Santa Cruz County History
HISTORY OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.- E. S. Harrison, Pacific Press Publ. Co., San Francisco, 1891
CHAPTER XIII.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
IN area Santa Cruz County is one of the smallest in California; but in resources; productiveness of soil, natural advantage and variety of attractions, it is the largest in the State if not the largest in the United States. Its equable climate, varying on the coast but a few degrees during the year; the combination of mountain, valley, and marine scenery; the wonderful fertility of its mountains, foothills, and valleys, producing a marvelous growth of almost everything indigenous to the North Temperate Zone; its many pretty and secluded mountain dells, and other attractive features too numerous to mention here, but which will receive proper consideration in the text of the succeeding pages, make Santa Cruz incomparable among the counties of the State.
As a place for permanent residence, it extends an invitation to the home seeker, and offers him inducements which he cannot find elsewhere. As a summer resort, the tourist and pleasure seeker will here find climatic and other elements which constitute it pre-eminently the resort of the Pacific Coast, whilst in the mountains, whose ragged tops rise to an elevation of from two to three thousand feet, at a distance of not more than from six to ten miles from the Bay of Monterey or the Pacific Ocean, are to be found a variety of conditions which adapt themselves to the health seeker, be he suffering from most of the ills to which flesh is heir.
Geographically, Santa Cruz County is that part of central California situated about fifty miles south of San Francisco, having a coast line of forty miles, and occupying four hundred and thirty-seven and one-half square miles, or two hundred and eighty thousand acres of territory, according to the United States Government survey. From this it will be observed that the county is only from ten to twelve miles in width. The area of farming land is not very extensive, occupying perhaps one-fourth of the county. The Pajaro Valley, in the extreme southern part of the county, and a strip along the entire coast line about two miles in width, together with the small mountain valleys, constitute the level and comparatively level land of the county; but fully one-half of the remainder of the territory is tillable mountain land, especially adapted to the growth of orchard fruit and the vine.
About one-third of the county is timber land, covered with a dense growth of redwood, which has been the source of supply of a vast quantity of building material for the past thirty years. A large number of sawmills are at present operating in the county, but at the present rate of output they will not exhaust the supply of this kind of valuable lumber for many years to come. There are not more than five thousand acres of waste land in the entire county, and I doubt not that much of that can and will be utilized when the county's resources and natural adaptation to certain kinds of wine grapes are more thoroughly understood. The mineral resources of the county are not very extensive, although gold has been discovered in some quantities, both in quartz and in the auriferous sands of the bay shore.
Ben Lomond Mountain, from whose flat top one looks down at the ocean, not more than from four to six miles distant, to an elevation of nine hundred feet, is an almost solid quarry of excellent limestone of metamorphic formation, which makes it a fine building stone as well as useful for lime. About six miles northwest of Santa Cruz , and near the ocean, are extensive beds of bituminous rock, which at present are being successfully quarried and utilized for making pavements. In fact, it is regarded by those who are in a position to know best, that bitumen is the pavement of the future, and in the beautiful city of Santa Cruz it is the pavement of the present. These beds of bituminous rock cover an area of perhaps a mile square, and are the residuum of oil beds in a period not geologically remote.
The highest elevation of Ben Lomond is of granitic formation. Extensive deposits of brick clay and some terra cotta clay are found in the county. There is also a deposit of natural cement, but it has never been successfully utilized.
Briefly enumerated, the resource and industrial features of this county are fruits, nuts, cereals, vegetables, stock raising, dairying, manufacturing, and minerals. Most everything in the line of deciduous fruits is here raised, and while citrus fruits can be cultivated successfully, they are not to any great extent. The apples of the Santa Cruz Mountains are superior to any grown in the State, while the vineyard products—the table grape for its delicacy of flavor and prolific yield, and the quality of wine here manufactured—are unexcelled even by the famous grape and wine districts of the Old World. Of manufacturing, there are powder mills, limekilns, paper mills, tanneries, soap and glue factory, beet sugar factory, and a large number of sawmills and institutions or minor note. Minerals are gold, an inexhaustible supply of limestone, and bitumen. Stock raising is conducted on a limited scale, as much of the mountains, being heavily timbered, is not adapted to grazing. The proximity of the ocean and the cool, equable temperature, make this one of the finest counties for dairying in the State, and some of the largest and most successful dairies are here located. The vegetable products of the county form one of its most extensive and profitable industries. The wonderful richness of the valley soils renders the cultivation of potatoes, beans, hops, sugar beet etc., profitable to an extent absolutely unknown in less fertile sections. A more elaborate and detailed reference to these subjects is made in one of the succeeding chapters of this publication.
The timber of Santa Cruz County comprises the leading varieties of the State. To a great extent the coast line is barren of any trees, save a rather stubby growth of oak. At an elevation of several hundred feet, and, notably, at a greater elevation in the cañons, which have their heads at the mountain summit, is a prodigious growth of redwood. These trees belong to the giants of California Big Trees, and in this county have attained to the prodigious size of forty-six feet in diameter, and three hundred feet in height. The writer has seen groups of these giants of a dozen or more trees from twelve to twenty feet in diameter. Fir and pine are plentiful, the former being a valuable tree used for lumber purposes; the latter is generally scrubby and not useful, except for fuel. Tanbark oak and live oak make the best fuel. Tanbark finds a ready market in the many tanneries of the State. These trees comprise a conspicuous part of our forests. Among the trees of lesser value are the sycamore, cottonwood, alder, madrona, laurel, maple, and California nutmeg (which is a member of the yew family), chinquapin, nut pine, manzanita, and a solitary bunch of old-fashioned Southern dogwood. The native berries are huckleberries, thimble berries (two varieties), blackberries, strawberries, gooseberries, and manzanita berries, whilst wild flowers grow in such profuse luxuriance, and of such a vast number of varieties, that a special article on the subject will be required to convey an adequate idea of the importance of the floral beauty of this county.
The contiguity of the ocean necessarily makes a humid atmosphere, whilst the wooded mountain ranges, rising at the highest point, Mount Bielawski, to three thousand two hundred and sixty-nine feet, induces a greater precipitation than is characteristic of inland counties. The rainfall in Santa Cruz. is twice that of the valleys of adjacent counties, and three or four times as great as that of the great San Joaquin Valley. The rainfall of 1889-90 was unusual all over the State, but in Santa Cruz County it reached the remarkable figures of one hundred and twenty inches; this at Boulder Creek, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, whilst at the city of Santa Cruz, on the bay, the :rainfall was sixty-three and nineteen one-hundreths inches.
The fogs, which in the summer season seldom rise to the highest point of the mountains, carry a vast quantity of moisture to the parched land. In the rainfall and the fog will be found one of the secrets of the prodigious growth of forests and vegetation which is characteristic of this section of the State.
Numerous streams find their sources in the neighborhood of the eastern boundary line of the county, near the summit of the mountain range, and flow to the Bay of Monterey, or the Pacific Ocean; in fact, it is one of the best-watered sections of California, there being scarcely a cañon or gulch which does not contain a spring, or living stream of water. Many of these streams are of considerable importance, sufficient to furnish a motor of from five to one hundred horse-power. The water-power streams of the county are San Lorenzo and its tributaries, Aptos, Corralitos, Majors, Soquel, San Vicente, and Laguna Creeks. They flow from fifty to one thousand miners' inches of water during the summer season, and during the winter, or rainy season, are turbid, raging torrents. One can have some idea of their velocity when it is considered that their source is not more than from ten to fifteen miles from the ocean, although, if their tortuous course were followed, the distance would probably be greater. The water power of these streams has not been fully realized and appreciated, and while it is furnishing the motor at the present time for two paper mills, an extensive powder manufactory, and other lesser purposes, there is yet available and running waste to the sea much power that could be used for manufacturing purposes.
