BLM” width=”1000″ height=”667″> Coast Dairies property in Santa Cruz County. Cows still graze on the wide flat first marine terrace. Photo: BLM

The Grasses that Feed the Cows

In the late 1700s Spanish missionaries caused significant changes to the California landscape by introducing European plants and animals. 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 primarily perennial bunch grasses such as purple needlegrass. Patches of native grasses can still be found, especially 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 non-native species like wild oats, filaree, wild mustard, wild radish, foxtail, and burclover had taken hold on much of the coastal California landscape. This didn’t bother the cattle, who ate whatever grasses they found and ultimately helped create an industry based on leather, meat, and milk.

Changing Land Ownership and Three Early Divas of Dairy

While the influence of European grasses was dominating the landscape in the late 1840s, the political influence of Spain waned. When the Mexican government seized control of the missions from Spain, they divided the vast amount of land held by each mission into large land grants known as “ranchos.” In Santa Cruz, ranching and cattle grazing was concentrated in in two main areas: from the City of Santa Cruz to the San Mateo County line, and from Aptos to the southern boundary of the Pajaro Valley.

Cows grazing on the north coast near Año Nuevo area, which was in Santa Cruz County until 1868 when it became part of San Mateo County. Photo: Santa Cruz Public Library

Unusual for the time, three women held ownership of significant ranching tracts in northern Santa Cruz. Rancho Refugio (twelve thousand acres along the north coast) ended up in the ownership of the three Castro sisters whose father, Jose Joaquin Castro, was a member of the 1775-6 Anza Expedition from Sinaloa, Mexico. Via marriage, the eldest sister, Maria Candida Castro Bolcoff was also owner for a time of Rancho San Agustin, which includes the area of present day Scotts Valley. The Castro sister’s properties would later become Wilder Ranch, Coast Dairies State Park, and part of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.

A Tale of Displacement

The Spanish “missionized” and displaced the native people living in California and Santa Cruz (link to MR articles on this) beginning in the late 1700s. Spain was then removed from power and influence when Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821 and seized power of California. The Mexicans were displaced themselves by a second wave of European born immigrants following the end of Mexican-American War in 1848.

The US government said it would honor all of the existing Mexican land grants. However, the owners of the Mexican ranchos were forced to file claims with the federal Public Land Commission for patents to their properties. The arduous, expensive process resulted in numerous patent disputes, rejected claims, and an opportunity for savvy salesmen who understood the property laws to turn a quick profit in real estate in the Golden State. By the 1870s, much of the Mexican rancho land in Santa Cruz County had been divided into parcels and sold to American homesteaders, gold miners, and immigrants.
The result was that the coastal ecosystems of California and Santa Cruz, and much of its grassland, underwent huge change in a 100 year period, from wild land with only native species of plants and animals managed by native peoples, to land management by settlers of European descent, immense ranchos dominated by non-native grasses and animals, and ultimately division into small farms or mines.

L. K. Baldwin Dairy Ranch circa 1847. Baldwin was a county supervisor and president of the Santa Cruz City Bank. Photo: Santa Cruz Public Library

The Early Dairy Business

One of the most widely recognized dairies in the area is Wilder Ranch, now a California State Park. In 1871, Wilder and his business partner, L. K. Baldwin purchased 4,030 acres, established a dairy, and quickly acquired a reputation for making the finest butter in the region. Despite the dissolution of the partnership and the splitting of the ranch into two properties in 1885, Wilder continued to expand his dairy and revolutionize the industry. Wilder harnessed the power of water on his ranch, and replaced a steam wheel, the conventional method for generating power at the time, with a Pelton water wheel. This Pelton wheel powered everything on the ranch, from the two cream separators to the incandescent lights that illuminated the entire property. The ranch did not produce any cheese but sold milk, cream, and butter in large quantities throughout the county.

A bottle top for milk from Beach City Creamery. Image: Cynthia Matthews

Wilder Ranch was but one of numerous family-owned dairies on the North Coast, many of the families having Swiss and Italian heritage. Wilder’s neighbor, Pio Scaroni, came to the United States from Gordola, Switzerland in 1868 and was known for his Fancy Flat cheddar cheese rounds, each weighing 24 pounds. At the height of production, Scaroni Ranch produced 300 pounds of cheese per day. Slightly further north along Highway One was the Winterhalder family ranch at Yellow Bank, known today as Panther Beach.

