Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park preserves redwood groves and the Big Sur River canyon on California’s Central Coast, in a landscape long inhabited by the Esselen, whose seasonal lifeways and acorn-grinding mortar holes remain part of the area’s history. In the American period, settlers arrived along the river, and the Pfeiffer family, who settled there in 1869, gave the place its enduring name. Their ranch became the coast’s first formal lodging in 1908, helping open Big Sur to visitors. In 1933 John Pfeiffer chose preservation over development by selling 700 acres to California, creating the foundation of the modern park.