The average height of the Santa Cruz Mountains, whose summits constitute the eastern boundary of the county, is about two thousand feet, although, as before noted, one peak rises to an elevation of three thousand two hundred and sixty-nine feet. From this summit one looks down on precipitous cañons covered with a dense growth of redwood, and on elevated table-lands and rolling hills, and, finally on the mesa, which stretches along the coast, the horizon being in the vista of the ever-restless Pacific. To the south the observer will perceive a valley of comparatively circular formation, comprising about fifty thousand acres; this is the famous Pajaro Valley, the most fertile spot of California, the wonder of the Pacific. Of this valley, its resources and productiveness, I shall have much to say, and shall preface these remarks with the statement that the reader must be prepared to hear what he will probably designate the biggest California yarns that have ever been told.
An advantageous feature of the county which must not be omitted in these preliminary and prefatory remarks, is its accessibility to the metropolis of the State. The coast line of steamers make regular trips, there being landing-places at Davenport's, Williams' Landing, Santa Cruz, Soquel, and Pajaro, while two lines of railroad, owned and operated by the Southern Pacific Company, place us in daily and direct communication with San Francisco, eighty miles distant from the city of Santa Cruz. Transportation for both freight and passengers is reasonable, and the railroad service is equal to the best.
At the present time the county has a population of about twenty thousand people, one-half of which is in the two cities of Santa Cruz and Watsonville. The partial development of its resources, and the utilization of its natural advantages, will enable it to support a population of not less than one hundred thousand people; and the time may come when the county, having developed as many sections of Europe are developed, will support a population of half a million people. I may add that I have found the county of Santa Cruz a veritable wonderland. Its trees are the largest I ever saw, its vegetable production greater than that of any other section I ever visited; the yields of its vineyards have surprised me, and will probably nonplus the reader, while the products of its orchards are simply a marvel.
In the succeeding pages the writer will narrate a number of well-known facts with which he has become acquainted, after a thorough investigation of the county, covering a period of several months, and including interviews with its most prominent citizens, who are best qualified to impart information in regard to its varied resources.
THE CITY OF SANTA CRUZ.
The city of Santa Cruz is the principal city and county seat of the county. It is situated on the southeastern side of the point between the Pacific Ocean and the northern side of the Bay of Monterey. To the east, north, and west there is a gradual ascent, the highest elevation being in the Santa Cruz Mountains, several miles to the north. The surroundings of the city resemble a vast amphitheater overlooking the bay, the city being located in the arena.
The city proper contains a population of five thousand eight hundred. Including East Santa Cruz (which is really a part of the city, although outside of the corporate limits), there are seven thousand five hundred inhabitants. This is the resident population, the number being increased during the summer season by three or four thousand visitors, who have learned that Santa Cruz offers inducements to the tourist and summer visitor in the way of natural advantages and attractions unequaled by any other section of the Pacific Coast.
But it is not entirely as a summer resort that Santa Cruz is famous; the temperature during the winter and summer seasons varies but a few degrees. There is scarcely a day during the winter months when sea bathing cannot be indulged in, and not a day when one cannot enjoy the fragrance that comes from the flowers of many beautiful and well-kept gardens.
Referring to statistics, as it is said that "figures never lie," the temperature of the months is given, as follows: January, 54.4; February, 54.9; March, 52.2; April, 58.6 ; May, 59.2; June, 60.2; July, 61.8; August, 63; September, 61.3; October, 59.4; November, 52.8; December, 55.2. The temperature of the water varies from 52.1 in January to 62.2 Fahr. in August. Without making any comparison of Santa Cruz temperature with the temperature of other seaside towns, as "comparisons are odious," it will be sufficient to call the reader's attention to these figures to convince him that this city possesses a most delightful and equable temperature. The return trade winds, which blow incessantly during the afternoons of the summer season on the coast of California, do not strike Santa Cruz with their usual force or ferocity, because of the rising point of land which intervenes between it and the ocean. Beyond the point which marks the beginning of the Bay of Monterey, these winds have an unbroken sweep, and whilst they reach the city of Santa Cruz in broken and eddying currents, cooling the atmosphere and making it as near absolute perfection as can be obtained on this mundane sphere, they perform a twofold duty, and act as a double blessing, in keeping back the fog bank
which nearly every day hangs over the broad Pacific, and drifts inland in obedience to the wind currents. To be briefer and more explicit, Santa Cruz, and, in fact, the entire northern part of the Bay of Monterey, has less fogs than other sections of the Pacific Coast differently situated. Thus we enumerate two very distinctive advantages for the city of Santa Cruz: Equable and salubrious temperature, and comparative freedom from fogs. To these may be added advantages of the very finest quality of pure mountain water, good sewerage, a cleanly, well-kept city, populated with an intelligent, progressive, and refined people. It will be superfluous to remark, with such sanitary conditions, that the death rate is comparatively low, and that it is, par excellence, the natural sanitarium of the coast.
The business interests of the town are well represented. There are two well-conducted banks, and a sufficient number of dry goods, grocery, and general merchandise stores to supply the wants of the citizens of the city and adjacent localities. The county buildings (of which an excellent engraving can be found in this publication) are substantially built and present a very neat and pleasing appearance. The business blocks of the city, while making no pretensions to magnificence of proportions or particular beauty of architecture, are substantial, and bespeak an air of prosperity; whilst the residence parts of the city contain a greater number of pretty buildings and well-kept grounds, and neat cottages, half hidden with beautiful shade trees and flowering vines, than any other city of similar size the writer has ever visited. Santa Cruz might be rightly named "The City of Flowers," as such wealth and variety of bloom are seldom seen; and if they do not call down the sprites who reveled mid the flowers in the Grove of Daphne, they at least inspire and contribute to the happiness of every lover of fragrance and beauty who is tempted hither.
Pacific Avenue, the main street of the city, is paved with bituminous rock from the bitumen beds a few miles up the coast. The sidewalks in the business part of the town, and in many residence parts of the town, are composed of the same material. As a material for paving streets, bitumen is unequaled. It makes a noiseless driveway, and a street that can be kept perfectly clean. Pacific Avenue is one of the prettiest streets in the State.
Recently the Thompson-Houston incandescent light system has to a great extent supplanted gas, and supplies a light for illuminating purposes equal to any in existence. The corporation whose enterprise has made Santa Cruz prominent among the best-lighted towns in California is composed of Dr. H. H. Clark, President; J. F. Applebee, Vice President; A. P. Swanton, Treasurer; F. W. Swanton, Secretary and Manager, and E. C. Lilly, Electrician. The plant consists of two dynamos of three thousand light capacity, operated by Corliss engines of three hundred horse power. At present the company is supplying the city with one thousand five hundred lights. It is the intention of the company, at an early date, to put in a one thousand horse-power motor, and sell or rent power.
Of the religious and educational advantages of Santa Cruz it will not be necessary to say much here, as special reference is made to the prominent features of this subject in another article. But nearly all denominations of the Christian religion are here represented. The churches of the Catholics and the Congregationalists will rank in size and architecture with the finest in the State, and the Christian and Baptist sects have recently established summer encampments in Santa Cruz, similar to the Pacific Grove, on the other side of the bay. Of these more particular mention is made under the head of Resorts.