The region produced a wide variety of cheese including aged cheddars, a catch-all “American cheese,” Swiss cheese, and the newly-invented Monterey Jack. Monterey Jack originated in Monterey County, most likely developed by Franciscan Missionaries, and was made famous by businessman come dairyman David Jacks. Local food historian and cookbook author Nikki Silva estimates that from 1860 to 1960 there were more than 100 dairies in the greater Santa Cruz region.

Ice Cream, Begonia Scream

One of the pioneers of ice cream production in Santa Cruz, County was James Brown who in 1911, purchased a five-acre parcel of land along 41st Avenue in Capitola. He began with fourteen registered Guernsey heifers and one bull. He built a dairy, and fed the cattle only weed-free feed. His dairy business flourished: he bottled and delivered milk throughout Santa Cruz, and opened several creameries under the name “Moo Cow Ice Cream.”

Four ads for Santa Cruz ice creameries. Image: Agricultural History Project.

Brown actually had a lot more than grazing going on at his ranch. Initially, he grew strawberries, but within three years he abandoned strawberries for begonia bulbs. He quickly became an international producer of begonia bulbs, and is the inspiration behind today’s Begonia Festival, and other fresh cut flowers that we associate with Capitola. Incidentally, his weed-free fertilizer business also did quite well.
Moo Cow Ice Cream was a hit both locally and internationally. Brown eventually opened and operated eleven ice cream shops spanning four counties. In addition to the stores, Brown negotiated a deal to include his Moo Cow Ice Cream in the dining cars of the Southern Pacific Railroad. In the 1920s, the Brown Ranch was the leading producer of ice cream in the county. Brown Ranch Marketplace and the Capitola Mall are now located at the site of the original Brown Ranch, which some locals still refer to as “Brown’s Bulb Ranch”.

Marianne’s Ice Cream on 1020 Ocean Street. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Ice-Creameries of Today

Going out for ice cream can be a delightful treat, and buying artisan ice cream from a local creamery is as popular now as it was in the early 20th century. People from Santa Cruz loved their ice cream then and do to this day, as one can often witness an impassioned debate over the merits of each local creamery. However, there is no need to choose between Penny Ice Creamery or Marianne’s Ice Cream, Mission Hill Creamery or Polar Bear. If you spend time in Santa Cruz, you can enjoy them all.

Get the Book

This post was written by The Santa Cruz Heritage Food Project and is just one piece of their research on the history and culture of Santa Cruz County through the lens of food. Their book, featuring history and  recipes starring many of the major crops of the Santa Cruz region, should be available Fall 2017. Please contact them at SCHeritageFoods@gmail.com with questions.

“Collateral Damage” by E.A. Chase. Located next to the Clock Tower in downtown Santa Cruz. Photo: Paul babb

I think it is fair to say that when we see a historical memorial, we expect a fairly simple, direct statement about the past. The idea is that by putting something in stone or casting it in bronze, the artist or a community seeks to convey a clear message to future generations. But not all monuments are so transparent. Here in Santa Cruz we have a monument that has hidden meanings. The clues are there to uncover them, if you know how to look.

Next to the clock tower, at the intersections of Front, Pacific and Water streets, there is a monument called Collateral Damage. It looks Picasso-esque, and if you look for awhile you can make out human figures clutching each other closely and looking up to the sky. The plaque mounted on the base reads,

“Collateral Damage: A Reality of War, by E.A. Chase.
In memory of civilians who have died in all wars.”

“Collateral Damage” by E.A. Chase. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

One of the plaques on “Collateral Damage” by E.A. Chase. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

The plaque also tells us the statue was dedicated on August 5, 1995 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Bill Motto Post, the Resource Center for Non-Violence, the City of Santa Cruz, and E.A. Chase.

