Cypress Point is the westernmost headland on the Monterey Peninsula, approximately 4.5 miles (7.3 km) southwest of Monterey and 3.5 miles (5.5 km) northwest of Carmel, California. The Monterey Peninsula, named after Monterey Bay, is on the central California coast and includes the cities of Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove, as well as unincorporated areas such as the resort community of Pebble Beach. The first European to discover Monterey Bay was Spaniard Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo on November 16, 1542, while sailing north along the coast. He named the bay Bahía de Los Pinos, likely due to the pine forests encountered near the peninsula’s southern end. Although Cabrillo’s name for the bay was lost, the westernmost point of the peninsula is still known as Point Pinos. On December 10, 1595, Sebastián R. Cermeño crossed the bay and named it Bahía de San Pedro in honor of Saint Peter Martyr. The bay’s present name was given in 1602 by Sebastián Vizcaíno, who was tasked by the Spanish government to chart the coast. Point Cypress is named after the Monterey cypress. In 1774, Tomas de la Pena referred to it as Punta del Cipreses in his diary during the voyage of the frigate Santiago to the northwest coast of North America. It is labeled as such on several maps. The western shoreline of the Monterey Peninsula, extending south to Cypress Point, features rocky headlands and small pocket beaches, some backed by dune fields or a low marine terrace. Offshore sediment is sparse. The Cypress Point Fault runs parallel to the coast between Cypress Point and Pescadero Point, west of the main trace of the San Andreas Fault system. Cypress Point is composed of highly fractured granodiorite porphyry from the Salinian terrane, dating to the Late Cretaceous period. This area is rugged, with high sea cliffs and no significant protected coves or beaches.

For thousands of years before Spanish explorers arrived, the Rumsen Ohlone, one of seven linguistically distinct Ohlone groups in California, inhabited the present-day Monterey Peninsula. Archaeological excavations of middens indicate they were hunter-gatherers who subsisted primarily on marine foods, mainly mussels and abalone. In 1770, missionary Junípero Serra and explorer Gaspar de Portolà founded Monterey. Portolà erected the Presidio of Monterey to defend the port against expected Russian encroachment. Monterey served as the capital of Alta California from 1777 to 1821 as a colony of New Spain. In 1770, Father Serra established Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Monterey, relocating it in 1771 to the Carmel River Valley as Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Río Carmelo. It was near the Rumsen Ohlone villages of Tucutnut and Achasta, and about 10 miles  (16 km) from the nearest Esselen village. The Esselen and Ohlone near the mission were baptized, relocated, and conscripted as laborers. In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain and ordered the secularization of Californian missions, resulting in most lands being converted into Mexican-owned rancherias. In 1836, Rancho Pescadero, also known as Punta del Cipreses, was a land grant of 4,426 acres (1,791 ha) given by Governor Nicolás Gutiérrez to Fabián Barreto. In 1846, Barreto’s widow, Maria Madariaga, unable to afford the taxes, sold the property to John F. Romie, a tailor from Hamburg, Germany. In 1848, following the Mexican-American War, Alta California was ceded to the United States. That same year, Romie went to the Sierra Nevada gold mines but died in Placerville in 1850. His widow sold Rancho Pescadero to John C. Gore in 1852. However, in 1860, she sold the property again to David Jacks, who was married to the daughter of John and Maria Romie and owned the adjoining Rancho Aguajito to the east. Litigation over the double deed began immediately, but the land was eventually patented to David Jacks in 1868. In 1880, he sold the rancho to the Pacific Improvement Company.

The Pacific Improvement Company, a holding company affiliated with the Southern Pacific Railroad, was formed in 1878 by influential businessmen and railroad tycoons Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker. These men were the controlling stockholders and directors. By 1899, all the original owners had died, and their heirs sought to liquidate the assets. In 1919, real estate developer Samuel F. Morse and financier Herbert Fleishhacker formed Del Monte Properties and acquired 10,000 acres (about 4,047 ha) from the Pacific Improvement Company, including Cypress Point, to accelerate the development of the Pebble Beach resort. Shortly after creating Del Monte Properties, Morse commissioned the construction of the Del Monte Lodge, which became well-known among golf enthusiasts. The Del Monte Properties Company was renamed the Pebble Beach Company in 1977. In 1999, a consortium of golf-loving celebrities and businessmen, with additional funding from a General Electric Corporation subsidiary, acquired the Pebble Beach Company. Cypress Point operates as the Cypress Point Club, a private golf club and one of eight on the Monterey Peninsula. The waters around Cypress Point are part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a component of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s system of 17 National Marine Sanctuaries. This sanctuary stretches from Rocky Point, north of the Golden Gate Bridge, to Cambria in the south, encompassing a shoreline of 276 miles (444 km) and covering an area of 3.9 million acres (1.6 million ha). Read more here and here. Explore more of Cypress Point and Monterey Peninsula here: