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  • carved into the stone by local natives. Only recently, historically speaking, have people deduced that it was actually formed by an earthquake and then the edges were smoothed out by wind and rain.



DISCOVERY


  • he had ever seen. He said the “columns were of great magnitude and seemed to be of an elegant form.”--- He goes on in his Journal Entry to talk about the different aspects of the mountain, how the “excavations”--- resembled “different passages into the interior parts of the supposed building.”--- Also how the roof, “the summit of the mountain,”--- “appeared t be wholly supported by these columns rising perpendicularly with the most minute mathematical exactness.”--- Because he was so enthralled with the mountain, he had the artist on the trip with him paint a Water Color of the structure so he could show the people on his other ships and the people back in England what he saw.



REFERENCES IN LITERATURE


Along with being the cause of the amazement of George Vancouver, Castle rock was also the inspiration of John Steinbeck's Camelot castle in his book The Acts Of King Arthur And His Noble Knights , along with other stories, such as Pastures of Heaven, in which Mr. Steinbeck says that it has “so serene a beauty.” In this Short Story , “The Murder,” he starts the book with “This happened a number of years ago in Monterey County…At the head of the canyon there stands a tremendous stone castle, buttressed and towered like those strongholds the Crusaders put up in the path of their conquests. Only a close visit to the castle shows it to be a strange accident of time and water and erosion working on soft, stratified sandstone.”


HISTORY OF OWNERSHIP


This inspirational cliff overlooks the old Markham Ranch, which is now a Housing Development . The land, long before it became a housing development, was granted to the Spaniards by the Board of Land Commissioners to Charles Walters in October 1858 (Monterey County Place Names, Donald Thomas Clark, Kestral Press, Carmel Valley, CA , 1991). This 5,668 acre plot was known as “El Toro Rancho,” and passed through many hands before it settled in Mr. Walter S. Markham's hands. Mr. Markham bought the land with Castle rock on it in 1938 for $60,000 for 650 acres. After Mr. and Mrs. Markham died, the land was given to their three daughters, Emily, Ann and Lillian, who then sold it to Jack Clifton, a man who would become one of the residents in the Markham Ranch Development (“Castlerock Times-A Publication for Markham Ranch Homeowners” Volume III, Issue 4, December 1997).


OTHER INFORMATION


Castlerock was under consideration as a National Historic Landmark in 1980, and no records show whether it made the list or not, so what to consider Castle rock is still a mystery. Is it still just a massive rock mentioned in John Steinbeck's books because of its seeming glorious beauty, or is it a piece of history?