Bottchers Gap

The area was first occupied by the Esselen indigenous people, who harvested acorns on the nearby mountain slopes. The area terrain is mostly steep, rocky, semi-arid except for the narrow canyons, and inaccessible, making long-term habitation a challenge. A large boulder with a dozen or more deep mortar bowls worn into it, known as a bedrock mortar, is located in Apple Tree Camp on Turner Creek, southwest of Devil's Peak and 3.2 miles (5.1 km) northeast of Bottchers Gap.[5] The holes were hollowed out over many generations by Indians who used it to grind the acorns into flour. Much of the native Indian population had been forced into the Spanish mission system by about 1822, when most of the interior villages within the current Los Padres National Forest were uninhabited.[6]

Map of two land patents granted to John Bottcher in 1888 and 1890, the namesake of Bottchers Gap.

The camp is named for former homesteader John Gottfried Boettcher, a German immigrant who lived in a cabin on the site with his wife Pauline around 1885–90.[7][8] He obtained two patents, one in 1888 for 160 acres (65 ha), and a second in 1890 for 120 acres (49 ha).[9][10][11][12] Skinner Ridge and Skinner Creek are named for Benjamin R. Skinner, who homesteaded the land with his wife Adeline and obtained a patent in 1890 to 160 acres northwest of Bottcher's land. Turner Creek, north of Skinner's homestead, was homesteaded by George C. Turner in 1890.[13] After filing a patent for a homestead, the settler had complete ownership after residing on the property for five years or after six months with payment of $1.50 per acre.[14]

On July 23, 1948, the Monterey Bay Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America purchased 1,445 acres (585 ha) on the North Fork of the Little Sur River from the Hearst Sunical Land and Packing Company for $20,000.[15] The Palo Colorado Road ended at that time at a location locally known as the Hoist. The name came about because of the very steep road which during the turn of the century required wagon-loads of tanbark and lumber to be hoisted by block and tackle hitched to oxen.[16] The old block and tackle is still chained to a massive log beam, now used to support mailboxes and labeled "The Hoist."[17] The council contacted nearby Fort Ord and contracted with the United States Army Corps of Engineers to extend the road 3.4 miles (5.5 km) to Bottchers Gap and an additional 3.3 miles (5.3 km) to the North Fork of the Little Sur River and future site of Camp Pico Blanco. The Monterey Boy Scout Council spent about $200,000 (or about $3,409,000 today) to extend the road to Bottchers Gap and into the camp area. The road to the Boy Scout camp traverses extremely steep terrain, necessitating four narrow switchbacks. The entire road into the central camp area was completed in the summer of 1951.

The USFS Bottchers Gap Guard Station was built in 1950 along with the Double Cone Trail. The Bottchers Gap Forest Patrolman took supplies twice monthly by pack mules to the forest fire lookout on the Ventana Double Cone during the summer fire lookout season. The patrolman and the mule train usually spent one night of the trip at the old Comings Cabin.[18][Notes 1]