our story
a family affair
Wiley and Mildred Ramey had a vision. The small family shaped their little motel, gas station, and snack bar, often working it alone and skipping from business to business when their few customers would arrive. They welcomed each guest like they were family, even sharing their Thanksgiving turkey when visitors arrived hungry and the snack bar was closed for the holiday.
As the years passed, first Wiley and Mildred, then Mildred and her children, slowly built the business, never forgetting the hospitality and reverence for the land that brought them there.
Today, Highway 1 isn't nearly so lonely. The hotel has 39 rooms. The snack bar has been relocated and enlarged. And a gourmet restaurant, gift shop, artisan jewelry shop, coffee bar, and mini-market share the property. But the Rameys, now Wiley and Mildred's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, work together to share their hospitality and complete the vision.
The current chapter of Ragged Point history begins in the late 1950s. Wiley and Mildred Ramey, who were visiting the Central Coast from their home in California's San Joaquin Valley, meandered up a lonely Highway 1 from nearby Cambria.
Everyone who knew the Rameys knew how they loved to take long drives, enjoying America's beautiful, isolated, and pastoral country roads. They also knew how Wiley Ramey, in particular, loved to invest in little pieces of land when they found places they loved, especially if he could get a bargain.
That special day, the Rameys spotted a small, curious outpost on the ocean side of Highway 1, north of San Simeon. Little did they know how this rustic outpost, once part of the huge Hearst Ranch, was to change their lives, and the lives of their children, forever.
The settlement itself was nothing special: a snack shack sporting a neon "EAT" sign, a couple of rusted gas pumps, and a travel trailer or two. However, the Rameys were totally entranced by the natural beauty. Because of this enchantment, they spent most of the next two years persuading the landowner, carnival man, Monte Young, to part with the property. When they finally did, they disposed of the "EAT" sign and started building a two-room motel on this lonely stretch of highway. This was the birth of the Ragged Point Inn you see today.
