The view looking south from Sempervirens Point

Sempervirens Point is located off Highway 9 about two miles southwest of the Skyline Boulevard (Highway 35) junction. On a clear day, the view of Monterey Bay from Sempervirens Point is spectacular. Views of the upper San Lorenzo Valley hardly show how heavily it was logged by the Dougherty brothers’ Santa Clara Valley Mill and Lumber Company in the last part of the 19th century. Sufficient water and light has aided the quick recovery of second growth coast redwood trees, Sequoia sempervirens, which now cover the previously exposed slopes.

To access their logging camp, which is now within Castle Rock State Park, the company constructed a narrow gauge railroad that delivered the logs to their mill north of Boulder Creek. From the mill, the cut lumber was loaded on a train headed to the depot at Boulder Creek, where the flatbed cars where then transferred to another train that continued south. The route continued down the San Lorenzo Valley to Felton and then went back north, up through the mountain tunnels to San Jose. As circuitous as this might seem, it was more efficient than dragging logs by oxen and hauling lumber on horse-drawn wagons on steep, winding mountain roads.

The “Dinkey” hauled lumber on the narrow gauge Dougherty Extension Line within what is now Castle Rock State Park, circa 1902. Photo: Courtesy of Jeff George

Teamsters (stagecoach and wagon drivers) hauled lumber from the Hubbard and Carmichael lumber mill, which was located at what is now Camp Chesebrough, a Boy Scouts of America camp on the west side of Highway 9. They traveled on Oil Creek (a tributary of the Pescadero) up to a landing at Sempervirens Point and on up to Saratoga Gap. At the summit, the wagons were doubled up for the trip down the Saratoga Toll Road toward San Jose.

John Rodoni, a driver for Hubbard and Carmichael, reaches downtown San Jose with 13,207 feet of lumber (no date). Photo: By Hill and Yard, courtesy of San Lorenzo Valley Museum

Waterman Gap

After visiting Sempervirens Point, head down Highway 9 out of the South Skyline region. The junction of Highway 9 and Highway 236 is called Waterman Gap, where you’ll find a four-way stop but little parking. At the beginning of the 20th century, Waterman Gap was a much busier place. It was the site of an innovative wire cable “logging road” used to hoist logs out of the isolated Pescadero basin into the San Lorenzo basin and had rail connections to the port in Santa Cruz and to the city of San Jose.

The wire cable system was constructed in 1901 by the Santa Clara Valley Mill and Lumber Company. This was an elaborate arrangement of pulleys, winches, a steel cable, and a skid road with an irrigation system. Power for the operation was supplied by a steam “donkey” (boiler), which was stoked with wood, of course. After they cleared the ridge, the logs were loaded onto a company railroad which transported them to the company’s mill above Boulder Creek. Later, other companies established mills within the Pescadero basin, and processed lumber was taken out on a wagon road.

Timber cutting still occurs in the upper Pescadero watershed, but times have changed. Now, the logs can be delivered to distant mills by truck. Also, rather than cutting down every tree in sight, harvests are conducted in a sustainable manner. Old Mill Road, a private road leading down into the Pescadero basin from the junction, is now occasionally used to haul logs to a mill near Davenport.

A steam donkey at work in the Oil Creek area of the Pescadero basin (no date). Photo: Courtesy of San Lorenzo Valley Museum

To learn more about the history in the redwoods, visit the charming San Lorenzo Valley Historical Museum located in a historic church just south of the main business district in Boulder Creek.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the South Skyline Boulevard (Highway 35) Tour by the Skyline Historical Society. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

Much of the information in this tour comes from a book called The South Skyline Story by Janet Schwind and the Skyline Historical Society, 2014. It is a well written, fun and informative read from the Native Americans, through the early loggers and ranchers, commune dwellers, wine makers, conservationists and homebuilders. You can get a copy at Alice’s Restaurant in Skylonda (the junction of Highways 35 and 84) or by contacting Skyline History President Chuck Schoppe, email: chuck_sch@hotmail.com or phone: 408-867-9229.

Mission Hill tunnel, looking north toward the Potrero neighborhood.

Today’s Chestnut Street in downtown Santa Cruz, California is a quiet residential street, with the occasional passing of Roaring Camp’s Santa Cruz Beach Train filled with excited sightseers on a journey to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. However, a century ago, it was a bustling block brimming with foundries, warehouses, and other industrial activities.

