The name Pebble Beach was originally given
to a rocky cove, a small part of the Rancho Pescadero Mexican land grant
awarded to Fabián Barreto in 1836. Barreto died and the land went through
several owners. In the 1850s, Chinese immigrants formed a series of fishing
settlements along Carmel Bay including one at Stillwater Cove, next to Pebble
Beach. They collected abalone and various fish. In 1860, David Jack bought the
Mexican land grant, then sold it in 1880 to the Pacific Improvement Company
(PIC), a consortium of The Big Four railroad barons. By 1892, the PIC laid out
a scenic road that they