Range of the California buckeye, Aesculus californica, which is endemic to California. Image: USGS

The entire life strategy of the California buckeye optimizes for economical water use. It is the first shrub (small tree) to leaf out every year and grows rapidly in the wet winter and spring months when its neighbors are still dormant. It finishes its creamy, fragrant floral show by the end of June, loses all its leaves, and then enters dormancy by mid- to late summer, although in cooler coastal climates the leaves might hang on until fall. The bark, leaves, and large eye-catching seeds are toxic to most animals. The pollen and nectar, although safe to many butterflies, hummingbirds, and native honeybees, make non-native bees sick, so that it’s a common problem for beekeepers. A “buckeyed-bee” hatches with deformed legs, body, and crippled wings.

Late May into early June is a great time to spot the California buckeye when it’s in its full flowering glory.

The gray whale at the Seymour Center surrounded by restored native plants: Erigeron glaucusseaside (seaside daisy) and Dudlea caespitosa (sea lettuce). Photo:  Jackie Pascoe

Lots of great things happen at Long Marine Laboratory, including marine research, marine education, and lagoon and bluff habitat restoration. The lab sits atop a beautiful bluff on the west side of Santa Cruz, California, where it opened in 1978. It is named after Joseph M. Long, founder of the now-defunct Long’s Drugs chain, to honor his substantial contributions to the University of California.

The Erosion Story

The coastline at Long Marine Lab features undulating patterns made by a resistant layer in the Santa Cruz Mudstone. These are called shore platforms, and they are quite common along the north coast of Santa Cruz County.

Santa Cruz Mudstone in front of Long Marine Lab. This is a great example of pocket beaches. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Shore platforms are responsible for the many pocket beaches that you see in Santa Cruz and elsewhere along the north coast. The undulating pattern occurs where Santa Cruz Mudstone is flat-lying (horizontal) and there are joints running roughly perpendicular to the cliffs. The joints are points of weakness, so the waves erode along the joints much faster than the rest of the layer. The presence of Santa Cruz Mudstone and shore platforms helps to keep erosion rates along the north coast quite low. Within California, erosion rates can range from a few inches up to several feet per year. Here, with the Santa Cruz Mudstone, they average a mere three to six inches per year.

Erosion is so slow here that the mast of La Feliz, which went aground in 1924, is still visible from the cliff top. The crew of 13 was rescued by people onshore, and all of the cargo was recovered. Now, 88 years later, the mast is still standing where rescuers left it then.

The La Feliz went aground off the coast in front of what is now Long Marine Lab in 1924. Photo: Courtesy of Frank Perry

The mast of La Feliz (pole on left), a ship that ran aground in 1924. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Along West Cliff Drive near Almar Street, where the bedrock changes to the Purisima Formation, which is a much less resistant sandstone. There, average erosion rates are roughly double.

An example of the Purisima Formation along West Cliff Drive. The top part of the cliffs where most of the ice plant is growing is composed of Quaternary deposits. The bottom section is the Purisima Formation. The contact between them can be seen clearly in the middle of the photo. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

One of the highest natural erosion rates in California is at Point Año Nuevo in southern San Mateo County. There, the cliffs are low, nearly at sea level, and made of layers of Monterey Shale, which erodes easily. Average erosion rates have been nine feet per year for the last 300 years.

Native Plant Restoration

The coastal plants surrounding the Seymour Center and Younger Lagoon are gradually being restored to the native plant mix of coastal sage scrub. The native plants that would likely have lived on the sea cliffs and bluffs prior to European settlement would be a mix of low lying shrubs (generally under six feet) and herbaceous perennials and annuals including buckwheat, sagebrush, yarrow, lupine, and coyote bush.

Restored coastal bluff vegetation in front of the Seymour Center at Long Marine Lab. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

This is a much more diverse ecosystem than what you see if you are passing along West Cliff Drive, where ice plant has largely displaced native plants. However, native plant restoration projects are starting along West Cliff Drive, too.

What is the best thing to do with ice plant in California? Either pull it out to make way for native plants or pickle it! Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

De Anza Mobile Home Park: Rent Control Ruckus

Along the cliff edge to the east of the lab is the De Anza Mobile Home Park. It is one of the nicer mobile home locations in Santa Cruz County. Residents must be over 55 years old, so they are mostly retired people who own their manufactured homes but pay rent on the lots.

De Anza Mobile Home Park (notice the bluff covered with ice plant). Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

De Anza was the hotbed of a rent control controversy here for many years, ending in 2003 when the city was no longer able to defend the legal challenges to its rent control ordinance from the park’s owner, Equity Lifestyle, Inc. Previously, rents for the manufactured home lots (not including the mortgages) were $400 to $700 monthly. Now, they run $1500 to $4100. Residents who lived there before rent control was abolished were allowed to continue with regulated rent, but that ends when they sell the manufactured home. Because of the new lot rental rates, resale values of the homes that they owned dropped from about $200,000 – 400,000 to less than $20,000.

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1. Sources

   • De Anza Mobile Home Park in Santa Cruz. Greg Camp. Property in Santa Cruz website.
   • Joseph M. Long, 78; Philanthropist Led Chain of Drug Stores. Obituaries, New York Times  December 31, 1990.
   • Location, Location, Location. Metro Santa Cruz, December 12-19 issue, 2001.
   • Living with the Changing California Coast, by Gary B. Griggs, Kiki Patsch, Lauret E. Savoy, et al. University of California Press, 2005.
   • Institute of Marine Sciences, Long Marine Laboratory, University of California Santa Cruz.
   • Personal communication with Gary Griggs, Distinguished Professor of Marine Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz, February 2012.
   • Salvaging the wreck of the small coastal freighter La Feliz. SCM105, Santa Cruz Public Library website.
   • The Santa Cruz Rent Control Story, by Frank Wodley. Coalition of Mobilehome Owners – California website, November 2007.
   • Seymour Science Center > About Us > Our Past. University of California, Santa Cruz.
   • UCSC breaks ground on biology building, by Kara Guzman. Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 24, 2014.

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Dramatic sea cliffs of Santa Cruz Mudstone at Bonny Doon Beach. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

California’s Bonny Doon Beach is home to wide-open sands, a creek that runs through it, and even a clothing-optional section to the right of the chunk of Santa Cruz Mudstone where there used to be a natural bridge. It is also has a few features that tell of the areas railroad and oil exploration history.

Aerial view of Bonny Doon Beach circa 1975 when there was still a natural bridge. Photo: From the collection of Paul and Carmen Mulholand via Tom Scully

Doon Beach with its natural bridge circa 1975. Photo: From the collection of Paul and Carmen Mulholand via Tom Scully

Notice the Parking Lot

When you park to go to Bonny Doon Beach, the main parking area hugs right up to huge hill. It so happens this hill is a man-made embankment. The local stream used to run out to sea in the area where the embankment is now. If you have driven between Santa Cruz and Davenport, you might have wondered why you can’t see the ocean very often on the drive. It’s because every creek along the route has an earthen railroad berm or embankment across it that blocks the view. They were all built in the early 1900s, and the embankment at Bonny Doon Beach is a great example of a very big one.

The inland view of the earthen berm on which the railroad tracks sit. The two arrows show the limits of the native bedrock formed from the Santa Cruz Mudstone. In between the arrows is all “fill” for the embankment. Image: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Grandiose Railroad Plans

At the turn of the 20th century, railroads were king and still expanding with easy money from business tycoons of the day. The railroad embankments we see today were originally part of the Ocean Shore Electric Railway, which was begun in 1905 and was to be a grand line from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. It was to have two parallel electric lines to run both passengers and freight and be completed in 1907. Southern Pacific was also building rail to Davenport at about the same time, so there was definitely some hardball and power politics between the two companies.

A More Humble Reality

Fate intervened. The 1906 quake caused huge damages to the northern end of the Ocean Shore line, and their easy funding largely dried up. Construction continued, although money had to be raised from local bonds. Southern Pacific secured the contract to transport cement and materials for the Davenport Cement Plant, and that took away much- needed revenue from Ocean Shore.

Construction of the Ocean Shore line circa 1905. Photo: Collection of Alverda Orlando

The details of how the collaboration ultimately occurred are hard to pin down, but Ocean Shore and Southern Pacific collaborated in building the embankments north to Davenport. The embankments are so wide because they were designed for three tracks (two for Ocean Shore and one for Southern Pacific). They consist of wooden trestles filled in with local material to enable the structures to support the extreme weight of the railway cars loaded with cement.

This 1906 photo shows the wooden railroad trestle that crosses San Vincente Creek, at Davenport, partially filled in. There are many of these filled trestles between Davenport and Santa Cruz, including the one at Bonny Doon Beach. Photo: Collection of Gary Griggs, courtesy of Sandy Lydon

By 1908, only portions of the rail on each end of the Ocean Shore line were running: Santa Cruz to Swanton, which is just north of Davenport, and San Francisco to Tunitas Creek, a few miles south of Half Moon Bay. The railroad never fully connected Santa Cruz to San Francisco. Ocean Shore stopped running trains by 1920 and never laid their second line. The Southern Pacific line was eventually sold to Union Pacific, which ran freight for the cement plant until the plant closed in 2010.

Why There Is a Tunnel

Creation of the railroad embankments meant completely blocking off the creeks and any associated estuaries and lagoons. Water flow was routed through tunnels made through the Santa Cruz Mudstone. The tunnels are on the north side of each beach and, despite large storms, have eroded little and have been adequate to handle the flow. In the picture below, the black arrow points to a tunnel where Liddell Creek comes out of the Santa Cruz Mudstone. You can follow the water to its exit at the ocean. The black rectangle shows the very linear railroad embankment that now defines the back of the beach.

An aerial view of Bonny Doon Beach. The black rectangle encompasses the embankment made by the filled railroad trestle. The arrow on the left points to the tunnel through which Liddell Creek drains to the sea. Photo: © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project, http://www.Californiacoastline.org

Liddell Creek draining through the man-made tunnel, which was drilled in 1907-1908 through the Santa Cruz Mudstone. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

There’s Oil in Them Thar Hills!

In the farthest-right cove at Bonny Doon Beach (yes, the clothing-optional section), a tall skinny dike of sandstone cuts across the Santa Cruz Mudstone. A dike is essentially loose material. In this case, it’s the older and deeper Santa Margarita Sandstone, which was squirted up under pressure through the younger but harder mudstone. The dikes and the Santa Margarita Sandstone contain bituminous (asphalt-like) material in varying quantities. There are many similar dikes in the sea cliffs along the north coast of Santa Cruz. This one is unusual in how skinny and rectangular it is.

A sandstone dike that cuts across the Santa Cruz Mudstone. The blue line parallels the dike just above it. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Some of the bituminous sandstones just a few miles south, at Majors Creek, were quarried for paving material. Apparently, about 600,000 tons, valued at more than US $2 million, were quarried and sent by boat to pave San Francisco between 1888 and 1914. In the 1950s, the Husky Oil Company ran an experimental project to extract oil and gas by heating the sandstone in the drill hole and then recovering what melted. Over three years, they pulled out 3,000 barrels of oil and some gas. But costs were too high, overall, to make it economically viable.

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Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company train on Trestle No. 1, January 10, 1907. Photo: From the collection of Alverda Orlando

The railroad pictured here was not part of the north-south Southern Pacific or Ocean Shore Electric Railway that ran along the coast from Santa Cruz. It ran 3.5 miles in the canyon above San Vincente Creek and brought limestone from the quarry to the cement plant in Davenport.


The standard gauge railway, built beginning in 1905, had sharp curves and deep cuts to make grade in the extremely steep canyon. There were eight trestles, and to save money, the span length was increased from the standard 15 feet to up to 26 feet! The trestles were so shaky and wobbly the workers were terrified to cross them. By 1913 they decided to fill the groaning and creaking trestles in with dirt. It took 3 years to fill them all.

Quarry Train. No date was with photo. Please leave a comment if you have an idea of the year. Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

In 1923 a narrow gauge mining railroad located in Alaska was purchased from the Alaska Gastineau Mining Company. The entire railway was transported to Davenport and by 1924 was installed and had replaced the first standard gauge railway. In 1942 an electric trolley was purchased to transport the mine workers back and forth from the mines.

Cement plant trolley. Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

The trains stopped running in 1970 as quarry operations moved to Bonny Doon and an automatic conveyor system was set up. Today only a few scars on the hillsides are left to prove that a railroad once chugged along the canyon wall about 150 feet above San Vicente Creek.

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One of two picnic tables made from the original 1864 packing crate for the 3,800 pound cheese made by the Steele family. Seated at table is Mrs. Catherine Steel. Photo circa 1950; courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History.

There are many ways to show support for your country’s troops, but would you ever think of making the world’s largest cheese to raise money for hungry soldiers? In the early summer of 1864, a farming family by the name of Steele did just that: They produced a 3,800 pound wheel of cheese to raise money for the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac.

The Steele family of Pescadero was at that time one of the most well-known dairy operations in California. They began in Petaluma and wound up at Rancho Punta del Año Nuevo, or “cow heaven” according to Isaac Steele. The ranch was owned by Loren Coburn, a very wealthy and notoriously greedy man who owned most of the land in Pescadero. Despite his bad reputation, a lease was arranged and the Steeles moved 1,100 cattle to the ranch in 1861. The family earned $17,000 (almost half a million today!) on cheese alone within the first year at the ranch.

Imagine a wheel of cheese weighing almost 4,000 pounds! Photo courtesy of Loseitlady.

A Unique Show of Support for the Union

When the Civil War was declared in April of 1861, Isaac’s brother Frederick joined the army and became a general. With a close family member fighting in the war, the Steele family wanted to contribute something special to the United States Sanitary Commission (the Civil War equivalent of the Red Cross). What better way for dairy farmers to show support for their troops than to produce for them the world’s largest cheese?

Notice of an address by Rev. Dr. Bellows upon presentation of cheese to the Sanitary Commission. Photo courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collections.

In the early summer of 1864, with this ambitious goal in mind, the Steeles enlisted the help of their neighbors to milk 1500 cows, make curds, and press the curds together to produce a 3,800 pound wheel of cheese. The cheese, worth $800 then ($11,900 today), was presented to the Sanitary Commission by Reverend Dr. Bellows. It was met with wonder and amazement and became the central attraction of that year’s Industrial Fair of the Mechanics Institute of San Francisco.

Held in San Francisco’s Union Square, the Fair’s pavilion featured a 108-foot-high dome. The seven foot wide by two foot deep cheese was displayed at the center, hidden inside a Chinese pagoda ringed with potted flowers and called the “floral temple.” To see the massive cheese, people paid 25 cents to one of several wounded soldiers who had fought bravely for the Union. The money raised all went to the National Sanitary Fund and after a month on display, the cheese wheel had raised $1500 (equal to $22,400 today).

Mark Twain Reports on the Monster Cheese

Samuel Clemens reported on the great cheese in the Daily Morning Call on September 10, 1864:

Mark Twain, Brady-Handy photo portrait. February 7, 1871. Photo courtesy of the United States Library of Congress.

“It is the contribution of two whole hearted brothers, and it is worth twenty-five cents to look upon such a monument of kindly Christian charity. After that cheese has gone the rounds of the States and collected a quarter of a million for the Sanitary Fund, it will be cut up in New York and sold by the slice [to benefit the Sanitary Fund].”

Samuel Clemens wrote several pieces about the monster cheese but he failed to fact check his work and the Call’s editor-in-chief, George Barnes, let him go in October saying,

“You’re out of your element, Clemens. The position requires persistence and a certain attention to detail. I believe you are unsuited to it. Besides, you’re obviously capable of greater things in literature.”

And indeed he was. Samuel Clemens moved on from reporting on the world’s largest cheese to writing some of America’s greatest literature under his pen name, Mark Twain.

President Lincoln Gets a Bite of the Big Cheese

The cheese wheel’s final destination was meant to be New York so that the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac could enjoy the delicious creation. Sadly, only samples of the cheese made the trip. It was decided that by the end of the journey, planned to be made by steamship, the cheese would no longer be edible and would go to waste. So instead, most of the cheese remained in San Francisco and was sold for 50 cents a pound to anyone interested in trying the world’s largest cheese and supporting the Sanitary Fund. Some of the cheese did make it all the way to New York (a special sample box was sent to Reverend Dr. Bellows) and to the White House so that President Lincoln could try a piece. In the end, the massive cheese raised $2,820 and was enjoyed at Thanksgiving dinner by many San Franciscans that year.

Special thanks to Randall Brown for writing the article that was the main source for this piece.

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Creation of the Santa Cruz Mudstone

The Santa Cruz Mudstone was created about 7-9 million years ago (late Miocene) by the settling of fine grained silts, clays and the silicate remains of billions and billions of single-celled plankton called diatoms. It varies in thickness but has been measured to be 8,900 feet thick in at least one location.

The sediments accumulated offshore of the ancient (paleo) coast, on the continental shelf or slope, in ocean water about 450-600 feet deep. This is nearly the same type of condition we have today half a mile off our modern coast. The silts and clays came from nearby rivers, and as the amounts coming from each source varied over time, so did the composition of the layers. With time, these sediments became very thick.

Hardening to Rock

Over millions of years, thousands of feet of sediment were deposited on top of the Santa Cruz Mudstone sediments. With burial, the sediment warms up and some of the silica from those billions of diatoms dissolves and later re-precipitates as cement that binds the particles together; this is called lithification.

During and after lithification, the sediments are also subjected to regional tectonic stresses from huge tectonic plates moving around, which can cause folding and faulting. Thus the original sediment composition, the degree of lithification, and the amount of tectonic stress all combine to determine how hard a rock is and how it will erode. In and around Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz Mudstone is not very deformed, with just some tilting, jointing, and faulting.

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To help guide you through the history, a cultural preserve lies within the park. There are restored farmhouses and workshops from a century of dairy farming. Docents dressed in period clothing are often available for interpretive tours and living history demonstrations. It is very family friendly with a large chicken coop and a great “climbing tree.” Call (831) 426-0505 for hours and tours.

The restored Wilder Ranch Farm House. Photo by Grey3K.

Native Americans

The native peoples of this area refer to the region as Cotoni and call themselves the Awaswas. Most folks today think of them as the “Ohlone” people but this is a misnomer and not how they identify themselves. Today the descendants of the area’s indigenous forbearers who were “missionized” at Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista, are organized as the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. The Cotoni-Awaswas nourished themselves from the sea and tidal zone as well as harvesting, gathering and taking game from the coastal uplands. Though not “agricultural” as we tend to think of it, California Indians thrived by actively managing the environment for productivity.

Europeans

The Spanish first came to Monterey Bay in the mid-1500s, but they did not establish settlements until sometime after the expedition of Gaspar de Portolá in 1769/70.

During this period, the Spanish laid claim to the land as their property, divided it into land grants called ranchos, and offered it to Spanish speaking settlers from Mexico. In 1849 the region became part of the United States but the land grants left a framework by which future subdivisions were made. In many cases, outlines of the original grants are still marked by the fences and roads of today.

From 1791 to 1835, all of the land west of Mission Santa Cruz was used by the Mission for hunting and agriculture. In 1835 it became Rancho Refugio. The huge land grant had various owners and was subdivided into smaller sections. Deloss D. Wilder bought the section on which the park stands today, in 1885. He and his descendants operated a dairy farm here until the 1930s when financial pressures necessitated a switch to beef and vegetable production.

One of the spectacular views you can see along the Old Cove Loop Trail. The rock type here is the Santa Cruz Mudstone. Note the shore platforms formed by erosion of the mudstone and the large pocket beach half in shade.

The same spot as above from a postcard circa 1913. You can see a large arch (left) and two caves. Image courtesy of the Santa Cruz City-County Library System.

In 1969 the Wilder family sold the property to the Moroto Investment Company who proposed to develop up to 10,000 housing units over 30 years. The land was included in a plan developed by the Santa Cruz City Council to extend the city limits 3.5 miles to the north along the coast, thereby doubling the cities population.

Local residents opposed the plan and formed groups such as Operation Wilder to fight it. Similar to the battle to save Lighthouse Field, Santa Cruz County citizens voted to protect the open space. In 1974, California State Parks acquired the property to preserve the land’s natural environment and cultural history.

Open Space

Much of the open space along the coast north of Santa Cruz is the result of many struggles between development and other priorities. Large tracts of land including Wilder Ranch, Gray Whale Ranch, Scaroni Ranch (now part of Wilder), Coast Dairies Property and very recently the CEMEX Redwoods area surrounding the Davenport Cement plant, are all development-free because of the work of many conservation organizations.

Since 1994 this beach at Wilder Ranch has undergone restoration efforts to create a more native habitat. It is currently closed to visitors.

Human Impacts on Ecosystems

European settlement caused significant changes to the landscape and ecology as new plants and animals were introduced. Grazing lands were created, by burning on lowland slopes, to support large numbers of cattle, horse and sheep.

Prior to European settlement, grasses in the Monterey Bay area were perennial bunch grasses such as purple needle grass. Patches of native grasses can still be found on rougher terrain that is inaccessible to grazing and cultivation. These grasses, though able to recover from a burn, do not tolerate repeated grazing. Thus exotic plants, originating in the Mediterranean, took hold and spread outward from Monterey—the main site of Spanish activity.

Accounts show that by 1846 landscapes had been noticeably changed and new species had taken hold. Some of the most common plants now associated with rural California landscapes are non-native wild oats, filaree, wild mustard, wild radish, foxtail, and bur clover.

Fields of rosemary being cultivated within Wilder Ranch State Park.

Ecosystem Restoration

Today Wilder Ranch is managed to support a variety of activities including recreation, agriculture, cattle grazing, and cultural preservation. Recently 110 acres has been restored to pre-Spanish habitat conditions with native vegetation.

Restoration work began in 1994. Some of the agricultural fields have been returned to wetland and riparian habitats with their native tree, shrub and plant species.

Wetland birds and hawks now nest in this habitat. Red-legged frogs and other wetland animals have also moved into the area. The riparian corridor was planted with dogwood, alder, cottonwood, and willows. It will take constant vigilance to keep out weedy plant species such as hemlock and thistle. The hope is that Wilder Ranch will become a showcase coastal wetland restoration site.

Marine Terraces

Have you ever wondered why much of the Westside of Santa Cruz and all the agricultural fields just north of it are so flat, or why many of the hills climb upwards like a staircase to flat tops? It’s because the local landscape is made up of ancient marine terraces which formed as sea level rose and fell over the millennia. These terraces are clearly visible from Western Drive north to Año Nuevo State Reserve. Once you recognize them they will always pop-out at you. The second marine terrace runs along Highway 1 very clearly from Western Drive to Davenport.

View looking north from the Old Cove Trail. You are standing on the first marine terrace. The second marine terrace is clearly visible. To the right of the middle white arrow, you can see the third marine terrace.

The story of how the marine terraces formed begins long ago when the west coast of the United States, as far inland as the state of Utah, was under the ocean. Most all rocks west of Utah are either marine sediments or volcanic in origin.

Here, on the north coast of Santa Cruz, the marine terrace sequence consists of a series of platforms or “terraces” cut into the ocean facing slope of our local mountain (Ben Lomond Mountain). Each terrace is an ancient ocean floor that has since been slowly uplifted by large scale tectonic movements along the San Andreas Fault System. The higher the terrace, the older it is. The steep surfaces that separate each terrace are ancient beach cliffs eroded away by waves when sea level was high. For a more detailed explanation about marine terraces click here.

Map showing the Santa Cruz marine terraces. The first through fifth terraces are shaded purple, blue, green, yellow and red, respectively. The black arrow points to the fifth marine terrace. The image is modified from a 2008 paper by Art White and colleagues (cited below).

Many thanks to Archer Koch of MultirotorCam.com for permission to use of his video at the start of this post.

Further Information

Save the Redwoods League

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the North Coast Tour. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources Used

   • California State Parks Website. Wilder Ranch Pamphlet. 2009.
   • Chemical weathering of a marine terrace chronosequence, Santa Cruz, California I: Interpreting rates and controls based on soil concentration–depth profiles. A F White, M S Schulz, D V Davison V. Vivit, et al. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 2008;72:36–68.
   • Monterey Bay Area: Natural History and Cultural Imprints, Second Edition. Burton Le Roy Gordon. Boxwood Press; 1977.
   • The Monterey Bay Shoreline Guide. Jerry Emory. University of California Press; 1999.
   • Ocean Cliffs at Wilder Beach Circa 1913. Santa Cruz Public Libraries Website Website. http://www2.santacruzpl.org/gallery2/v/postcards/v3-013.jpg.html.
   • Personal Communication with Jim Keller, Director of Conservation and Land Initiatives, Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, November 28, 2012.
   • A Santa Cruz County Century: The Sentinel takes a journey through the past 100 years. Santa Cruz Sentinel. Santa Cruz Sentinel Publishers Co. 2000.
   • Wilder Ranch State Park. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilder_Ranch_State_Park.

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]]> /santacruz/wilder-ranch-coastal-california-in-a-nutshell/feed/ 0 /blog/collecting-ancient-rocks-in-bloomers-at-pescaderos-pebble-beach/ /blog/collecting-ancient-rocks-in-bloomers-at-pescaderos-pebble-beach/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2015 04:19:17 +0000 /?p=2312 Many thanks to Barry Blanchard for permission to use this video.

Women in bloomers and children in search of treasure once flocked to Pebble Beach to spend hours hunting for the best pieces of agate, opal, jasper, and carnelians polished by the waves to shiny perfection. Also known as Bean Hollow State Beach North, the beach is located along California’s scenic Highway 1, about 30 miles north of Santa Cruz and 17 miles south of Half Moon Bay. It was a famous tourist destination in the late 1800s and the place of failed dreams for a greedy local millionaire, dead-set on privatizing Pebble Beach.

 

The Ocean Shore Railroad & Pockets Full of Pebbles

 

The Ocean Shore Railroad was originally designed to connect Santa Cruz and San Francisco by rail. Building began in 1905 at both ends. Between the years of 1907 and 1920, passengers could catch this rail line starting in either town but a gap remained between Tunitas (south of Half Moon Bay) and Swanton (north of Davenport), with Pebble Beach and Pescadero solidly in this gap.

 

The town of Pescadero, three miles from Pebble Beach, still managed to have a thriving tourist industry: Visitors from San Francisco could take the train to Tunitas and then board the Stanley Steamer stage and finish their journey by stagecoach to reach Pescadero. (It’s not clear if folks from Santa Cruz had this option.) Swanton’s Hotel in Pescadero provided lodging for the travelers and transported folks by the wagonload to Pebble Beach everyday.

 

The writer of a report in the Alta California (May, 1867) describes the extreme popularity of the beach’s pebbles:

 

“The whole conversation at the [Swanton] hotel is pebbles. The house is full of them; one steps on them in the parlor or on the stairs; visitors carry them in their pockets and compare them at the breakfast table; they are, in fact, in everybody’s mouth! I verily believe they carry them to bed, and dream of pebbles all night …”

 

Rock Collecting in Bloomers

 

The writer also describes the “ludicrous” scene of folks in their finery (including many pairs of bloomers) sprawled on the piles of pebbles, their heads stuck in holes that they’d dug in their passionate search. It is said in one account that these collections could be found in all the upper class houses in San Francisco and along the coast. Today’s beachgoers are no longer allowed to collect the pebbles, but you can still lay face down on top of them (wearing your bloomers if you like) and look and touch to your heart’s delight.

 

Women in their bloomers at the beach in 1898. Original image is in the public domain.

“Coburn’s Folly” & The Gate Debate

 

A wealthy man named Loren Coburn owned most of Pescadero, including Pebble Beach. He had plans to build a hotel overlooking the beach and a town called “Coburnville.” According to the late local historian and 35-year San Mateo County resident, June Morrall, Coburn was an uncharitable millionaire who had few friends in the Pescadero community. In addition to his sour temperament, Coburn was accused of murdering a well-liked Pigeon Point wharf employee in a shootout. Coburn proved he was a most disagreeable fellow by putting up a locked gate on his property, barring the public from accessing their beloved Pebble Beach.

 

A group of locals were enraged by this greedy act and banded together to storm the gates. Morrall writes that “the mood was one of vengeance as Pinkham [County Roadmaster and the group’s leader] sized up the pine bridge planks, fastened with long wire spikes, that sealed the entrance. Methodically, the roadmaster slashed away at the offensive chains and padlocks and the gate opened.”

 

The Pebble Beach War

 

This started what was called “The Pebble Beach War.” Every time someone tore down Coburn’s barricades he would put them up again. Eventually Coburn charged his longtime adversary, local business-man Joe Levy, with a misdemeanor for taking part in breaking into his private road. Pescaderans finally pushed for the beach to be dedicated as a San Mateo County public park. The legislation passed in 1893 but it did not ensure that Coburn’s road be made public.

Loren Coburn’s Hotel and livery stables at Pebble Beach. Photo © California Views Collection. Used with permission.

Coburn continued to fight for private ownership of the land. Despite it now being a public park, he somehow managed to build his grand hotel above the beach that offered modern luxuries like hot water. He had hopes of large profits and huge success as there were still solid plans for the Ocean Shore Railroad to pass through Pebble Beach. These hopes and dreams never came to fruition, and it is said that the only person to stay overnight at Coburn’s hotel was the watchman.

The hotel’s failure was in small part due to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake which damaged much of the rail line. Funding for completing the tracks largely dried up soon after. The main barricade to success though was probably his widespread unpopularity. Supposedly, tales of the “gate debate” spread and slowed tourism to the area for a time. The fine folks of San Francisco had probably heard of Coburn’s selfish and inhospitable nature and decided to avoid the new hotel. The failed hotel burnt down in 1920 and is remembered as “Coburn’s Folly.”

An Uplifting Beach

Like most of the beaches in coastal California, the sea cliffs here were once loose sediments on the bottom of the ocean floor. The flat cliff tops that you can see in the opening video are part of the first marine terrace.

An example of marine terraces along the coast north of Santa Cruz. The numbers correspond to the generally accepted numbering of each terrace—from the first marine terrace (agricultural fields) to the fourth (highest set). Picture © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project www.Californiacoastline.org

If you go to Pebble Beach, keep an eye out for these wide, flat stairs, or marine terraces, rising out of the skyline as you drive along Highway 1. Each terrace is an ancient ocean floor that has since been slowly uplifted by large tectonic movements on the San Andreas Fault System. The higher the terrace, the older it is. The steep surfaces that separate each terrace are ancient beach cliffs eroded away by waves when sea level was high.

At Pebble Beach the modern sea cliffs are Quaternary in age, about 100,000 years in this case, and the sediments are beach sands or deposits from fairly near the paleo-shoreline.

Pebble Beach with Quaternary sandstones in the foreground.

Underwater Landslides of the Cretaceous

The flat beach surface, or “beach platform” is totally different than the sea cliffs. Those rocks are late Cretaceous in age, or 60 to 100 million years old, and show the story of much tectonic activity through their 63 degree tilt. These tilted sediments were originally deposited far from their paleo-shoreline in water about a mile deep. What’s odd is that normally in such deep water the sediments are fine-grained silts and muds, but these sediments are mostly coarse pebbles!

Why Are There Pebbles on Pebble Beach?

So how did the pebbles end up in deep water? They were essentially the deposits of repeated underwater landslides called turbidity currents. Turbidity currents are plumes of sediment (dense gravel, sand and mud) that rush downslope, often triggered by an earthquake. They carve out everything in their path and carry the debris for long distances. They usually set up a channel that transports sediments out into deep water over and over again. Sometimes it’s a mix of really coarse stuff, sometimes its finer grained muddy stuff. This is essentially what is happening right now south of here in Monterey Bay Submarine Canyon. Once these deposits turn into rock, they are called turbidites. The beach platform at this beach is composed of turbidites. The pebbles on the beach and in the younger sea cliffs are reworked and recycled from these Cretaceous turbidites. They likely get stuck here due to the deeply convex shape of the beach.

The multi-color pebbles of Pebble Beach. Photo courtesy of John Kim. (June 2009)

Tafoni: Rock Art Created by Salt & Air

 

Looking south across the parking lot of the official Pebble Beach is another section of coastline covered in an amazing display of tafoni or honeycomb weathered rock. The sandstone here looks like abstract hunks of swiss cheese—it’s filled with holes and undulates along the beach in subtle waves and dramatic peaks of latticed stone. These “honeycombs” in the rocks are caused by the salty air wearing away weaker sections of the rock. Because this is an inter-tidal area, the rocks are subject to wetting and drying cycles as well as wave action. Once a small hole forms, it accumulates ocean water and other debris that accelerates the erosion process and expands the cavity, creating what looks like a honeycomb.

Tafoni or “honeycomb” weathering at Pebble Beach. Photo courtesy of Dawn Endico. (Dec 2011) 

What Could Have Been

Pebble Beach may not offer seaside accommodations as it did over one hundred years ago, but it still offers an abundance of geologic wonders as well as tide pools filled with fascinating invertebrates and coastlines teaming with marine life like harbor seals, Brandt’s cormorants, and whales. In fact, we’re lucky that this historically popular tourist destination was never developed the way Loren Coburn would have liked. Instead of “Coburnville” and private roads guarded by locked gates, we have a beautiful state beach for everyone to enjoy.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the North Coast Tour. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources Used

   • South from San Francisco: The Life Story of San Mateo County by Frank M. Stanger. 1963. San Mateo County Historical Association.
   • History of Pescadero, California. From: The Story of San Mateo County, California. Roy W. Cloud. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. 1928. http://history.rays-place.com/ca/sm-pascadero.htm
   • Half Moon Bay Memories: The Coastside’s Colorful Past Paperback. Jun Morrall. 1978. http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/?p=159
   • Pescadero Memories: The Battle Over Pretty Pebbles at Pescadero. June Morrall. Posted on Jan 17, 2008. http://www.pescaderomemories.com/?p=335 and http://www.pescaderomemories.com/?p=335
   • Geological Outings Around the Bay: Pebble Beach. Quest Website. Andrew Alden. March 3, 2011. http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/03/03/geological-outings-around-the-bay-pebble-beach/
   • Bean Hollow State Beach, Pebble Beach. Coastside State Parks Website. http://www.coastsidestateparks.org/pages/bean-pebble.htm
   • What is a turbidity current? NOAA Website. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/turbidity.html
   • Geology of the Marin Headlands and the Half Moon Bay coast. Saturday, May 19, 2001 California Rocks! Field Trip Guide. Instructor: Mary Leech GEO 116, Continuing Studies Stanford University. http://www.sanandreasfault.org/coastalgeology.pdf
   • The Geology from Santa Cruz to Point Año Nuevo—The San Gregorio Fault Zone and Pleistocene marine terraces. By Gerald Webber and Alan Allwardt. In: Stoffer PW, Gordon LC, eds. Geology and natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area: a field-trip guidebook: 2001 Fall Field Conference, National Association of Geology Teachers, Far Western Section: September 14-16. USGS Bulletin 2188; 2001:194.
   • Canyon Processes. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute Website.http://www.mbari.org/canyon/.
   • Our Ocean Backyard: Grand canyons on the seafloor. Gary Griggs. Santa Cruz Sentinel. November 21, 2009. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_13839171.
   • Our Ocean Backyard: Submarine Canyons: Going Deeper. Gary Griggs. Santa Cruz Sentinel. December 19, 2009. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_13933346.
   • Our Ocean Backyard: Why Monterey Submarine Canyon? Gary Griggs. Santa Cruz Sentinel. January 2, 2010. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_14109831.

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]]> /blog/collecting-ancient-rocks-in-bloomers-at-pescaderos-pebble-beach/feed/ 5 /santacruz/the-waddell-bluffs-the-wall-keeps-tumbling-down/ /santacruz/the-waddell-bluffs-the-wall-keeps-tumbling-down/#comments Mon, 17 Nov 2014 14:11:51 +0000 /?p=1560 Along Highway 1, sandwiched between the elephant seals at Año Nuevo State Park and the colorful kite surfers at Waddell Beach, is a 1.4-mile stretch of coastline called the Waddell Bluffs. These near vertical bluffs, made of Santa Cruz Mudstone, are so steep and prone to erosion that they simply defied safe and reliable traversing for almost a century.

The bluffs and adjacent creek and valley are named after William Waddell who conducted timber operations there in the 1860s. At that time, stagecoaches could only pass the bluffs by waiting for low tide and using the hard packed sands of the beach. During winter, passage by beach crossing or even in a boat was essentially impossible and residents couldn’t reasonably reach the county seat in southerly Santa Cruz. In a surprising nod to geography over politics, Santa Cruz County allowed the area north of the bluffs to be annexed to its northerly neighbor, San Mateo County, in 1868.

An Engineering Nightmare

Even with the development of heavy machinery, engineers struggled for several more decades with how to construct safe passage over or past the cliffs at a reasonable cost. The Ocean Shore Electric Railway couldn’t complete a continuous railroad between San Francisco and Santa Cruz during 1905 to 1908 because of the Waddell Bluffs. The State of California acquired the land in 1933 but didn’t come up with a viable roadway design until 1941. The project was delayed due to WWII, but did begin in 1947 and was completed in 1948.

The design essentially cut into the slope and then used the material as fill to create an adjacent, flat roadbed along the beach. A massive 600 foot long retaining wall was built to protect the section exposed to the worst wave erosion. The retaining wall consisted of huge boulders weighing up to 11 tons each (called rip-rap). The original rip-rap was quarried granite from 8 miles away. The excavation of the bluffs alone moved 1.1 million cubic yards of material (52 football fields filled to a depth of 10 feet).

Erosion Never Stops

A debris trench 15 feet wide, 4 feet high, with a 2 foot berm separating it from the highway, was also constructed to catch falling pieces of rock. This design took advantage of a fortuitous property of the Santa Cruz Mudstone; it rarely falls as large blocks. Instead, it tends to break apart in small chunks. This produces a relatively manageable rain of debris, which can be removed periodically from the trench.

Unfortunately, large blocks do occasionally come down and bounce onto highway one. In the 1990s, a man traveling north in a passenger truck was killed by a rock that bounced through his front window. Litigation after the accident accused Caltrans of improper maintenance and emptying of the debris trench. Thus in 1994, Caltrans installed the steel-wire and rope-net barrier fence that is there today.

To maintain the depth of the trench, Caltrans annually removes 15 to 30,000 cubic yards of rock (0.7 to 1.4 football fields filled to 10 feet) and places it onto the beach. Winter storms entrain it into the ocean currents and carry it southward. Without the highway the rock would have fallen onto the beach and moved into the ocean currents naturally. Studies mandated by the California Coastal Commission have not found any adverse ecological impacts from this method of rock removal.

Erosions Many Forms

Not only are the rocks falling from the Waddell Bluffs a constant hazard, the roadbed is essentially on an active beach and is attacked by waves. The El Niño storms of 1983 removed all of the loose rock and fill protecting the highway at their southern half. This section was repaired and reinforced with rip-rap within that year.

Whenever I drive on those bluffs, I can’t help but imagine falling rocks or a huge slide. I always wonder how that weird fence will react and if that circled wire will really provide the needed flexibility to hold in the kinetic energy. I think my foot gets a little heavy in an effort to get me out of there fast.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the North Coast Tour. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources Used

   • Calculations for Volume Analogies. Math Central Website. http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/QQ/database/QQ.09.13/h/john1.html
   • The Geology from Santa Cruz to Point Año Nuevo—The San Gregorio Fault Zone and Pleistocene marine terraces. By Gerald Webber and Alan Allwardt. In: Stoffer PW, Gordon LC, eds. Geology and natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area: a field-trip guidebook: 2001 Fall Field Conference, National Association of Geology Teachers, Far Western Section: September 14-16. USGS Bulletin 2188; 2001:194.
   • Living With the Changing California Coast. Gary B. Griggs, Kiki Patsch, Lauret E. Savoy. University of California Press; 2005.
   • Rancho Del Oso Nature and History Center Website. http://ranchodeloso.org/history/
   • Wadell Bluffs, Illustrated. California Highways and Public Works. Official Journal of the Division of Highways, Department of Public Works, State of California. Kenneth C. Adams Editor. September-October 1948. Volume 27, Number 9, 10.

The inland view of the earthen berm on which the railroad tracks sit. The two arrows show the limits of the native bedrock, i.e., the Santa Cruz Mudstone. In between the arrows is all fill for the embankment.

Grandiose Railroad Plans

At the turn of the twentieth century, railroads were king and still expanding with easy money from business tycoons of the day. The railroad embankments we see today were originally part of the Ocean Shore Electric Railway (Ocean Shore) which was begun in 1905 and was to be a grand line from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. It was to have two parallel electric lines to run both passengers and freight and be completed in 1907. Southern Pacific (SP) was also building rail to Davenport at about the same time and there was definitely some hard ball and power politics between the two companies.

A More Humble Reality

Fate intervened. The 1906 quake caused huge damages to the northern end of the Ocean Shore line and their easy funding largely dried up. Construction continued though money had to be raised by local bonds. Southern Pacific secured the contract to transport cement and materials for the Davenport Cement Plant, taking away much needed revenue from Ocean Shore.

Construction of the Ocean Shore line circa 1905. Image from the collection of Alverda Orlando.

The details on how the collaboration ultimately occurred are hard to pin down but both Ocean Shore and SP did collaborate in building the embankments north to Davenport. The embankments are so wide because they were designed for three tracks (two for Ocean Shore and one for SP). They consist of wooden trestles filled in with local material to allow the structures to support the extreme weight of the cement cars.

This 1906 photo shows the wooden railroad trestle that crosses San Vincente Creek, at Davenport, partially filled in. There are many of these filled trestles between Davenport and Santa Cruz, including the one at Bonny Doon Beach. Photo from the collection of Gary Griggs and courtesy of Sandy Lydon.

By 1908 only portions of the rail on each end of the Ocean Shore line were running: Santa Cruz to Swanton, which is just north of Davenport, and San Francisco to Tunitas Creek, a few miles south of Half Moon Bay. The railroad never fully connected Santa Cruz to San Francisco. Ocean Shore stopped running trains by 1920 and never laid their second line. The Southern Pacific line was eventually sold to Union Pacific, who ran freight for the cement plant until the plant closed in 2010.

An aerial view of Bonny Doon Beach. The black rectangle encompasses the embankment made by the filled railroad trestle. The arrow on the left points to the tunnel through which Lidell Creek drains to the sea. Picture © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project . http://www.Californiacoastline.org

Embankments and the Local Creeks

Creation of the railroad embankments meant completely blocking off the creeks and any associated estuaries and lagoons. Water flow was routed through tunnels made through the Santa Cruz Mudstone. The tunnels are on the north side of each beach and, despite large storms, have eroded little and have been adequate to handle the flow. In the picture above, the black arrow points to a tunnel where Liddell Creek comes out of the Santa Cruz Mudstone. You can follow the water to its exit at the ocean. The black rectangle shows the very linear railroad embankment that now defines the back of the beach.

Liddel Creek draining through the man-made tunnel (drilled in 1907/1908) in the Santa Cruz Mudstone

The Rail Line’s Future

The railroad right of way from the Davenport to Santa Cruz and even beyond to Watsonville (a 32 mile stretch known as The Santa Cruz Branch Line) has been bought by the the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (SCCRTC). Planning and negotiating between several parties took more than a decade, but finally came together in 2012. The line is to be used for recreational, rail preservation, and future transportation uses, including passenger rail service, transit, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and freight rail service.

Iowa Pacific Holdings will run freight and passenger trains on the line. Iowa Pacific ran a special train to celebrate public ownership on November 17, 2012. For the latest information on rail plans go to Santa Cruz Branch Line Acquisition.

The Iowa Pacific Holdings train at the Westside of Santa Cruz during the November 17th, 2012 event to celebrate public acquisition of the Santa Cruz Branch Line.

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The town of Davenport with the very important train in the foreground in 2008. Photo: Drew Jackson

Settlement in the area of today’s Davenport got its start in 1868 when Captain John Davenport, a sea-based whaler by trade, built a 450 foot wharf off what became to be known as Davenport’s Landing (near El Jarro Point). The wharf was used to export local timber by boat to San Francisco.

Captain Davenport also used a practice developed in the Azores Islands of Portugal called shore-based whaling. Scouts on the bluffs would alert men to go out from shore in a boat, kill the whale, and tow it back to shore for processing. It allowed the crew to stay with their families and was easier than processing the blubber at sea. By 1880 the high cost of operation forced Davenport to abandon the landing and move to Santa Cruz.

A Cement Town

The history of the modern town of Davenport is wholly wrapped up with the Davenport Cement Plant. The town was built in 1905 by the Coast Dairies and Land Company to house workers for the cement plant. On the shores of San Vicente Creek, it is located about a mile south of Davenport Landing. The town was originally called San Vicente, but when the post office was moved from Davenport Landing to the new town in 1907, it retained the name of Davenport. In those days the power of the post was great. San Vicente slowly faded away as a name, to be officially replaced by Davenport.