When you visit Chestnut Street, look for the gate that closes off an old stairway that once descended from 133 Mission Street. Across the street from this secret pathway is the corrugated steel-sheathed Enterprise Iron Works, built by a former employee of the father of Santa Cruz, Elihu Anthony.

Mission Hill Tunnel. Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History

“Away We Fly Down Chestnut Avenue”

In the 1870s, the Mission Hill tunnel was created beneath Mission Hill, off the block of Chestnut Street. It was built under Mission to satisfy city businesses’ desire to keep freight trains from barreling through the Lower Plaza on their way to the wharves. Just outside of the tunnel was a passenger station . For arriving visitors, this intersection was their first view of Santa Cruz.

The first passenger trip through this tunnel travelled to Felton on October 14, 1874. One person’s account of this journey was described in the Santa Cruz Sentinel:

At a few minutes past two o’clock, two cars, comfortably well-filled with gentlemen and ladies, guests of Capt. Garrett, started for Felton. Pope’s little giant engine was in the lead, and in three minutes after the bell rang it was evident to all present that the quickest time ever made on the road was to be recorded within the next half hour. Away she flew, up hill, over bridges, around points, downhill, continuously puffing and blowing, and never stopping for wood or water, arriving at the point of destination in the unparalleled short running time of twenty-five minutes. An hour and a half was spent in visiting Felton, the city of timber…. Twenty freight cars, carrying lumber and split timber to the amount of eighty thousand feet, were added to the train, when once more the bell rang and all were in motion.

The train was the largest ever hauled from Felton, but the little steamer was sufficient for the occasion, and slowly and gaily the serpent-like couches wound in and out like a thing of life. The scenery was grand. Lofty redwood and pine trees towered on either side. On the right were the granite ribbed and eternal hills, and the public road, with its carriages and horsemen, apparently half a mile distant and immediately above us. To the left and hundreds of feet directly below was the San Lorenzo River, white with foam and rolling sullenly to the sea. Through a short tunnel and the mills of the California Power Company are in view….

A mile distant and immediately in front is the city of Santa Cruz, the Bay of Monterey, and the Pacific Ocean, presenting one of the finest panoramas the eye can look on. Passing through vineyards and fields and orchards, we are at the eastern mouth of the Tunnel. The light fades and the smoke increases. Total darkness prevails. Light appears in front, and amid the clapping of hands and the waving of handkerchiefs, those on the banks returning salutes in answer to the salutes of those on the cars. Away we fly down Chestnut Avenue, passengers of the first train that passed through the Railroad Tunnel, all pleased with themselves and proud of the company in whose hands and by whose boon the noble work was wrought. (End of newspaper story)

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Mission Hill Staircase Tour made possible by local history researcher Linda Rosewood. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

Steam Locomotive on Mount Washington Cog Railway. Photo by David Brossard.

What do Thomas the Tank Engine, the Industrial Revolution, and little picky eaters all have in common?
They owe their success to trains.

The Rise of the Railroad

Clackety clack goes the train, followed by the choo choo of its whistle. Whether it’s chugging along the countryside or up into the mountains, trains have carved their place in the history books. And simultaneously trains have revolutionized how parents have fed their toddlers, who will eat vegetables if they arrive on a choo choo train.

Train travel has been a staple in transportation in Europe and North America for the last two hundred years. Once upon a time during the Industrial Revolution, trains played a critical role in the explosive industrial and urban growth in New England.

The Industrial Revolution began around 1760 as a result of a drastic shift in the existing manufacturing process. Artisan, handcrafted goods were replaced by mass-produced, machine-made products, which were cheaper and quicker to make. Around the same time in the late 1770’s the steam engine was invented by James Watt. The steam engine was a breakthrough in transportation as it lead to the creation of a steam locomotive, a faster and cheaper mode of travel. Prior to the steam locomotive the only other way to transport large amounts of goods was by river or horseback.

Once a rail network was built in the 1830’s, New England raced full steam ahead into the Industrial Age. Raw materials were transported from different parts of the country to the factories in the northeast. Young people, particularly women and children, were drawn by the surplus of jobs and they too boarded trains heading to the nearest city. Once they arrived, factory workers toiled away for more than twelve hours a day making textiles like boots and machine-woven cloth.

Jacob’s Ladder section of Mt. Washington Cog Railway dating 1850-1920. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library.

Expansion and Evolution

New England continued to grow and develop in part owing to its railways connecting Massachusetts to Maine, Vermont to New Hampshire, and beyond. Train travel also evolved over the next century and in the 1930’s diesel locomotives rolled into the station. They were cheaper to maintain, and gradually the revolutionary steam engines were discontinued. Luckily for parents, the trademark train whistle remained and children did not fuss over the switch to diesel choo choos.

Ultimately diesel trains couldn’t keep up with emerging modes of transportation in the post-WWII era. Personal cars and commercial planes were quickly gaining ground and acclaim as they became more affordable. Train stations which previously had fifty daily departures now just had a few.

Train bridge over Ossipee Lake in NH. Photo by Sibas Carvajal.

Today train travel is a nostalgic yet irreplaceable form of transportation. Though many of the original train lines are no longer in use, many are still standing and they are far from forgotten. Driving through the White Mountains of New Hampshire you can still see the dramatic steel bridges that once helped trains cross lake and rivers. There are abandoned train tracks leading into the woods and stations that no longer sell tickets, relics of a time when riding the rails represented freedom and opportunity.

It’s not the end of the tracks for children, however, who still delight in accepting food from the incoming spoon-train.

Conway Scenic Railroad car. Photo by Dennis Jarvis.

The Little Trains that Could

Despite the shift toward air travel and cars, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. While many tracks crossing New England no longer operate, in the last few decades there has been a resurgence of tourist trains popping up around New Hampshire and the region. Many people still prefer riding the rails over being stuck in traffic and choose to take a train. Some train companies offer scenic rides all year long while others have seasonal journeys with Santa in winter.

One of the trademarks of New England is its colorful fall foliage. As summer ends the leaves turn bright rainbows of color before they fall. Many of the sightseeing train trips take you through the vibrant forests and allow you to leaf peep with abandon. In New Hampshire in particular you can ride in a classic, vintage train through the mountains and by bodies of water. There are excursions lasting just 45 minutes or up to five hours, some of which include three course meals.

Train enthusiasts can visit the museums scattered about New England, which are dedicated to the mechanics of train travel and its impact on the region. After all trains played a pivotal role in catapulting the United States into the Industrial Revolution by crossing the vast distances between the rural and urban centers. Not only were trains important for transporting goods and people, they also contributed to spreading political ideas that forever shaped the development of the country.

Most importantly, train travel continues to be critical to parenting. It was a monumental moment the first time a parent said to his or her child, “open up, here comes the choo choo train”. After two hundred years of feeding children, trains will not fade quietly into history. The grand steel bridges and rattling train cars are still full steam ahead.

An aerial view of Swift Street Courtyard (upper left) and adjacent 334 Ingalls Street Building (lower right) in February 2015. Photo © 2014 www.MultiRotorCam.com.

Today, the Swift Street Courtyard area, in combination with the adjoining businesses off of Ingalls Street, has become a nexus for locals who like fresh local products, cool shops, and hand crafted wine and beer. But these buildings, hark back to a past when larger-scale agriculture was a mightier force on the north coast of Santa Cruz, and the Westside had a more industrial flavor in general.

402 Swift Street (Todays Swift Street Courtyard; upper left) and adjacent 334 Ingalls Street Building (lower right) circa 1951. Note the train car on the railroad spur that ran directly alongside both buildings. Photo courtesy of Mark and Kelly Sanchez.

A Vegetable Packing Hub

During the middle part of the last century this area was part of a busy center of vegetable processing and packing and and relied on rail to ship its goods. In 1948, the Artichoke and Sprout Growers Association built the building at 334 Ingalls Street – now home of the West End Tap and Kitchen. Birds Eye Frozen Food leased a portion of it but their space needs soon grew. In 1951, to accommodate Birds Eye, the building at 402 Ingalls Street was built. Under this roof, vegetables were packed, primarily by women, and sold with the labels: “Coast King”, “Coast Queen” and “Coast Prince.”

Coast Queen label used to sell vegetables circa 1950.

The external infrastructure needs of these packing plants were large.

• A new water main was brought in by the City to handle the huge water needs.
• A new railroad spur was added running along the back side of the buildings.
• During peak harvest, refrigerator cars were loaded around the clock via a dedicated steam-powered “switcher.”
• A permanent nursing station was on site to care for the workers (located where El Salchichero is now).
• A huge concrete vault or storage pond was located on the east side of the parking lot to temporarily hold the vegetable waste.
• There was a a huge open air truck scale where the dining area inside Kelly’s French Bakery is today.

Within 402 Swift Street, water entered the building and was fed into two concrete troughs or “flumes” that ran the length of the building in the concrete slab floor. All discarded vegetable waste was thrown into the flumes where it was then carried in the water stream to the buildings exit and then via a pipe to an open concrete vault/pond. The water was pumped back to the head of the flume and the vegetable waste was then scooped out and put in a flatbed truck for disposal.

Prior to shipping, a portable ice blower was used to top off the produce in each car with a layer of ice cubes. An ice crusher was needed to crush the block ice which came from the Union Ice Company on Laurel and Chestnut. A screw auger/trough system then brought the ice to the blower. Known as “top icing”, the ice generally lasted until the train got to Council Bluffs, Iowa or Saint Louis, Missouri before being replenished.

A cold room for storage was located in the southeast end of the building (today the home of Sawyer, Illuminee and Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing). The floor, ceiling and walls were all insulated with 2 layers of 2 inch thick cork, each coated with asphalt. Examples of the insulation can be seen in a cross sectional “cork donut” located inside Kelly’s French Bakery and exposed inside Sawyer.

Ice being blown onto the top of vegetable crates inside railroad cars circa 1950s.

Harbinger of a Changing Neighborhood

By the beginning of the 21st century, much of the light industry on the Westside was gone. Vegetable packing and heavy rail use were no longer and other large businesses had closed up or were leaving. The Wrigley gum factory stopped making gum in 1996, Texas Instruments closed in 2001, and Lipton Tea closed in 2002. This exodus left a hole in the local economy and some big industrial spaces.

In 2002, Kelly’s French Bakery owners Kelly and Mark Sanchez began revitalizing the old buildings at 402 Swift Street. Their project was one of the forerunners of big changes to the Westside in general. Their bakery and the small entrepreneurial shops in the courtyard thrived. Former City Council Member Lynn Robinson told the Good Times in 2012, “It was like the Westside was ready and waiting for this. They needed someone with the vision and the willingness to invest, and it’s been happening repeatedly now. It tells you that the market is there and people are supporting it.” The Sanchez’ business was probably helped by customers who came from the work/live complex of 22 units created by another visionary, the architect Marc Primac. His work/live complex opened at about the same time only a block away.

402 Ingalls Street in 2002. Photo courtesy of Mark and Kelly Sanchez.

The drains that ran in the concrete floor exposed during the 2002 remodel. Photo courtesy of Mark and Kelly Sanchez.

The open-air truck scale being demolished in 2002. Photo courtesy of Mark and Kelly Sanchez.

Today, the Westside continues to transform from large single purpose companies to art and lifestyle oriented small businesses. A great example is William Ow’s steady transformation, beginning in 2004, of the 385,000-square-foot Wrigley Building. From 1955-1996 that huge building cranked out one thing: gum. Today, Ow has subdivided the space into a bustling beehive of eclectic tenants who produce everything from paintings, clothing and energy drinks to bicycles and research for the USGS. It’s also becoming a hub to tone your body with gymnastics, aerial or martial arts! Mark Primac also continues to push the art lifestyle way of life with the new 20-acres of live/work space on Delaware Avenue known as the Delaware Addition.

Kelly’s French Bakery today.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the West Cliff Drive Tour. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

John Henry Brown was many things, including the first bartender and hotelkeeper in San Francisco. At that time, between 1835 and 1850, the city was still called Yerba Buena. Brown had traveled extensively, had many business dealings, was well connected, and had money to spare. He saw business potential in Thomas and Margaret, so as an investment he helped them open their first hotel.

The First Cremer Hotel

Thomas and Margaret’s first business was a restaurant along Front Street near the present day Post Office and clock tower. Front Street at this time was lined with whorehouses and opium dens and the Cremers’ restaurant may well have purveyed more than wholesome food.

Though prevalent, houses of ill-repute were frowned upon by the town council, and as these moral folks began fining and shutting down places known to offer prostitution, Thomas and Margaret closed their restaurant.  Thanks to help of investor John Henry Brown, they opened a hotel across the river at Ocean and Water Streets in 1871—at the time, just outside of city limits. As local historian Randall Brown puts it, “Take from that what you will.”

This hotel was known as Cremer’s Hotel. (Thomas’s last name was probably pronounced “Creamer” but only his wife spelled it that way. He used the German spelling, “Cremer.”)

Saved by a Corset!

Although it’s uncertain if Cremer’s Hotel was a brothel on the side, we do know that when the infamous California bandido Tiburcio Vásquez came knocking, Margaret bravely protected her place of business as fiercely as a Madam protecting her harem . She refused service to the outlaw and his men, so Vasquez shot out all the windows. A stray bullet actually hit a woman at the hotel, but she was saved by her corset. Who knew those torturous undergarments could actually be useful!

The Cremer’s Hotel in Santa Cruz lasted until 1875 when the Cremers decided  to move up to Felton and take advantage of booming business promised by the new Santa Cruz & Felton railroad. The couple leased the Central Hotel (the current site of Felton Paint & Hardware) and an empty lot across the street. Wasting no time, the Cremers began construction of another hotel that same year. The new building opened in April of 1876 and became known as the Creamer Hotel. (Apparently Margaret got her way this time and the phonetic spelling was used.)

A mural on the side of Felton Paint & Hardware depicts downtown Felton during the late 1800s to 1950. The Felton Hotel (formerly known as the Grand Central Hotel) once stood where the hardware store is today. The Creamer Hotel is located across the street. Photo: Molly Lautamo/Mobile Ranger

The Creamer Hotel Versus the Grand Central Hotel

This is where history gets muddled: It should be made clear that what is known today as the Cremer House was never the Central or Grand Central Hotel (also known as the Felton Hotel). They were two separate buildings across the street from one another. The Creamer Hotel (now known as the Cremer House) is the only one of the two hotels that still remains.

In 1888 a large fire destroyed all the buildings near the Creamer Hotel, including the Central Hotel across the street. The following year the Central Hotel was rebuilt as the Grand Central Hotel and later became known as the Felton Hotel. The Creamer Hotel  survived a second devastating fire in 1896, known as the Yom Kippur fire.

With so many names for two buildings, and multiple fires, it’s no wonder there’s been some confusion!

The Creamer Hotel in 1905 before the second balcony and sleeping porches were added.
Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

What You Could Order From a “Waitress”

The Creamer Hotel had a boarding house with 18 rooms on one side (where the restaurant is today) and a gambling hall on the other. The old restaurant was downstairs with the kitchen in back in case it caught fire (as kitchens often did in those days). The restaurant had waitresses, as all sit-down restaurants do, but in those days “waitress” was often a euphemism for prostitute. Again to use Randall Brown’s words, “Take from that what you will.”

Advertisement in The Santa Cruz Sentinel May 14, 1881. Image: Courtesy of Randall Brown

Why You Should Always Pay the Butcher

Right next door to the Creamer Hotel was a meat market that supplied meat for the hotel’s restaurant. The market’s owner (John Chace, a future Santa Cruz mayor) sublet the land to the Cremers on which they built their hotel. Thomas was never good at paying his bills (he was sued for not paying bills at his restaurant on Front Street) and failed for quite some time to pay the butcher who almost cancelled the lease on the land. John Henry Brown again came to the Cremers’ aid and loaned Thomas the money to pay off the butcher.

The lease on the land was paid and the Creamer Hotel was saved. It stayed in business for another ten years or so although Thomas’s health was failing. Margaret was fortunately strong as an ox and kept everything in order. She even purchased a cream separator, made a deal with someone in town who owned Jersey cows, and began making her own butter and ice cream to sell at the restaurant. You know her dairy products must have been exceptional if this detail made it into the history books.

Downtown Felton circa 1891-92. The Creamer Hotel is the building on the far right of the photo, slightly obscured from view by a tree. Photo: Courtesy of the
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

Thomas died in 1880 and John Henry Brown decided to buy the land on which the Creamer Hotel was located, expecting that construction of the railroad would continue through town, right past the hotel. Margaret stayed on to manage the boarding house, renting mostly to railroad workers, particularly an Irish crew. The Chinese workers were made to stay in the warehouse.

The foreman of the Irish crew, Mr. Cassidy, became Margaret’s second husband, in 1884.  In April, 1881, 70 year-old John Henry Brown separated from his young second wife, moved back to San Francisco and sold the land to Margaret for $2,250. Margaret finally owned the land on which her hotel stood.

Advertisement in The Santa Cruz Sentinel 1885.
Image: Courtesy of Ronnie Trubek

Love Affairs and Kitchen Fights

During the years that Margaret owned the Creamer Hotel it ran smoothly in a business sense but it wasn’t without its dramas. One of the restaurant’s “waitresses” took an overdose of laudanum when a love affair went sour (she survived). A fight in the kitchen broke out and a cook was knifed by a dishwasher (he didn’t survive). Another worker at the hotel came by one day to pick up his paycheck, but instead of walking away with a pocketful of money, he was hit over the head with a poker and stumbled into the street to die.

Death in the Cremer Family and New Owners for the Creamer Hotel

In the midst of the hotel drama, Margaret suffered her own personal tragedies. In 1885 her son Willie drowned in Davenport on a fishing trip. In the late 1880s she lost her eldest son at the young age of 21 to typhoid fever. After this death, her second oldest son Theodore returned to Felton to help run the hotel. Margaret remained in charge until her death in 1892.

Unfortunately, Theodore and his two remaining brothers did not inherit their mother’s business sense and ran the hotel into the ground. The property then went through several hands until it was purchased and renovated by Mr. Fetherston in 1912. This renovation includes the addition of the second balcony and sleeping porches.

The Creamer Hotel was home to Melson’s Hobby Shop in 1939.
Photo: Courtesy of Ronnie Trubek

The Creamer Hotel Becomes Hangout for Western Film Stars

From 1915-1920 the hotel became the unofficial headquarters for movie companies who came to town to shoot old western films. William S. Hart was the main actor and director of most of these films and some of the scenes were probably shot at the hotel.

Actor and director William S. Hart was one of the famous faces who stayed regularly at the hotel. Photo: Courtesy of Randall Brown

Prohibition: Hooch Hidden Behind Bee Hives

In 1920 Fetherston also bought the Grand Central Hotel across the street and stopped running the Creamer Hotel as a boarding house. Prohibition began this same year and the Grand Central Hotel was busted several times for keeping hooch around the property, but across the street Fetherston had the perfect front: He leased the hotel to the Western Bee Company so the outer perimeter of the building was lined with bee hives, discouraging “dry” crusaders from snooping around.

From 1920-23 the Creamer Hotel was leased to the Western Bee Company but was thought to also have acted as a stash house for contraband liquor sold across the street at the Grand Central Hotel. Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

The Western Bee Company went bankrupt in 1923 and Fetherston took back management of the building. It functioned for a time as the town’s community hall before he turned it into apartments known as both the Bee Farm Apartments and Fetherston Apartments. The building remained an apartment complex from 1924-1947. The Felton Drugstore opened downstairs in 1938 and Melson’s hobby shop opened in 1939.

The Creamer Hotel circa 1950s after it was stuccoed and the old west front and side porches were removed. Photo: Courtesy of Ronnie Trubek

From Old West to Southwestern Stucco

The building remained the original wooden structure until Mr. Frick, a retired plasterer, bought it in 1947. He removed the Old West front and side porches and stuccoed the exterior, giving it the Southwestern look it has today. The building went through several tenants including a health spa, beauty parlor, and Heavenly Hamburger which operated nearly 15 years before the popular restaurant moved to Scotts Valley.

More recently, in the 1960s, the building was again apartments. It was owned by the Pagnini’s, who owned Roy’s Market and the shared parking lot in between. Local entrepreneur Bob Locatelli purchased the Creamer building from the Pagnini’s in the early 2000s.

The building remained empty for years but unbeknownst to Locatelli, Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing owner Emily Thomas had big plans for this historic site. In 2010 Thomas submitted a proposal to Locatelli sharing her dream of bringing the Creamer Hotel back to life as a locally-sourced restaurant and alehouse. The newly renovated Cremer House (back to Thomas Cremer’s spelling) opened in December of 2014.

Felton’s oldest building, now known as the Cremer House, was built in 1875.
It opened as the Creamer Hotel in 1876. Photo: Molly Lautamo/Mobile Ranger

The Creamer Hotel Becomes the Cremer House

The Cremer House restaurant pays homage to the building’s rich cultural history through thoughtful touches like the use of old photographs on their menus and walls and a bar built of old barn wood. Sitting at one of the rustic tables lit by vintage fixtures, sipping on hand-crafted ale and snacking on cured meats and pickled vegetables, you can almost hear the sound of Margaret’s dinner bell and the raucous laughter of gambling men on the other side of the wall.

Thomas Cremer and Margaret Toohig Cremer Cassidy, both buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, would have approved of the good food and merry company that once again fills the walls of the Creamer Hotel.

Thank you to local historian Randall Brown who generously provided much of the historic information and many photos and material for this piece. Brown is in the middle of revising his book, Ghosts of the Creamer Hotel, Felton: a local history. Thanks are also due to Ronnie Trubek who inspired the piece with her fabulous ForestLaurel designed Christmas card about the Cremer House. She also supplied photos and helped edit and fact check.

Tight curves like this one, just north of Summit Road overpass, cause most accidents on Highway 17. In 2010 almost 90% of all accidents on 17 occurred at the notorious Laurel Curve. Photo: Courtesy of Stan Shebs, March 2004

The narrow lanes and dangerously tight curves of California’s Highway 17 have earned it ominous nicknames like “Killer 17” and “Blood Alley”. In the mid-60s philanthropist Harvey West tried to slow down drivers by erecting shocking billboards with ghastly red coffins and skeletons along this stretch of highway connecting San Jose to Santa Cruz. He organized pickets to stand along the highway’s narrow shoulder displaying signs warning commuters of their imminent death. There’s no doubt this is a dangerous, mountainous route — but does the whole highway deserve to be vilified or is it just one particularly tight curve that is to blame?

Laurel Curve is responsible for more deaths than any other section of this twisting highway. From 2004-2010 there were 2,092 crashes on the Santa Cruz county side of Highway 17 and 26 percent of them were at Laurel Curve. Even more chilling is that for this same seven year span, 73% of all fatal accidents on the entire length of Highway 17 occurred at Laurel Curve. In addition to vehicle collisions, Laurel Curve is also a high collision site for mountain lions, endangering both drivers and the big cats.

According to a study in 2006, about 20,000 cars per day drive Highway 17. America’s deadliest highway, I-95, sees on average 72,000. Photo: Courtesy of Richard Masoned, April 2009

The Town Between Two Tunnels

The route through the Santa Cruz Mountains has been dangerous since the 1800s, long before Highway 17 existed. Stagecoaches traversed the steep, narrow trail that connected Santa Clara County to Santa Cruz. Many lost control coming around a tight bend, passengers saying their prayers as the wagon toppled over, horses flailing to keep from tumbling down the mountain side.

Postcard of downtown Laurel, circa 1905. Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

The construction of the South Pacific Railroad in 1876 made the commute much easier and safer. Today’s deadly Laurel Curve was once the site of an old railroad station and a peaceful town named Laurel. The town thrived due to its location between Glenwood Tunnel and the infamous Wright’s Tunnel — then the second-longest railroad tunnel in California and a horrific death trap for close to 50 Chinese laborers. During construction of the two tunnels in the late 1800s, Laurel became a bustling supply depot and camp for the workers. Years later, redwood from the town’s lumber mill owned and operated by the prosperous entrepreneur Frederick Hihn, was used to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Laurel lasted as a railroad town until the giant storm of 1940 closed the railroad line.

Over 70 years later, Highway 17 has now made this spot famous not for rebuilding lives as it did in 1906, but for taking them.

Almost a 14 Lane Freeway

In 1965, shortly after Harvey West’s protests, the state poured money into multiple safety projects on Highway 17. Laurel Curve was a top priority and received new guard rails as well as a $4,500 left turn lane. In 1971 the mountainous road came close to advancing from a four lane highway to an eight lane freeway, with the intent of increasing to 14 lanes if needed. Santa Cruz residents disliked the idea to say the least, but the final vote by the Board of Supervisors was close: 3 to 2 in opposition to the additional lanes.

Traffic Congestion Increases and so do the Accidents

From 1981 to 1991, traffic congestion on Highway 17 increased more than 50% and with more cars, usually comes more accidents. The Safe on 17 Task Force came together in 1998 with the goal of reducing collisions through increased enforcement, road improvements and public education. More than 23.5 million was spent on the Santa Cruz county side alone to build retaining walls, improve drainage, widen road shoulders and replace guard rails. This money appeared to be well spent: From 1996-1998 the average yearly rate of injury/fatality crashes on Highway 17 was 249. From 2000 to 2013 the average was 147.

Data Source: SAFE ON 17, Highway 17 Safety Corridor, 2013 Annual Report Prepared by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission.

Data Source: SAFE ON 17, Highway 17 Safety Corridor, 2013 Annual Report Prepared by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. Note: 2011 had zero fatal accidents.

Until 2012, Laurel Curve had a break in the cement barrier to allow left hand turns and this break was a well known danger. In 2010 about 150 crashes took place on this barrier-less stretch by the month of September — almost 90% of all crashes that year on the entire highway.

In March of 2012 the driver of a Nissan Altima lost control on the wet pavement and swerved into oncoming traffic. This fatal two car accident resulted in the loss of one man’s life and pushed Caltrans to install a temporary median barrier within days at Laurel Curve and a high-friction surface treatment within four months. Over two years later, no more crossover deaths have occurred. Laurel Curve was revamped in 2015 and the left turns are permanently out. Hopefully this curve will not be causing so many accidents in the future.

Laurel curve looking south in 2016. Until 2012, you could make a left at about where the white van is. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Where Does Highway 17 Rank in the 100 Deadliest U.S. Highways?

Highway 17 is obviously a dangerous road and when driving around Laurel Curve you should not be tempting the gods. And yet … a ranking of the 100 deadliest highways in America includes six in California but Highway 17 isn’t one of them. When you look at the fatal number of accidents per mile (calculated using stats from 2004-2008), the deadliest is I-95 in Florida at 1.73; the other top 99 are all above 0.45 accidents per mile. Highway 17?  Using the same methods, it comes in at 0.1 accidents per mile. And that’s the number before the installation of the barrier at Laurel Curve. Of course the number of drivers plays a role — average daily traffic on I-95 is 72,000 vehicles and can be up to 300,000 during peak hours. Highway 17 is less than half that, about 20,000 as of 2006. It still puts things in perspective and with the Safe on 17 Task Force, hopefully this highway will never make the list.

Laurel Curve looking north in 2015 after being re-engineered. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Highway 17 Tour. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

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.

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.

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.

The Wagon Top Boiler at Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton, California. Photo © Nate G.

A rusty old boiler sits across from the photo studio at Roaring Camp Railroads. It has been there for as long as I can remember. It is my earliest memory of a train thing. I’m sure I experienced the thrill of a train engine in short order, but that boiler always caught my imagination. Somehow, just knowing that a rusty piece of scrap metal like that once served such an important role in an engine’s operation thrilled me. I would continue visiting it on my frequent pilgrimages to Roaring Camp throughout my childhood and teen years. It didn’t help that my best friend’s dad was the chief steam engineer at Roaring Camp. The two of us could hop on a train whenever we wanted, rail hobos in the age of automobiles. We loved the railroad. Yet, we never truly knew what the railroad had done for us.

Southern Pacific 1922 Coast Division Map – Santa Cruz and Vicinity. Image courtesy of Derek Whaley.

It took awhile before I had built up the background knowledge and nerve to begin a blog. My first article was a minor flag-stop at Kenville, near the Eccles Tunnel. The blog picked up steam fast, with articles appearing increasingly on a once-weekly schedule. The most important thing I did was revise. Regularly. When new information was found, either via contributors, research, or sheer luck, it was essential that the appropriate article be updated to reflect the new information.

Southern Pacific 1922 Coast Division Map – Santa Cruz and Vicinity. Image courtesy of Derek Whaley.

It was late in 2012 that the idea for a book became ingrained in my thought process. The original goals—writing a series of books of increasing complexity—have all gone away, lost to a sea of optimism. Today, only the last of the planned books is anticipated: Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The ultimate goal of this book is to emphasize how central the development of the railroad in Santa Cruz was to the people that experienced it every day. Information regarding the trestles, tunnels, and even wharves will be used to show what this infrastructure did for the people and the county of Santa Cruz.

There are always difficulties in doing research—funding, access, permissions, lack-of-information, difficult people—but this journey has truly become a project of the heart. Santa Cruz has always been my home, and it is only in the past two years that I have realized how central the railroad was to the creation of Santa Cruz. It is an important step in the transformation of a rural Spanish settlement into the county we see today. Much of its development, fame, and legacy would not have happened without the railroad. It is my task to ensure this generation and future ones do not forget that fact.

You can check out all of my blog posts at http://www.santacruztrains.com/