Notleys Landing (also, Notley's Landing) is an uninhabited former

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in the

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ha ...

region of

Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas. Montere ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It was located near the mouth of the Palo Colorado Canyon south of the Carmel River, at an elevation of 112 feet (34 m).

History

Early homesteaders in the area included George Notley (March 21, 1896), his brother William F. Notley (May 8, 1901), Isaac N. Swetnam, who obtained a

land patent A land patent is a form of letters patent assigning official ownership of a particular tract of land that has gone through various legally-prescribed processes like surveying and documentation, followed by the letter's signing, sealing, and publi ...

for property along the Little Sur River and surrounding area on February 1, 1894. and Samuel L. Trotter (January 23, 1914). Swetnam and Trotter worked for the Notley brothers, who harvested Redwood in the Santa Cruz area and expanded operations to include tanbark in the mountains around Palo Colorado Canyon. Swetnam married Ellen J. Lawson and bought the Notley home at the mouth of Palo Colorado Canyon for their residence. He also constructed two cabins and a small barn on his patent along the

Little Sur River The Little Sur River is a long river on the Central Coast of California. The river and its main tributary, the South Fork, drain a watershed of about of the Big Sur area, a thinly settled region of the Central California coast where the Sant ...

at the site of the future Pico Blanco Boy Scout camp. The cabin at the mouth of Palo Colorado Canyon still stands. The side of the home facing Highway 1 used to be the rear of the building when the original wagon road ran on the eastern side of the building. William and Godfrey Notley built a landing to ship lumber and to receive goods at the location. It was used heavily between 1903 and 1907, and a small settlement grew up around it for a few years. But as the supply of readily harvestable tanbark and redwood dwindled, the doghole port was little used. It was abandoned in 1937 when Highway 1 was completed. During

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

, a dance hall was located just south of the landing, "the wildest dance hall on the coast", according to Big Sur historian Jeff Norman. "During the Prohibition era, the landing served the needs of Carmel's drought-stricken populace. It was conveniently close, but just outside the effective limits of police scrutiny." The bar developed a notorious reputation, and "was frequented by the lime kiln workers, mainly Italians, and every Sunday morning dead Italians would be found in the woods." Except for the Swetnam cabin, all of the buildings have burned or been dismantled. The concrete foundation of the hoist is still visible.

Current use

In 2001, the

Big Sur Land Trust The Big Sur Land Trust is a private 501(c)(3) non-profit located in Monterey, California, that has played an instrumental role in preserving land in California's Big Sur and Central Coast (California), Central Coast regions. The trust was the f ...

bought the approximately site south of Carmel for just under $1 million from Rose Ulman, whose family had owned it for several decades. The trust received financial support from the Catherine L. and Robert O. McMahan Foundation, the Barnet J. Segal Charitable Trust, and the Robert V. Brown and Patricia M. Brown Monterey Fund. They announced they intended to open it to the public with hiking trails, although the site is still fenced and closed to the public.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in California Unincorporated communities in Monterey County, California Populated coastal places in California