McWay Falls is an waterfall on the coast of Big Sur in central California that flows year-round from McWay Creek in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, about south of Carmel, into the Pacific Ocean. During high tide, it is a tidefall, a waterfall that empties directly into the ocean. The only other tidefall in California is Alamere Falls. History Saddle Rock Ranch In 1924, wealthy U.S. Congressman Lathrop Brown and his wife Hélène Hooper Brown visited Big Sur. They bought Saddle Rock Ranch, a property that included a seaside promontory known as Saddle Rock that overlooked Saddle Rock Cove, from pioneer homesteader Christopher McWay. Hélène was a good friend of Julia Pfeiffer Burns until Julia died in 1928. Julia's great-niece Esther Julia Pfeiffer and her husband Hans Ewoldsen were caretakers of the Saddle Rock Ranch for many years. The Browns first built a rough redwood cabin on a site at the top of the cliffs opposite McWay Falls. They replaced that in 1940 with a modern two-story home named Waterfall House. The entryway was inlaid with an ornamental brass fish, a gold octopus, and a compass rose. The interior was decorated with fine furnishings and classic paintings. During construction of Carmel San Simeon Highway through Big Sur, Saddle Rock Ranch foreman Hans Ewoldsen worked in the machine shop of the highway construction crew to build a Pelton wheel. He used hand-split redwood from the canyon and other materials he bought. He installed the wheel on McWay Creek in 1932. The undershot wheel ran a 32-volt generator and was the first electric power in the Big Sur area. It supplied power to three residences, a blacksmith shop, and a funicular railway. Donated to state Lathrop and Hélène Brown left Big Sur for Florida in 1956, where Lathrop died in 1959. In 1961, Hélène Hooper Brown donated the entire property to the state, stipulating that it be used as a park and named for her good friend, Julia Pfeiffer Burns, "a true pioneer". She included the requirement that Waterfall House be converted into a "museum for the custody and display of indigenous Indian relics, flora and fauna of the California coastal area, and historical objects pertaining to the Big Sur country", or otherwise demolished. The museum could not be completed in time for several reasons, including competing museums, shortage of funds, and poor access to the site, and the mansion was demolished