coastside
July-September route meant to alleviate closure issues
Relief by way of shuttle is coming to San Mateo County coastal residents burdened by ongoing traffic snarls caused by the closure of state Highway 1 in April.
San Mateo County officials approved the use of $160,000 in emergency funds to help develop an emergency shuttle service for coastal residents.
State Highway 1 between Pacifica and Montara was closed April 2, after heavy rains caused a landslide that compromised the thoroughfare.
‘This shuttle service will enable commuters and students to travel to and from the coastside comunities that are both north and south of the Devil’s Slide closure,’ Pacifica Councilman Jim Vreeland said in a statement.
Parking Company of America will provide the shuttle service, and the Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance and SamTrans will develop the shuttle route and schedule, whic is expected to begin in July.
‘While the shuttle service won’t alleviate much of the travel time needed for their commute, it will take some cars off the road and allow these residents to sit back and relax,’ Half Moon Bay Vice Mayor Naomi Patridge said.
Funding for the shuttle service will be provided through September, at which time the closed section of the highway is expected to open.
For more information on the emergency shuttle service, contact Christine Maley-Grubi of the Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance at (650) 588-8170.”
Me & my dad at the beach.
In 1980-81 I interviewed Montara environmentalist Nancy Maule at her Montara home for âThe Mystery of Half Moon Bayâ?. I don’t know what I expected but she looked like a stern schoolteacher. As soon as she began talking it was obvious that she was not only passionate about her beliefs but she knew the history of environmentalism on the Coastside.
A proposed freeway helped fuel Nancyâs activism (she didnât drive a car when I met her). She recalled hosting a meeting in her living room organized to fight the freeway, with the preservation of open space the objective.
Nancyâs group considered the possibilities of a federal reserve stretching from Milagra Ridge to the north all the way south to Highway 92, encompassing some 40,000 acres.
âWhen we first arrived in the 1950s,â? she told me, âthere were no development plans. It was quiet until the early â60s. Then we heard [Henry] Doelger had huge plans to develop.â?
[Doelger was eyeing Princeton-by-the-Sea for what he envisioned as a âPolynesian Villageâ?, with all the âtropicalâ? trappings you can imagine].
Thereâs a local legend, Nancy said. âDoelger brought the president of the Bank of America to one of the hilltops, waved his hand, and said: âEureka! Weâve found it! Hereâs my new cityâ. The Bank of America president thought it was a great idea.
ââ¦.The only plans effectively carried out can be seen in Half Moon Bayâwhich delineates the philosophical attitude between Half Moon Bay and the rest of the Coastside,â? Nancy said, adding that âAll growth comes to pass in Half Moon Bay.â?
Note: Nancy Maule’s group of activists successfully picketed Henry Doelger’s project at Princeton. The big developer’s plans for a “Polynesian Fishing Village” fell through but he did construct a housing subdivision across the way, on the east side of Highway 1.
In his July 30th report, the handwriting expert Chauncey McGovern raised grave suspicions. He advised all parties that the signature was not that of Sarah Coburn. There were too many variations, he noted, between the signature on the will and the one on official records.
The âsâ? and the subsequent âaâ? on the official documents, for example, were not connectedâbut they were connected on the alleged forgery. On the official documents, the âaâ? was executed with one stroke, while it took two strokes on the will. In the authentic signature, the final âhâ? in the name, Sarah, âfaded out in a flourishâ?. In the will it looked like a drawn line.
Finally, Chauncey McGovern pointed out that the will was typed on a typewriter of âancient vintageâ?. Only Sarahâs signature was actually signed by hand. The letters and the alignment indicated that the will had not been typed by a stenographer â and, in his opinion, not in a lawyerâs office.
Did Sarah Coburn know how to type? No one knew for certain.
McGovernâs report did not speculate on who the alleged forger might have been.
In 1920 the will contest was dismissed when a financial agreement was reached between the beneficiaries of Sarahâs will and the East Coast relatives. By that time, the plaintiffâs attorney Charles Humphrey had acquired a desirable stretch of South Coast property. At the scenic Pescadero ranch he now owned, Humphrey entertained a steady stream of guests until his death in the 1940s.
A year after the case was dismissed, Chauncey McGovernâs ad seeking artists to rent the Von Suppe Poet and Peasant Cottage in Montara appeared in the Half Moon Bay Review.
In the early 1990s the cottage still stood in Montara, across the way from the old Montara Schoolhouse on Sixth Street. At that time, maintaining its tradition, the Von Suppe cottage was home to a music teacher.
