History of Pebble Beach

In 1999 the Pebble Beach Company was acquired from Cypress by an investor group led by Clint Eastwood, Arnold Palmer, and Peter Ueberroth. In 2000, the company initiated Measure A, a controversial development proposal. Eastwood appeared in a $1 million advertising campaign urging voters to help save the forest. In 2006, the plan went before the California Coastal Commission for approval. On June 14, 2007, the plan was submitted again. Commissioner Sara Wan called it "wholesale destruction of the environment," and Measure A was denied in an 8 to 4 vote.

A famous landmark, known as the "Witch Tree," stood for decades at Pescadero Point until it fell during a storm on January 14, 1964. It was sometimes used as scenic background in movies and television. It was displayed as part of the coast of Italy, in the 1951 movie Mr. Imperium, with Lana Turner, Ezio Pinza, Majorie Main and Barry Sullivan. That tree was also part of the background in an early scene from the 1956 movie Julie, featuring Doris Day, while she was fleeing from her psychopathic husband, played by Louis Jourdan.

Pescadero Point is 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 as large as 60 feet (18 m) high. Effective 2009, the surf break of Ghost Tree is off limits, the result of a decision by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that personal watercraft, which are a necessity for the tow-in only surf spot, are not permitted in specified waters of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary