Dear Big Sur,
After 25 years with the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce I have submitted my resignation as Executive Director and my resignation from the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.
What started last century to bring the chamber of commerce into the digital age started in a converted chicken coup with a leaky roof, heated by a wood burning stove on Partington Ridge. Like everyone at the time we used a dial up modem over a copper phone line using an AOL connection with a roaring 56 kbps.
I leave the chamber of commerce website ranked at #1 in a Google search for Big Sur where I’ve had it pegged since the 1990’s. At one time I had 7 out of the top 10 websites ranked in the Google listing for Big Sur in my catalog. The catalog included in the Big Sur area, Big Sur Chamber of Commerce, Big Sur Internet, Big Sur Lodge, Big Sur River Inn, Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn, Fernwood Resort, Post Ranch Inn + Terra Mar, Red Barn Studios (Al Jardine’s recording studio), Roadhouse, Ventana Wildlife Society, Ventana Campground, Big Sur Coast Properties, John Saar Real Estate, Jerry Schiff, Redwood Grill and Big Sur Coast Foods… It has been my honor to help all of these businesses.
Throughout my time I produced the Big Sur Guide annually. This included a dominant amount of the photography, layout on my computer, getting it print ready, as well as receiving and stacking them with a group of volunteers in the shed behind the Ranger Station. Over the course of more than two decades I produced more than four million copies of the Big Sur Guide that were distributed throughout the businesses along the coast and to visitor centers like Hearst Castle, San Simeon Visitor Center as well as to hotel concierges on the Monterey Peninsula. And of course, many Big Sur Guides were sent through the mail throughout the United States and to many foreign countries to people who were planning their vacations in Big Sur.
During my time with the chamber we’ve been through a few public disasters together to say the least. I’ve had the honor of and did my best to get accurate information out to the community and the world at large using our website and three public facing social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, and a WordPress blog.
The major public disaster events include plenty of El Nino winter highway closures, the 2008 Basin Complex Fire, 2013 Pfeiffer Fire, 2016 Soberanes Fire, 2017 Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge failure, 2019 Mud Creek slide, 2020 Dolan Fire, and the 2022 Palo Colorado Fire. And finally, the multitude of mudslides in 2023 including Paul’s Slide which is still ongoing.
Throughout these events I’ve had the pleasure of working directly with the fine people at Big Sur Fire, Big Sur Health Center, Caltrans, US Forest Service, State Parks, CHP, and many people in the community to gather and distribute the most current and accurate information possible to enhance the public safety.
I wish everyone well and will be personally moving on effective December 31st. Happy New Year!
Good luck to everyone and thanks for the memories.
Sincerely,
Stan Russell
The photo shows my yellow mailbox, 3rd from the left (Bob Nash’s old mailbox) at the Partington Ridge maildrop where this all began.