When Samuel F.B. Morse first saw Pebble Beach, he knew he had discovered a special place. The grand-nephew of the inventor of the telegraph, Morse was the captain of Yale's 1906 undefeated football team. While in college he became friends with Templeton Crocker. That name was one of the Big Four - Crocker, Stanford, Huntington and Hopkins - who had built a railroad empire. Charles Crocker constructed Hotel Del Monte, a fashionable resort for the wealthy in 1879, and then constructed a railroad for access from San Francisco. The hotel had deteriorated and the railroad had been sold when Crocker decided to sell the land. Morse had worked for the Crocker Corporation for five years when, at the age of 30, he was chosen to go to the Monterey Peninsula to liquidate the assets. When Morse arrived, he was overwhelmed by the beauty.
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