Legend Heading Legend HeadingCharting Forgotten Places
← All case files
Open Ground · Open ground

Jade Cove

Hand collection · Big Sur coast, Los Padres coastline, Big Sur, CA
ACCESSIBLE
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

Jade Cove: still unexplained.

Monterey jade, nephrite polished by the Pacific

The law of this ground: Hand collection below mean high tide only, no tools on the cliffs; Monterey Bay NMS rules apply.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
Monterey jade, nephrite polished by the Pacific
The account

The cliffs south of Big Sur bleed jade into the sea, and the sea tumbles it smooth and throws it back. After winter storms, the coves glint green. The rule is as old as it is fair: what you can lift by hand from below the high-tide line is yours, divers have brought up boulders worth a fortune, and beachcombers still pocket stones the storms deliver.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Monterey jade, nephrite polished by the Pacific. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Los Padres coastline, Big Sur, CA. Hand collection below mean high tide only, no tools on the cliffs; Monterey Bay NMS rules apply.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Monterey jade, nephrite polished by the Pacific. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Los Padres coastline, Big Sur, CA. Hand collection below mean high tide only, no tools on the cliffs; Monterey Bay NMS rules apply.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 35.923°, -121.469° (approx.) View on the Map