It is, however, as a summer resort and a suburban home that Santa Cruz is entitled to a marked and distinctive pre-eminence. Because of the combination of mountain and marine scenery and climatic and other advantages before noted, Santa Cruz has become the Mecca of thousands, who spend the heated term here during every summer season. The beach is very fine, and surf bathing can be indulged in with comparative freedom from danger. Life at Santa Cruz during the summer is one round of pleasure. The city is thronged with visitors, and every day possesses a gala appearance. In the afternoon many of the visiting multitude, and such of the resident population as are not otherwise engaged, congregate at the beach. It is no unusual sight to see several thousand people seated upon the sand of the bay shore, walking or riding, or indulging in the afternoon popular entertainments of bathing in the surf. The evenings are devoted to hops at the halls and some of the leading hotels, to lawn parties, to boating on the San Lorenzo, and other forms of innocent pastime, which make the days pass all too quickly for the tired and overworked portions of humanity who here seek recreation during their vacation.
Elsewhere is presented a magnificent engraving, showing a perspective view of Santa Cruz, with the bay in the distance, and a beach scene from a painting by Mr. Frank Heath, a local artist of marked ability and reputation. Also, there will be found illustrations of many beautiful residences, which are not the least attractive features of the city. Without referring to these in extenso, it will be enough to direct attention to the fact that a city containing such pretty and artistic homes is a progressive and prosperous community.
Most conspicuous
among the buildings of this place is the Sea Beach Hotel, recently constructed
by D. K. Abeel, and conducted by Mr. J. T. Sullivan, a
hotel man of experience and popularity. This building was designed by Mr. G. W.
Page, one of San Jose's most prominent architects. The production is highly
creditable to his artistic taste and common sense, being specially adapted to
the elegant grounds and commanding site which it occupies. Mr. Page is the
designer of some of the finest edifices in San Jose and vicinity, particularly
the magnificent villa at Eden Vale, a station on the Southern Pacific Railway a
few miles south of San Jose. The Sea Beach Hotel is within a stone's throw of
the beach, contains one hundred and sixty-six rooms, commands the very best view
of the bay, the mountains which rise to a height of several thousand feet from
its thither shore, a part of the city of Santa Cruz, and the amphitheater-like
ascent which forms the semicircle of land to the north. Although it has just
been opened, its great popularity is attested by the fact that nearly every
available room is occupied. Other hotels of the town—the Pacific Ocean House,
the Pope House, the Riverside Hotel, the Ocean Villa, Wilkins House, Eastern
Hotel, Bay State Cottages, many elegant private boarding houses and lodging
houses, furnish superior accommodations to the tourist, traveler, or the summer
visitor.
Another feature of Santa Cruz which must not escape attention is that it is equipped with three well-conducted street railroads. The Pacific Avenue Street Railroad runs from the beach to the Pope House. Work has been inaugurated to convert it into an electric road. Mr. E. S. West is the superintendent of this road, the stock of which is principally owned by A. P. Hotaling. The East Santa Cruz Street Railroad is a recent enterprise, the successful completion of which has been due mainly to Mr. William Ely, its chief promoter and inaugurator, and a pioneer resident of the city. The officers of this company are: President, William Ely; Vice President, O. H. Bliss; Secretary, W. D. Haslam; Treasurer, Jackson Sylvar. At present the road runs from the junction of the Pacific Avenue line at the Lower Plaza to East Santa Cruz and Twin Lakes Park, the summer encampment of the Baptist Religious Association. It runs through the town of Seabright, a suburb of Santa Cruz, which has an enviable reputation because of the many advantages it possesses as a residence location. At no distant day the main line of this railroad will be extended to Arana Hill, a distance of nearly three miles from the point of starting. And it is not a wild speculation to say that within a few years the entire length of this line will be devoted to suburban homes. "Coming events cast their shadows before." The Santa Cruz, Garfield Park, and Capitola Electric Railway is the basis of a separate article in this book.
The many delightful drives around Santa Cruz contribute to the charms of this attractive locality, the cliff drive, the one up the coast, being both picturesque and grand, passing Phelan Park, the pretty country residence of the San Francisco millionaire; Garfield Park, the summer home of the Christian Church, and along the rocky shore of the Pacific Ocean, where the surges break with their everlasting monotone, and where sometimes at high tide the spray is thrown almost to the traveler over this thoroughfare. The road to the Big Trees presents an entirely different class of scenery; passing along the edge of a precipitous cañon, with overhanging oaks and giant redwood and fir, of red-trunked madrona, through thickets of manzanita, and by the fragrant azalea, and quaint dells of brake and fern, one is prepared, on reaching the Big Trees, to admire the stupendousness of these giants, whose birth antedates the Christian era.
CAPITOLA-AN ATTRACTIVE AND DELIGHTFUL SUMMER RESORT.
Capitola, the gem of the Bay of Monterey, is a summer resort in a delightful nook about four miles from Santa Cruz, in a protected cove, where the Soquel River empties into the bay. It was established in 1876 by Mr. Hihn, who owned the property, and it has since steadily grown, until to-day it is one of the most popular seaside resorts in California. Its advantageous features must be seen to be fully appreciated. Its comparative freedom from fogs, and the entire absence of harsh winds, its location near the mountains and the foothills overlooking the town, a grand perspective view of Loma Prieta's black peak rising in the distance, the opportunity for boating and fishing on Soquel Creek, the splendid facilities and opportunities for salt-water fishing in the bay, combine to furnish the greatest possible number of natural advantages.
Nature has been bountiful and generous, and her attractive features have been enhanced by the improvements that have been made here during the past few years. Numerous cottages have been constructed, ranging in value from a few hundred to $8,000 each, and during the summer season not less than two thousand people, bidding adieu to the busy turmoil of the cities and the heated atmosphere of the interior counties, here find surcease of toil and freedom from the elevated temperature which prevails during a part of the summer months in much of the interior of the State. The town is sewered, and every precaution has been taken to make it cleanly and healthful. It is supplied by the Hihn Company's Water Works with pure mountain water. The bathing beach is one of the best in the State.
One has but to pass through here on the train during the months of July or August to realize the fact that it is a resort of considerable importance, as he will perceive the depot and adjacent grounds thronged with people. To good-looking bachelors I will here impart the cheerful information that there is a great preponderance of the feminine element at this place during the summer season.
"THE BIG BASIN"-A NATURAL PARK WHICH SHOULD BE PRESERVED.
California justly prides herself upon the diversified beauty and grandeur of her scenery. There is within her borders the savage wildness and weird solemnity of the rugged ranges of the Sierras, the softer picturesqueness of the Coast Range, the breezy, undulating foothills, against which break the blue waters of the Pacific; there are the peaceful, broad-spreading plains of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley, and the slumberous stretches of tropic plains of the South.
California can boast, too, of holding within her borders such great wonders of nature as the Yosemite Valley, the Geysers, the Mammoth Tree Groves of Mariposa, the magnificent Bay of San Francisco, and many another point of interest only requiring to be known to be famous.
Amongst the latter is the "Big Basin" region, in the northern part of Santa Cruz County. There is to be found every natural feature needed to make a grand park. Beautiful mountain streams flow through the region, breaking here into miniature cascades, rapids, and falls, there spreading out in quiet, mirror-like pools, winding through the forest in glassy stillness, or noisily rippling over beds of rock, or lost, now and again, under huge drifts of tree trunks, branches, and gnarled roots, the accumulation of years of growth and decay.
The magnificent forest through which these streams find their way is made up of splendid redwoods (the Sequoia sempervirens of the coast), standing singly and in groups, their massive trunks, three hundred feet in height, towering above oaks, madronas, and pines, bearing their tufted branches high into the pure blue sky. There are in the limits of the Big Basin thousands of these superb trees, rivaling in size those found elsewhere in the State, and representing a species that is rapidly becoming extinct. They have been spared so far simply because the millmen have not yet cut their way to them. The basin itself is separated on the east from the San Lorenzo and Boulder Creek Valleys—both of which are being rapidly deforested—by an outlying ridge running southerly from the range bounding the county on the northeast. This ridge also cuts it off from the Pescadero Valley, which is now being looked into by the lumbermen and speculators. The area of the basin is about two thousand acres, every portion of which is full of beauty. It is easily reached from Boulder Creek on the north and Waddell Creek on the south, and has always been celebrated as the finest fishing and hunting ground in the coast ranges. By far the largest part of the area is owned by the Pescadero Lumber Company, who are holding it until the time comes when the great trees can be profitably sold as lumber.
As it is to-day, it is simply perfect as a park. Nothing need be done to it save to construct roads through it, and so open it to visitors. The cost of making it accessible to vehicles and the maintenance of the improvements need not be great. In fact, the more nearly it is kept in its present wild state, the better; and if nothing more can be done just now beyond the securing of it from destruction, that in itself will be a noble work.
[The foregoing is from the pen of Mr. F. L. Clarke, a gentleman of literary tastes and ability, a lover of nature, who has traveled extensively and observed much. To his interesting contribution I desire to make this addenda: I have seen a part of this "Big Basin," enough of it to substantiate all he has said about its beauty, its grandeur, and the desirability of preserving it from the devastation of the lumbermen. But as the wheels of legislation usually move so slowly, the sound of the woodman's ax is liable to break the stillness of this vast forest before the "consummation devoutly to be wished for. If Senator Stanford's attention were directed to this matter, he might purchase this property, and present it to the government for the uses above suggested. Certainly it would be a gracious and commendable act of one whose munificent benefactions have already made his name a household word in California.
There could be no grander monument than these towering redwoods, and the rippling streams and dashing cascades of this primeval forest would sing his praises through untold ages. In the name of the commonwealth of this State, in the name of every lover of nature in the world, in the name of unborn generations that will bless the man who has left them such a heritage, I appeal to Senator Stanford to add this to his list of generous and unselfish deeds.—E. S. HARRISON.]
BEN LOMOND.
Ben Lomond is the name of a mountain and extensive stretch of territory immediately overlooking the Pacific Ocean, lying to the northwest of the city of Santa Cruz, and southerly from that part of Santa Cruz known as the "Big Basin." On the east its base is washed by Boulder Creek and the San Lorenzo River. Its summit is some two thousand feet above the sea level, and comprises much level and comparatively level land. It is largely planted to vines, being especially adapted to wine grapes.
The limestone and granitic formations are elsewhere noted. The canyons which furrow its sides are rugged and precipitous, and in many instances densely wooded with fir and redwood.
There are many neat and attractive homes on this plateau, the only disadvantage being their distance from Santa Cruz or other railroad shipping point; but sometime, and perhaps in the not very distant future, a railroad will be built along the coast, and will bring into market one of the most delightful as well as profitable sections of Santa Cruz County. At the present time, notwithstanding comparative inaccessibility, there being splendid roads from these heights to the nearest railway stations, there are many valuable places on this mountain planted to orchards and vines. Notable among these is the property of the Ben Lomond Wine Company, of which special and extended mention is made under the head of viticulture.
Land here is comparatively cheap, and to the man of enterprise and industry who is desirous of engaging in viticultural pursuits, there are splendid opportunities to acquire a competence.
BOULDER CREEK, BEN LOMOND, AND FELTON.
Leaving Santa Cruz via the Narrow Gauge road, at Felton station, the traveler is connected by a branch line with the secluded and picturesque town of Boulder Creek. This branch road follows up the course of the San Lorenzo River, crossing it at frequent intervals and finally bringing up at the junction of three streams, the San Lorenzo River and Bear Creek on the east, and Boulder Creek on the west. In the angles thus formed is the town of Boulder. Boulder Creek's great industry is lumber. There are several mills in its immediate neighborhood, and it is the point of shipment for a vast area of redwoods. Next to the lumber interest, the care of summer visitors—campers, fishermen, and others enjoying prolonged picnics—keeps employed a goodly number of residents. A large hotel kept by mine host Dennison is always filled in the warm months by visitors from all over the State, and it is in Boulder that the famous "Bull's-head's Breakfasts" (if they did not originate) are carried to perfection.
As a pleasant place to visit and from which to go a-fishing, etc., Boulder Creek is hard to beat, while the stir and bustle seen in its streets indicate a healthy state of business there.
Before reaching Boulder Creek the train stops at Ben Lomond, a comparatively new town located under the shadow of the beautiful isolated range from which it takes its name.
Ben Lomond is sure to be a favorite resort for tired city folks and others who are seeking a quite resting-place in the redwoods, and already several pretty cottages have been built there by those who appreciate the beauty of such a restful place.
On the highway between the Big Trees and Boulder Creek—a most romantic drive, by the way—is the pretty town of Felton. It is a mile from the station of the same name, boasts of a comfortable, well-kept hotel, and of the general neatness of its streets and dwellings. In the hills near at hand are the H. T. Holmes Co. and IXL Co.'s limekilns, that are interesting places to visit. From the town a good road leads up onto the level plateaus of Ben Lomond and so over to the coast. These three pretty towns are strung along on the San Lorenzo River, and to visit them all is a delightful summer day's jaunt.
THE BIG TREES.
The remarkable group of Sequoias known as the "Santa Cruz Big Trees" are, unlike many of the natural wonders of the world, easily reached by rail or carriage. The Narrow Gauge road, directly connecting the cities of San Jose and Santa Cruz, passes through the grove, and passengers on the trains going either way are given a brief opportunity at Big Tree Station to examine some of the giants of the forest. Or they can stop over a few hours for the next train, and enjoy a stroll along the pleasant walks laid out in the grove; and, if they choose to stop long enough to form more than a transient acquaintance with the noble trees, they will be comfortably housed, well fed, and pleasantly entertained generally by Mr. Ball, the lessee.
Perhaps, however, the pleasantest way to visit "The Trees" is by carriage over the river road from Santa Cruz. The drive takes about an hour, the road winding through a shady forest for the most part, skirting the rapid San Lorenzo. Soon after leaving the city, it enters Powder Mill Cañon, and then; climbing the hillside, leaves the railway and follows the windings of the valley, affording many beautiful views of the river, the tunneled spurs of the range, and other bits of scenery. Finally the road winds sharply around a steep hillside, we ford the San Lorenzo, and are in the grove.
All about us stand the grand trees. The dark red, rugged shafts rise to such a height as to diminish their colossal bulk. Though some of them are in circumference so great as only to be encircled by at least a score of people joining hands in a ring about them, their great height—three hundred feet or more—gives them the appearance of grace and symmetry we generally associate with trees of lesser growth. Following the winding paths laid out through the grove, we come upon tree after tree, each having a distinct individuality that has suggested the names they bear. There stand in solemn majesty the "Generals Grant" and "Sherman," the stately "Daniel Webster," the groups known as "Ingersoll's Cathedral" and the "Y. M. C. A.," the curious "Buhrl Redwood," and the strangely beautiful "Eagle's Nest." "Idle Wild," a charming camping-ground, is set about with noble trees. The "Centennial" group is a magnificent cluster, each tree being named for a revolutionary hero; and close to the hotel buildings is the "Fremont" group, the "Giant," "General Castro," the "Seven Sisters," and other fine specimens. Going southward in the grove we come to the "Chimney," the "Vats," and many other interesting trees and groups.
The walks amidst the Big Trees are delightful. In the broader, more open paths are always to be seen groups of happy picnickers, while the sequestered bypaths are ideal "lovers' walks," where, in the sweet seclusion the wild woods grant, wanders many a happy pair.
And as this is as free as air, one can enjoy a day's outing in this splendid grove, can go when he pleases, rest in the cool hotel parlors, and lounge on the pleasant veranda, without money and without price. If visitors choose, they can have good luncheons served them in the grove at small cost, and when parties of pleasure-seekers come in numbers, with music and jollity, there are the dancing platform, swings, and other appliances at their service.
No more more pleasant spot for a midsummer day's lounge can be found in the county; and nowhere in the State is there a more beautiful grove of California's royal tree, the redwood, or Sequoia sempervirens.
HIGHLAND AND SKYLAND.
These are the appropriate names of a noted fruit district in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near the Santa Clara line, a few miles from Wrights station, on the South Pacific Coast Railroad. Highland is the country nearest to the station, at an elevation of from fifteen hundred to two thousand feet, commanding a view of the adjacent mountains, and a glimpse of the Bay of Monterey in the distance. It is comparatively free from fogs. The great fertility and peculiarities of its soil make it, as designated before, a prominent fruit section of the State.
Another district still higher up the mountain, in fact, on its summit, has been cleared, and planted to orchards and vines, and populated by an intelligent and thrifty class of citizens. In seeking for an appropriate name by which to designate this locality, the term " Skyland" was adopted as about the only one that would overtop "Highland."
A most wonderful and agreeable surprise awaits the traveler who for the first time visits this section of Santa Cruz Mountains. After passing over the various roads which lead to this locality, some through redwood forests, others up steep cañons covered with oak and madrona, one involuntarily utters an exclamation of delight upon emerging into an open country thickly inhabited, and giving evidence, in the many beautiful and well-kept orchards and vineyards, of a thrifty and prosperous community. Nor is the admiration entirely exhausted on the beautiful scenery and surroundings, for the practical man will see much to admire in the enterprise and industry which have converted these hillsides and plateaus from chemise and chaparral thickets, to a paradise of vine and fruit trees. Pretty residences, neat lawns, and a profusion of flowers, attest the culture and refinement of the residents of this mountain section.
VINE HILL.
From the city of Santa Cruz one drives northwesterly up a cañon known as "Blackburn Gulch;" on either side are relics of a dense forest of redwood, which many years ago was converted into lumber and building material. Vegetable gardens, small orchards and vineyards, are now to be seen in the place of the towering trees.
At a distance of six or seven miles is a section of country known as Vine Hill. It embraces an area of several square miles of rolling, hilly territory, and contains some of the finest vineyards in the State. Here are the properties of Mr. J. W. Jarvis, of H. Mel, of F. McMullen, of W. H. Galbraith, of Ed. Fitch, and a number of other vineyards.
In the neighborhood of one hundred thousand gallons of wine are annually made from the vines of this section of the county, and many thousand boxes of table grapes are here raised, a specialty being made of late table grapes which do not find their way into the market until November and December.
Here are opportunities for the making of profitable homes, as much of the adjacent territory is still in its natural condition, or the condition in which it was left by the lumbermen.
SUMMER HOME FARM.
B. C. Brown is the proprietor of Summer Home Farm, a prominent fruit ranch, and one of the most popular summer resorts in the county. It is located three miles from Glenwood, in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and consists of three hundred acres, sixty-five of which are in fruit. Whilst the fruit from this section is of the very finest quality, and while Mr. Brown annually sells fifty tons of grapes and twenty tons of dried prunes, it is not this feature of the farm to which special attention is now directed.
Surrounded as it is by the giant redwoods, and near to deep gorges through which flow mountain streams abounding in trout, which furnish rare sport for the angler, at an elevation where the fogs seldom reach, and possessing many other sylvan features which make it pre-eminently a rural resort, it is no wonder that every summer season finds Mr. Brown's accommodations for boarders taxed to their utmost extent. About sixty guests are at this delightful place at this writing, and I am reliably informed that this is an average of the number of people who are here during the summer months.
Added to the pretty scenery, the grand, rugged mountains, the forests, and other natural attractions, are the fresh fruits, and milk and cream from the dairy on the place —not unimportant features to the person from the city who has been compelled for months, perhaps, to eat fruits not the freshest, and drink milk largely obtained from a pump or the city water works. Mr. Brown runs a coach to Glenwood Station, on the narrow gauge road.
SOQUEL.
Historically Soquel is a town of considerable importance; otherwise, it is a pretty little village situated on Soquel Creek, one mile from the Bay of Monterey. In early days it was almost entirely surrounded by immense forests of redwood trees, which long ago have been converted into lumber. The primitive and bustling activity of a lumber camp has changed to the slower but more pretentious thrift of a neat and cozy village, surrounded by hills of orchard and vine, and drawing its sustenance from them.
Here are located the South Coast Paper Mills, mention of which is made in connection with the manufacturing institutions of this county. There are the usual number of stores, etc., to be found in a town of a few hundred inhabitants.
But the most conspicuous and significant feature of the place is a new public schoolhouse, one of the finest in the county, an engraving of which is herewith presented. This building has just been completed by the district, which is represented by School Directors Henry Daubenbis, Louis Ware, and Henry Winkle, who have been untiring in their efforts to see that Soquel was provided with one of the best educational edifices in the county.
MINOR RESORTS.
Santa Cruz is pre-eminently a county of resorts. During the summer months, let one drive in the mountains, and at nearly every hillside cottage he will see pretty girls in hammocks, a game of croquet or tennis, or some other evidence of the summer visitor.
In this county, perhaps to a greater extent than in any other, a person contemplating a summer outing can have a greater variety of attractions to select from. He can go to the coast, where surf bathing is the principal feature, where the air is cool and humid; he can go to Santa Cruz and mingle with the fashionable throng; or he can go to other points on the bay, and enjoy the freedom of camp life. He can go on the mountain, and look down at the bay; sometimes he will be able to look down at the fog when it is driven inland, rolling and tossing like a troubled sea. He can find a sequestered spot hemmed in by wooded hills, where the sea winds never blow. At either of these mountain places there is an abundance of fresh fruits, and if the visitor is of rural and romantic tastes, he may drive the cows home and milk them. And yet it is not a habitation in a wilderness, as, at the most, a drive of a few hours will take you to a railroad station or post office.
APTOS.
Near where Aptos Creek debouches into the Bay of Monterey, about eight miles southeast of Santa Cruz, is situated the little town of Aptos. It is simply a small village, containing a few stores, hotel, etc., but is a shipping-point of considerable importance, being connected by rail with the large lumber mills of the Loma Prieta Company and the F. A. Hihn Company.
Here is also located one of the finest hotels in the State, owned by Claus Spreckels, the sugar king. Mr. Spreckels also owns an extensive stock ranch in the vicinity, stocked with blooded animals, and it is here and at the hotel where he spends such time as he is able to spare from his extensive business, for recreation and the accumulation of nerve force necessary to conduct his gigantic enterprises.
From here a walk or ride of a few miles takes you into the redwoods, where the giants lift their heads in clusters, far toward the azure dome; where, in their cool, sequestered shade, grow countless brakes and ferns; where streams rush down the cañons over huge bowlders, beneath overhanging willows, here becoming a cascade, there a miniature fall, where the rainbow tints are betrayed in the spray; where all nature a "solemn stillness holds," save those sounds of the sighing trees, the laughing waters, the singing birds, the droning insects, which invite one to that physical repose which induces mental clairvoyance. Nowhere else in the State are to be found such places for rest and recuperation as among the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
TWIN LAKES PARK.
This tract, generally known as Twin Lakes, is the appropriate and euphonious name of a Baptist resort and summer encampment recently established in Santa Cruz. The successful endeavors of the Christian people paved the way and led up to the establishment of this resort.
Like the Methodists of Pacific Grove, on the other side of the bay, the Baptist Church of California was anxious to secure a desirable location for a summer encampment and a place to hold annual conferences. A committee was appointed to look up sites and consider propositions, and, after traveling over a large part of Central California, and examining many places, and considering several large tenders of land and coin, accepted the proposition of Mr. J. C. Kimble, a resident of Oakland, and owner of one of the most desirable pieces of property in Santa Cruz County. Mr. Kimble gave ten acres of the highest part of this tract, and afterwards increased it by the addition of other pieces and a long, broad stretch of beach, aggregating twenty-two and one-quarter acres. A donation from Jacob Schwan increased the tract seven and a fifth acres, and the purchase from the same party of twelve acres additional, and a perpetual lease of a long strip along the cliff, make a domain of about forty acres.
The location of this encampment could not be excelled if the State had been thoroughly searched. From the city of Santa Cruz to Aptos, as has been previously noted, is one of the most desirable residence parts of the globe. And of this most desirable part of the Monterey Bay, the Baptists, in point of contiguity to the city of Santa Cruz, steam and street railway facilities, bathing facilities, including surf bathing in the open bay, and still salt water bathing in Swan Lake, beauty of natural surroundings, grand marine and mountain views, to say nothing of the pretty little vistas, shady walks, and secluded nooks among the grand oaks which fringe the lakes, have certainly demonstrated the conception of their undertaking under a most auspicious star.
The grounds have been laid out by Mr. N. E. Beckwith, of Los Gatos, who has been appointed superintendent and resident agent for the sale of lots. Mr. Beckwith has demonstrated his ability as a surveyor, and high artistic taste, by the way that he has plotted the grounds, surveying the entire tract and adjacent lands of Mr. Kimble in one homogeneous plan, with an eye to the future growth and development of this most auspiciously-inaugurated effort.
A hotel and several cottages have been constructed, a large number of tents are upon the ground, and quite a number of families are enjoying the privilege and pleasure of an encampment at Twin Lakes. The lots are forty by eighty feet in dimension, and have sold rapidly since being placed upon the market, many purchasers being residents of Santa Cruz, not identified with the religious association, who have taken advantage of the opportunity of a good business investment. Especial care has been taken to prevent the sale of liquors on or near the grounds.
While the enterprise is under the management of the California State Baptist Association, there is no sectarianism in the conduct of affairs, as each purchaser of a lot is entitled to membership in the association.
In addition to his donation of land, Mr. Kimble has assisted in opening roads, and otherwise shown his generosity and desire for the success of the undertaking, which is now assured. Some pretty features of the natural scenery are shown in the accompanying engraving.
THE PAJARO VALLEY.
A serious drawback to the rapid development of California's resources has been, and still is, to a lesser extent, the legitimate heir of old Spanish grants,—large farms. As long as horses and cattle were permitted to graze on lands capable of producing an interest-bearing revenue upon several hundred dollars per acre, not much in the way of development and progression could be expected. But wherever these large farms have been cut up into small holdings, and sold to actual residents, the country has been brought to a high state of prosperity, and the wilderness has been converted into a garden.
This is the exact condition of affairs in the Pajaro (pronounced Pāhāro) Valley, with the added advantages that the soil here is of unexcelled fertility, and the rainfall always adequate for the production of the most wonderful growth of vegetation.
The Pajaro Valley, the smaller part of which is on the south side of the Pajaro River, and in Monterey County, comprises, with adjacent foothill and mountain valley land, about fifty thousand acres. It is of comparatively circular form, the west side fronting the Bay of Monterey, the foothills of Aptos to the northwest, Loma Prieta looming up darkly to the north, the Santa Cruz Mountains, with redwood cañons and live-oak-covered foothills east, and the Gabilan Range of mountains and foothills of Monterey County to the south. Standing on an elevation of the Santa Cruz Mountains and looking out toward where the horizon dips in the Pacific, one perceives the Pajaro Valley in all its beauty of form and dress. Near the foothills is a chain of beautiful lakes, and useful, too, in that they furnish water for irrigating berry fields and garden products requiring an excess of moisture. Beyond them one sees the vari-colored fields of wheat, barley, corn, hops, beets, potatoes, and beans, orchards and vineyards, presenting the appearance of a wonderful mosaic. To the left the Pajaro River, with its wide bed of shining sand, winds its sinuous course to the bay. In the greater distance is Watsonville, coolly shaded by many trees, above whose green foliage the white church spires glisten in the sunlight. In the background of the town one sees the dense volume of smoke which pours from the numerous smoke stacks of the largest beet-sugar factory in the United States. But a short distance further the white surf line of the Bay of Monterey marks Camp Goodall; and as one looks down, at the pretty picture, in the silence of contemplation he catches the sound of the surges of the sea "as the waves tell their story to the smooth pebbles of the beach," and recede to the embrace of the ocean.
But if this
valley is beautiful, and calculated to inspire the lover of the pretty and
picturesque, as a fertile and productive locality, appealing to the practical
and matter-of‑fact individual, it is even more wonderful. Here grows and thrives
nearly every variety of product. In the days of wheat and barley, the yield of
those cereals in this valley was equal to the crops on the islands of the
Sacramento River, where more than one hundred bushels to the acre have been
harvested. But the period of the cereal growth in California is rapidly passing
away, owing to the greater profits to be obtained from orchards and vineyards,
and in this valley from various kinds of vegetable products. Fields of
beans, of potatoes, of sugar beets, and of corn, and of strawberries, have to a
great extent taken the place of the fields of barley and wheat. Numerous young
orchards, and a few of an older growth, attest the fact that the residents of
this favored section have been brought to a realization of the adaptability of
their soil and climate to horticulture. From potatoes, beans, or beets a net
revenue of $50 per acre is a low estimate of the actual results of farming,
while from strawberries and orchard fruits, notably apples and prunes, a net
revenue of $100 per acre is such a low estimate that to those acquainted with
the actual facts I will incur a reputation for drawing the short bow.
In connection with the description of
the beet-sugar factory and the beet-sugar industry, under the title of "The
Manufacturing Institutions of the County," will be found some of the facts
relative to growing sugar beets. Similar information relative to strawberries
will be found in connection with the description of Lake Farm. It will not be
foreign to this article to here remark that from a fifty-acre strawberry patch
owned by Waters & Brewington, there were gathered last year fifty berries that
averaged seven and one-half inches in circumference. The yield of strawberries
in this valley is about three tons to the acre, the season lasting from eight to
nine months.
"Figures will not lie," but they are often misleading when adduced to illustrate the profits of any industry; yet, notwithstanding this, I cannot refrain from introducing the following testimony relative to the fertility of the soil, the productiveness of the valley, and the profits accruing from farming and horticulture: Mr. A. N. Judd has a threeyear-old orchard of fifty-two acres. In this orchard last year he had twenty-one acres of beets, from which he obtained a revenue of $1,496; nineteen acres of beans, representing a revenue of $1,239; twelve acres of potatoes, which brought returns of $3,008. The expense account reads as follows: By beets, $650; by beans, $460; by potatoes, $700; leaving $3,952 as the, total net receipts. To this must be added $1,125 net worth of fruit sold from the orchard, making a total net revenue of $5,078 from fifty-two acres. Now this is a fact, and not an extraordinary exhibit, and is misleading only to this extent last year there was a splendid yield of potatoes in the Pajaro Valley, and the price of this product was unusually high. The data in regard to sugar beets and beans represents average yields and average prices; but a fact in this connection worthy of remark is that such a quantity of produce was obtained from land on which was a thrifty orchard two and three years old, and from which was obtained a net revenue of more than $1,000. And the trees of this orchard show such a marvelous growth that I have deemed them worthy of pictorial illustration. A three-year-old Beurre Hardy pear tree measured sixteen and one-half inches in circumference; a Yellow Egg plum tree measured twenty and one-half inches in circumference; and a Gravenstein apple tree measured seventeen inches.
The advantage of being able to grow most any kind of a summer crop on land supporting a growing orchard is a very important feature. It enables one to obtain a revenue from his land during a period when most horticulturists are subject to an expense. In other parts of the valley, notably, upon the strawberry farm of Waters & Brewington, I observed a most excellent crop of strawberries, from which two and one-half or three tons to the acre will be gathered this year, growing in a young orchard showing every evidence of thrift and health.
As noted in the outset of this article, the Pajaro Valley is a country of small farms, and not less conspicuously a country of wealthy and well-to-do people. The county records show that there are fewer mortgages on the property of the Pajaro Valley than upon any other property in Santa Cruz County. The people are industrious, but thrift does not always follow industry. Something more than a superficial observation of their condition, and the circumstances by which they are surrounded, leads me to the conclusion that their prosperity is due in a greater measure to the wonderful fertility of the soil, small landholdings, and the consequent thorough cultivation of the land, than to anything else.
The people of the valley have a common interest, and the free exchange of ideas and opinions relative to the common good has no doubt been a valuable auxiliary to the prosperity-producing conditions before noted. Among other things, and a paradox in California, is an annual fair without a horse race or any kind of gambling, given under the auspices of the Pajaro Valley Agricultural Fair Association.
This association was organized in 1886, and possesses, besides omitting the horse-racing program, these distinctive features: They receive no State appropriation; encourage the young by having a juvenile department with one-half the premiums that all other departments get, including public-school work; give evening entertainments every evening during fair week, and each year introduce numerous novelties which contribute to the success of their efforts. But most conspicuous, and, no doubt, the most prominent factor in the cause of the great success of this organization, is the fact that eight of the directors are ladies. The directors of this association are: Mesdames E. Z. Roache, A. E. Osborn, A. A. Libby, L. V. Willits, N. A. Uren, G. B. Card, M. E. Tuttle, and H. S. Stipp; and Messrs. James Waters, A. P. Roache, G. W. Sill, N. A. Uren, A. N. Judd, and H. S. Stipp.
WATSONVILLE.
Watsonville is the commercial center of the Pajaro Valley, and the second city in size and importance in Santa Cruz County. It has a population of about two thousand two hundred people, has excellent public schools and a high school, the usual quota of religious organizations and churches, substantial business houses, two banks, first-class hotels, and numerous pretty residences. The fact that it draws its support from the Pajaro Valley, one of the most fertile spots in the world, is sufficient evidence of its thrift and prosperity.
The town is situated on a branch of the Coast Division of the Southern Pacific Railroad, connecting Santa Cruz. with the main line at Pajaro, a couple of miles southeast of Watsonville. It has direct railway shipping facilities to San Francisco, one hundred miles distant, and is only a few miles from the Bay of Monterey, where the coast steamers touch. The Western Beet Sugar Factory is located here, and the company have just constructed a narrow-gauge railroad from Watsonville to their extensive sugar-beet plantation on the Moro Cojo Rancho, thirteen miles distant, and near the town of Castroville, in Monterey County. In addition to transporting the products of their plantation to the factory, this road will carry the products of that section of the country to the Watsonville market, and thus create a new source of wealth for the town, and increase its prosperity.
Three newspapers are published here, devoted to the interests of the town and valley. The Pajaronian is owned and conducted by W. R. Radcliff. It is Republican in politics, consistent in its course relative to all local matters, and fearless and independent in the expression of opinions on all subjects. The Transcript, published by George W. Peckham, is Democratic in politics, and, like its contemporary, devoted to the upbuilding of the town and the valley. Mr. Peckham is a prominent man in county politics, and well known throughout a large part of the State, his interest in and work in behalf of the party having given him this prominence. The Rustler, established by Joe Hetherington, and now owned and published by Hetherington & Anderson, is the latest born of Watsonville papers. It is independent, with Democratic proclivities, and is very appropriately named, as the business which it has builded in comparatively short time certainly entitles it to the appellation which it displays at the head of its columns. The papers are all published weekly, and have done much for this section of the county. In fact, the country newspaper fails to receive its proper meed of praise or the amount of patronage to which it is entitled. It does more for the upbuilding of the community in which it is published, does more gratuitous work for charity and public enterprise, than any other element of that community.
I speak ex cathedra, and I trust the reader will pardon apparent egotism if I say that at one time in my life I followed the laborious and financially-unrequited profession of publisher of a country newspaper.
Other features
of Watsonville, not characteristic of towns of similar size, are of sufficient
importance to receive separate mention, as in the case of the Western Sugar Beet
Factory, Martinelli's, Cider Works, the Corralitos Electric Light and Water
Works, the Charles Ford Co., the leading mercantile house in the county. There
are a number of fruit-packing establishments and commission houses; which do an
extensive business.
There are no other towns of
importance in the valley, although there are a number of stores, etc., at cross
roads, bearing names selected from the miners' vocabulary of '49.
CAMP GOODALL.
Near Watsonville, pleasantly situated, a seaside resort has been established, bearing the name which forms the caption of this article. To residents of this coast it is superfluous to state that the camp was named after Captain Goodall, of the firm of Goodall, Perkins & Co., owners of the coast line of steamers. It possesses the natural features in common with other resorts upon the shores of the Bay of Monterey, with perhaps the added advantage of extensive clam beds in the immediate vicinity, and, as a natural result, one of the fashionable features of this place has been clam bakes. Many of the noted epicures of the State have assisted and participated in these feasts. There is good surf bathing at Camp Goodall, and withal it is a pleasant place to spend the hot days of the summer.
THE WILD FLOWERS OF THE COUNTY.
It has long been known to botanists that Santa Cruz County is rich in flowering plants native to the soil, and its area has always been a favorite field for plant collectors. That the flora should be varied and abundant is to be expected, from the great diversity in the physical features of the country, and consequent differences in temperature, and from its being abundantly watered in every part. Hence, when the pupils of the district schools were encouraged to collect the wild flowers in their neighborhoods, and send them to Santa Cruz to be identified and properly arranged, the result, as spoken of by the distinguished botanist, Dr. C. L. Anderson, proved that "perhaps no one county in California has, in proportion to its area, a larger variety of flora."
Amongst the very large collections of flowering plants sent in by the schoolchildren, there was found a number of quite rare and interesting plants, and the collections demonstrated that each district has a distinctive flora, there being one or more varieties found in each that were not in the others. A complete list of all the flowering plants referred to this county would embrace some sixty families, represented by over six hundred varieties, making a valuable and extensive herbarium of itself. A very large proportion of these flowers are conspicuous in size and gaily colored, and quite a number delicately scented.
Besides the flowering plants, there are some seventeen varieties of ferns, whose graceful fronds decorate thousands of shady nooks, and in the wilder sections of the county form dense brakes, where the deer love to hide.
The grasses indigenous to the county, together with those that have been introduced and become part of the flora, form a long list, including members of thirty families, most of which are of value to the farmer, forming extensive pastures, on which cattle can graze the year round.
The many beautiful trees found in the forests of Santa Cruz attract at all times the admiration of the lover of nature, especially when, in the spring months, their fresh green foliage is strewed with clusters of blossoms.
Along the coast line, in March, April, and May, the display of wild flowers by the roadside, in the meadows, and on every wind-swept slope, is something wonderful, and not to be seen except in California. The many picturesque drives over the roads leading to the Loma Prieta and Ben Lomond Heights, are made still more delightful by the abundance and variety of wild flowers met with at every step; and the close observer will find that the flowers seen in the mountain region differ very much from those found decorating the open, breezy drives of the coast.
And so, whether we are enjoying the bracing coolness of a drive or walk northward from Santa Cruz, with the sparkling ocean always in view, or are pursuing the shadowy windings of the roads leading over the forest-covered mountain ranges of the county, we find wild flowers scattered in profusion all about us, lending new grace and beauty to the view.
RAILROADS OF THE COUNTY.
Santa Cruz County has fifty-six miles of steam railroads, twenty-seven of which belong to the South Pacific Coast Railway Company (narrow gauge), and twenty-nine to the coast division of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company (broad gauge), both operated by the Southern Pacific Company under lease. The South Pacific Coast line runs from Santa Cruz to San Francisco (eighty-one miles distant), through the Santa Cruz Mountains and a part of the Santa Clara Valley, and connects with San Francisco by ferry from Alameda across the Bay of San Francisco. The coast division line skirts the Bay of Monterey as far as Pajaro, and thence runs northerly through the Pajaro and Santa Clara Valleys, the trains running into San Francisco (one hundred and twenty-one miles distant). In this county there is a branch of the South Pacific Coast line running from Felton to Boulder, seven miles, and another from Felton Junction to Old Felton, two miles. The coast division has a branch running seven miles up Aptos Creek, from Aptos to the base of Loma Prieta at Monte Vista. While it is thus seen that the county is well supplied with rail facilities at present, a further development of her wonderful resources will necessitate the extension of the railway system.
Apart from the passenger traffic of the main lines, which is extensive, especially in the summer, when countless thousands visit the coast, there is an important freight business, the roads having opened to industry much of the great natural wealth of the county. The principal freight of the coast division is grain and lumber, and of the South Pacific Coast line, lumber, firewood, lime, bituminous rock, dairy products, and fruit. The wealth annually added to the county by the prosecution of these industries is very large. The Santa Cruz Mountains, apart from their mineral wealth, have resources in adaptation to fruit culture that cannot be measured. Through a period of time of inconceivable extent, the forests, with which the mountains are covered, have been enriching the soil with a vegetable deposit, until now the cultivable surface is leaf mold to a great depth, and possesses a fertility that is rarely approached. An abundance of annual rainfall, and the favorable conjunction of other superior climatic conditions, combine to make this mountainous region a fruit paradise, and the presence of the South Pacific Coast road renders all this available.
It is in the scenic beauties revealed by the rail approaches to Santa Cruz that the popular charm resides, and the two lines present so remarkable a contrast in this regard that only half the traveling pleasure of a visit to Santa Cruz may be enjoyed by taking only one line. Many visitors to the Hotel del Monte go from San Francisco by the broad gauge and return by the narrow gauge.
The scenery along the broad gauge, after passing through Santa Clara Valley, with its beautiful towns and orchards, comes into Santa Cruz County, in the Pajaro Valley, one of the most beautiful and picturesque of all the charming valleys of the coast ranges. The railroad at first follows along the bank of the crooked river through a narrow gorge for a long distance, and then emerges into the broad, open valley, with its delightful homes, farms, and orchards, its beautiful lakes and thrifty towns, its towering white sand hills near the shore of the bay, and finally the grand sheet of water spreads out toward the southwest, with the Pacific Ocean bounding the distant horizon. This is the first view of Monterey Bay, but not the last; for, between this point and Santa Cruz, a delightful hour is passed in skimming along the bluff, at whose feet break the waters of the bay with almost a ceaseless roar.
At Aptos a branch runs up Aptos Creek seven miles, and this, though comparatively little known, is one of the most charming bits of scenery in the State. Here one may find noble redwood forests which the ax has not touched, and here is a paradise for hunters and fishermen.
The road, as it comes nearer to Santa Cruz, passes some popular summer resorts, including Capitola and Seabright; then on a high bridge the train rumbles over the San Lorenzo River just before that lovely stream, after having come down from the mountains (where it is seen from the narrow-gauge road), debouches into the bay. If it be summer, thousands of people maybe seen on the long sand beach near by, watching the hundreds of bathers enjoy themselves in the surf. This is the beach at Santa Cruz.
On the narrow-gauge line all is different. There is no broad sweep of peaceful sea, no breaking of surf on the rocks, no laughing crowds of gay bathers lining the beaches; but, at once plunging into a tunnel after leaving Santa Cruz, the traveler, soon after emerging, finds himself in the heart of the most bewitching range of mountains on the continent. Here, but for the thunderstorm (which never comes), poor vagabond Rip Van Winkle might have come and had his orgy with the elfs. To one of a finer and more sensitive imagination, the delicious perfume of wild flowers which lingers on the air, the soft winds which come on gentle wings from their undiscovered habitation, the air of infinite peace which rests everywhere, might seem to be the work of innumerable spirits which live in the deeper recesses of the mountains. The stupendous, snowcapped, rugged grandeur of the granite Sierra does not here exist, nor are seen the magnificent and awe-creating flights of nature's splendid fancy revealed by hoary Shasta and his majestic bodyguard of earth giants; but there are found here those charms of infinite grace and tenderness which woo to peace and rest, and whose matchless caressing beauties bring one close to nature's heart. These mountains, with their noble fronts clothed in redwood, in red-trunked madrona, in laurel, in oak, in countless kinds of trees and shrubs, wild flowers in great variety, and ferns without stint; with their song birds, their noisy streams, overhung with boughs, and abounding in cool places and shady pools; with their vineyards and orchards sweeping gracefully around the swelling curves; with their great flat-topped Ben Lomond, and their dark and shadow-haunted Loma Prieta—these graceful mountains take us at once into their closest confidence. They whisper secrets of the ages that are gone; they croon to us soft melodies that the sweet ocean winds have borne silent from afar; they nurse us and caress us; and at night, wrapping us in deep purple shadows, they breathe upon our eyelids, and we sleep. W. C. MORROW.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler