We haven't researched what may be an important part of this mystery. Starting this thread for the Bald Knob Sportman's Club, or Bald Mountain Sportsman's Club, and whatever we can find out about this place. I am hoping Annasmom, Suzy and Joe can contribute their memory of this place.
There was an article in the November, 2007, magazine of the Half Moon Bay Review which said "...on an ever-shrinking swath of land leased by the 100-year-old Half Moon Bay Gun Club, a microcosm of this older way exists..." It says that the club occupies "shrinking patches of private or leased property" which includes a place south of Half Moon Bay which has to be the same place as the hunters' club up in the hills just south of the farm on Purisima Creek Road.
Names mentioned in the article are Bob Edwards, 73, who "still hunts down at the Bald Knob Sportsman's Club, south of Half Moon Bay" and Jack Bettencourt, another hunter.
Hunting season starts in August and ends in late October, so the club itself probably wouldn't have been around in January, but certainly their lodge (which I never saw) was still there, and as far as I know, the road which ran in front of the house was the only way to get there. There may have been trails or a road from Tunitas, the adjacent canyon, that I don't know about.
We drove down Purisima Creek Road yesterday just to take a look. Looks like TC, if she still lives there, has cows in the meadow. I was once again impressed by what a long and winding road it is from the coast highway to where we lived. I was trying to picture someone keeping a child out of sight of the surrounding houses..The nearest houses in 1973, however, would have been below the level of the road, as ours was, and thus wouldn't have had a view of the road.
The article in the Review Magazine may be available on line. There was another Review Magazine article in April, 2008, which mentioned the Purisima neighborhood. "Purisima Creek Road, when seen from high atop Higgins Canyon Road, transports you to another era when things seemed less complicated. Sheltered from the distant storm clouds gathering over the ocean, a red barn stands serenely in the midst of trees and gently sloping pastures as if untouched by time." That red barn was white when we lived there. It is the only red barn you can see from Higgins Canyon Road.