By 1915 Davenport had a population of about 1800 people, with 60 homes, two hotels, a school, a hospital, a church, and a hotel. The cement from the plant was used to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 quake, build one of the Panama Canal locks, and even construct the dry docks in Pearl Harbor. Though it was bought and sold by several different companies over the decades, the plant continued to supply cement for major construction projects up and down the West Coast. It was the main employer in Davenport for over 100 years.

Davenport circa 1908. The modern day Roadhouse is located in the upper left where you see a white building to the left of the cement plant. The hotel and many homes in the center right are along San Vicente Creek and are mostly all gone now. Image: Courtesy of Alverda Orlando

A Community of Immigrants

In the first third of the 20th century getting into and out of Davenport was a big deal. There were over 700 turns on the road from Davenport to Santa Cruz. As such the town was isolated and developed a close-knit community. It was made up of a very culturally diverse group of people. Most of the managers were Swiss, because the Coast Dairies and Land Company was owned by four Swiss families, but the workers were from all over the world. Italian and Greek families were very prominent but workers apparently came from all over Europe and the Middle East. Prior to World War I, over 20 different languages were spoken in the town.

By the 1930s the roads and cars had improved such that many people moved to Santa Cruz and commuted to Davenport to work at the cement plant. The cement plant apparently chartered with Greyhound to bus workers back and forth daily. By the 1940s it was a much smaller town with a population less than five hundred.

During World War II the US government brought in Mexican workers, under the Bracero Program, to do agricultural work. Many worked in the Davenport area. After the war several Mexican workers came back and the town’s cultural makeup began to include more people of Mexican decent and lose the influence of previous Italian and Greek cultures.

Alverda Orlando, a Davenport resident from 1945 to 1975, tells a story about one Mexican man, known as Pancho, who walked up the stairs of the cement plant one day looking for work. At the same moment the best shift worker, an Italian American was walking down having just quit. The superintendent hired Pancho on the spot. Pancho went on to work at the cement plant for years, brought his whole family up from Mexico, and bought seven homes, eventually giving one to each child.

Dust covering cars in Davenport circa 1950. Image: Courtesy of Alverda Orlando

The End of a Long Run

In 2005, CEMEX, a Mexican company, acquired the plant and kept it operational until 2010, when a bad economy and high operation costs (the highest of its 14 cement plants in the US) forced it to close. At the time it employed about 120 people. Its closure was a big blow to the town in loss of jobs and other services. For example, CEMEX was paying about $185,000 annually for operation and maintenance of the local water and sewage treatment facilities. After the closure, the community had to absorb those costs, on top of the many job losses in a weak economy.

The Church

The Saint Vincent De Paul Church was built in 1914-1915 with donated materials and the labor of Davenport residents, workers from the Coast Dairies and Land Company, and the cement plant. It is at the end of Davenport Avenue, on the Santa Cruz side of the Davenport Roadhouse.

The Jail Museum

Originally constructed in 1914 as a two-cell county jail, the Davenport jail was used only once before it was decommissioned in 1936. It was converted into a museum of north coast history in 1987. It features a permanent exhibition on the natural environment, native peoples, major local industries and early families and community life. From June to September, the museum is open on the first Sunday of the month between 11 am and 4 pm. Contact phone is (831) 429-1964.

The jail is located just behind the Davenport Roadhouse. The correct address is 1 Center Street. For years the jail’s address was incorrectly listed as 2 Davenport Avenue by just about everyone, including the fire department and planning commission. Luckily Alverda Orlando cleared this up in 2012 and the fire department now has the correct address.

St. Vincent De Paul Church in 2012. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

The Davenport Jail Museum in 2012. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Backside of the defunct Crocker Hospital in 2012. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

The Hospital

The Crocker Hospital was built in 1910 by the Davenport Cement Company to care for its workers and the community. It is located just across from the entrance to the cement plant. William H. Crocker was one of the original investors along with William Dingee the “Cement King.”

Updated August 9, 2016

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A sandstone dike that cuts across the Santa Cruz Mudstone. The blue line parallels the dike just above it.

If you look in the northern most cove at Bonny Doon Beach, (yes, it’s the clothing-optional section), you will see a tall skinny dike of sandstone that cuts across the cliffs-which are made of Santa Cruz Mudstone. A dike is essentially loose material, in this case, the older and deeper Santa Margarita Sandstone, that was squirted up under pressure through the younger but harder mudstone. The dikes and the Santa Margarita Sandstone in general contain bituminous (asphalt-like) material in varying quantities. There are many similar dikes in the sea cliffs along the north coast of Santa Cruz. This one is unusual in how skinny and rectangular it is.

Bonny Doon Beach.

Some of the bituminous sandstones just a few miles south of Bonny Doon Beach, at Majors Creek, were quarried for paving material. Apparently about 600,000 tons, valued at over 2 million dollars, were quarried and sent by boat to pave San Francisco between 1888 and 1914.

Photo from the collection of Gary Griggs. See his article on these intrusions.

In the 1950s the Husky Oil Company ran an experimental project to get oil and gas out by heating the sandstone in the drill hole and then recovering what melts. Over three years they pulled out 3,000 barrels of oil and some gas. In general, costs were too high to make it economically viable.

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From 1791 to 1835, all of the land west of Mission Santa Cruz was used by the Mission for hunting and agriculture. In 1835 it became Rancho Refugio. The huge land grant had various owners and was subdivided into smaller sections. Deloss D. Wilder bought the section on which the park stands today, in 1885. He and his descendants operated a dairy farm here until the 1930s when financial pressures necessitated a switch to beef and vegetable production.

In 1969 the Wilder family sold the property to the Moroto Investment Company who proposed to develop up to 10,000 housing units over 30 years. The land was included in a plan developed by the Santa Cruz City Council to extend the city limits 3.5 miles to the north along the coast, thereby doubling the cities population.

The beautiful wave platforms of the Santa Cruz Mudstone at Wilder Ranch.

Local residents opposed the plan and formed groups such as Operation Wilder to fight it. Ultimately, Santa Cruz County citizens voted to protect the open space. In 1974, California State Parks acquired the property to preserve the land’s natural environment and cultural history.

Much of the open space along the coast north of Santa Cruz is the result of many struggles between development and other priorities. Large tracts of land including Wilder Ranch, Gray Whale Ranch, Scaroni Ranch (now part of Wilder), Coast Dairies Property and very recently the CEMEX Redwoods area surrounding the Davenport Cement plant, are all development-free because of the work of many conservation organizations.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the North Coast Tour. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.