by Steve Kesinger
Arroyo Seco campground lies near, and is named for Arroyo Seco Creek, flowing out of the Santa Lucia Range in southern Monterey County. It is at an elevation of 900' above sea level. The highest peak is Ventana Double Cone about half-way down the Santa Lucia Range.
Tales of "gold for the taking" have excited settlers here for over 200 years, starting with the Spanish Conquistadors in 1770. Early legends tell of Indian braves urged by the Spanish to leave the Monterey Mission for the rugged Santa Lucia Mountains, to bring back gold sand and nuggets.
The next surge of interest was in 1833 from a report by David Douglas, a botanist. He found flakes of gold in and around some tree roots of a species that now bears his name: the Douglas-fir. This was more than 15 years prior to the gold rush in the Sierra Nevada in 1849. The mountains had many claims, large and small, that produced gold through the early 1900's. At the outbreak of WWI, mining costs sky-rocketed, and the expense of mining the ore and transporting it to San Francisco from the rugged location became too great. Many small claims have been worked by hardy miners right up to present times, but again the ruggedness and remoteness of the area has kept these to a small scale. However legends of lost mines and the Indians' "cave of gold" keep the prospectors going.
Surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and Hunter Liggett Military Reservation, most of the Santa Lucia Range is now protected within the Los Padres National Forest, and is as remote and rugged today as it was when the Conquistadors arrived over two centuries ago.
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