to deadeyes embedded in rocks of the adjacent shore. Cargo was hoisted in slings from the landing along a cable winched onto the waiting ship. Bixby discovered lime deposits on Long Ridge above Mill Creek. He had kilns built and used mules to haul the lime to the coast on wooden sleds. It was impossible to build a wharf from the cliffs that dropped into the ocean, and he instead built a hoist that could be used to ferry goods to and from ships anchored slightly offshore. The powdered lime was packed into barrels that were then attached to cable strung from the coastal cliff and about 50 yards out into the Pacific Ocean, where it was loaded aboard coastal schooners. He sold the fired lime for use in cement, mortar, and other building materials. Coast road extended south Bixby tried to persuade the county to build a road to Bixby Creek, but they refused, replying that "no one would want to live there." In 1870, Bixby and his father hired men to improve the track and constructed the first wagon road including 23 bridges from the Carmel Mission to Bixby Creek. Near Malpaso Creek, the creek has very steep side slopes and the crossing was a ford only above sea level until the Malpaso Creek Bridge was built in 1935 as part the Big Sur Coast Highway. Sometime later Bixby partnered with William B. Post and extended what became known as the Old Coast Road south to his ranch. At Bixby Creek, the road was necessarily built inland to circumvent the deep canyon. It also went inland to circumvent the Little Sur River. It then led to the Post Ranch on the Rancho El Sur near present-day Andrew Molera State Park. The 30-mile (48 km) trip from Carmel could take three days by wagon or stagecoach. The single-lane road was closed in winter when it became impassable. Coast residents received supplies via a schooner from Monterey and San Francisco that off-loaded supplies that could not be transported overland near Big Sur once a year. Sold to lime company In 1906, after he exhausted the supply of commercial timber, Bixby sold the land to the Monterey Lime Company. Lime was in great demand to help re-build San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake. The company built lime kilns up Bixby Canyon from the coast and mined the high grade limestone located