“Helmuth Deetjen, the son of a deacon in Bremen, Germany, and a Norwegian mother, arrived in Big Sur sometime around 1936, where he bought 60 acres in Castro Canyon and built a small compound that included a house, antiques store and inn. A student of music, philosophy, art and politics, Deetjen had attended Germany’s University of Heidelberg, where one of his classmates was an art student named Adolf Hitler. (Deetjen claimed that his last words to Hitler were, “You just don’t understand the American cowboy,” and fled Europe because he knew what Hitler was capable of.) Deetjen imported a quirky combination of sophistication and hominess to Big Sur, reflected in his quaint Scandinavian-style cottages, constructed of native redwood.”

Deetjen’s is a remarkable place and highly recommended for those that want to drive the California coast. Equally remarkable is something Eva Brann, my intellectual fairy god-mother said to me once: “I imagine that Huck Finn would have taken off for the American West and been a cowboy.” She was speaking of how she imagined a grown Huck interacting with the world. Obviously, it’s important to understand the nature of the American cowboy.