POSTS, Big Sur — October 2026. The name Posts on Monterey County’s list of unincorporated localities recalls an early Big Sur family’s homestead and the region’s first continuously operating post office. A historical account from Monterey County Historical Society identifies William Brainard Post (1830–1908) as a Connecticut-born settler who arrived in Monterey in 1848 and homesteaded in the Big Sur region during the 1860s.
Why was the settlement called Posts?
Post’s ranch was an important point for travel and communications in a rugged section of the coast. The Post family history published by the operators of Post Ranch Inn says Post carried mail himself while seeking a local postal facility and that by 1889 a continuously operating post office named “Posts” opened at the family homestead. The historic name is plural, referring to the family rather than to social media posts or a current postal branch.
How did Posts become Big Sur?
The area’s postal naming changed in stages. Historical postal research records the name Posts changing to Arbolado on January 31, 1910, and Arbolado changing to Big Sur on March 6, 1915. An academic history of Big Sur notes that adopting the name Big Sur for the postal facility helped establish a widely recognized label for the coastal region, even though residents traditionally used many smaller settlement and creek names.
What survives from the Post family?
The family chronology describes a New England-style ranch cabin built beginning in 1867; it says the historic building still stands near Highway 1 opposite the entrance to Post Ranch Inn. The local historical society says family descendants remained connected to the area when its account was written. Historic structures may be on private property. A roadside name or historic association does not grant permission to enter a ranch or private resort grounds.
Why report this now?
Many small communities appear in county maps and emergency-planning documents without a clear explanation of their history. Recognizing Posts as a distinct historic locality prevents confusion with modern Big Sur Village, the currently operating post office or the nearby visitor industry. No nineteenth-century establishment is being portrayed as newly opened in 2026.
Sources: Monterey County Historical Society — William B. Post biography; Post Ranch Inn historical chronology: 1867 homestead and 1889 post office; University of California Press — Big Sur, introduction on the 1915 naming.
Editorial note: Historical feature based on published research and the family’s account; dates are historical, and public access to private property is not implied.
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