“Collateral Damage” by E.A. Chase. Located next to the Clock Tower in downtown Santa Cruz. Photo: Paul babb

So what’s the hidden meaning? The statue may be the only monument in the United States to commemorate the victims of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. E.A. Chase, the sculptor, was born in 1932 and served in the armed forces during the Korean War. After the war he became increasingly alarmed at the nuclear arms race, so in 1959 he created a statue meant to viscerally convey the meaning of nuclear war in the form of the civilian deaths it would incur. In fact, this statue was meant not just to warn of the abstract possibility of civilian deaths, but to convey a message of warning by commemorating the actual civilian victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Chase then tried to donate the statue to the United Nations, but was told that the organization that was dedicated to maintaining peace found it “inappropriate.” For the next 30 years, Chase just kept the statue in his garage until a friend of his, James Wainscot, a member of the local Santa Cruz Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) post found the statue and urged him to find a new site for the statue in Santa Cruz. Wainscot convinced his fellow members of the VFW to support a movement to place the statue in Santa Cruz and they were joined in this effort by members of the Resource Center for Non-Violence. With help from a fundraising concert in town, featuring Crosby, Stills and Nash and Bonnie Raitt amongst others, and with support of the City Council the statue was adopted by the City.

“Collateral Damage” by E.A. Chase. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

There was a brief controversy as some supporters argued for replacing the WWI monument in the triangle between Front and Pacific with this new monument. Tensions flared up and these tensions, which coincided with the brouhaha that exploded at the Smithsonian Museum in 1994 over a planned exhibition on the Atomic Bombings at the end of WWII, put the plans for the monument at risk. By the time of emplacement, E.A. Chase’s original motivation—concern about nuclear war—had become generalized to a mourning for all civilian victims of war. But the Hiroshima connection is still there to be read in the monument.

More clues as to the artists intentions with “Collateral Damage” by E.A. Chase. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Go back to the date of commemoration: August 5, 1995. Exactly 50 years since the dropping of Little Boy on the city of Hiroshima. On a plaque on the back side, we also see that the dedication of the statue took place during a “No Nukes Rally” which was timed to commemorate the anniversary of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And amongst the names of dignitaries listed as attending the rally is the name of one of Hiroshima’s most famous survivors: Shigeko Sasamori, one of the six Hiroshima Maidens who came to the United States in the 1950s for plastic surgery to heal her scars.

The Santa Cruz downtown New Leaf Community Market at 1134 Pacific Avenue, occupies the former Bank of Italy. Photo: Jim Whitehead/Mobile Ranger

Ever wonder why the New Leaf Market says “Bank of Italy” over the front door? The downtown New Leaf Market has found its home in an old bank at Soquel and Pacific for twenty years now. As a local history enthusiast, I am delighted that the grocery store left the original name on the building.

Many locals remember that Bank of America was here until the 1980s. I remember the tellers at this bank counting money back to you through a marble-framed window, and I imagined executives on the mezzanine scrutinizing the scruffy college student trying to cash a financial aid check. So when was it the Bank of Italy?

1134 Pacific Avenue. The building was built in 1929 for the Bank of Italy in the Zig-Zag Moderne style (an off shoot of Art Deco). Here, two impressive Olympic God-like figures must have been designed to seem like they were protecting the bank. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Bank of America’s roots are in San Francisco’s Bank of Italy founded in 1904 by immigrant A. P. Giannini. His bank in North Beach provided banking services to that neighborhood’s working classes, mostly to his Italian neighbors. In the next few decades the Bank of Italy expanded with branches throughout California, buying the bank of Watsonville in 1923 and opening a Santa Cruz branch in an existing building downtown. A few years later, the bank announced that it would build a “modern bank” at Pacific and Soquel.

Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz, 1930. The Bank of Italy is the building on the right at the corner of Soquel and Pacific just past the cinema marquee. The distinctive red brick building is the Trust Building. In the distance, is the Palomar and IOOF building with its clock tower. On the left, the Hihn building, and the New Santa Cruz Theatre in the distance. Image: Linda Rosewood postcard collection

In October 1929, the Santa Cruz Evening News reporter was given a tour before opening day and wrote:

Fine Marble Used

“The best and the most expensive of the world marbles are being used in the building to give it a beautiful effect. The lobby of the bank will be 80 x 18 feet in size with a low grill facing along the north side and east end. The body of the partitions in this portion of the bank will be built of pink Tennessee marble, with borders of black and gold Belgium marble. Counterfacings and top of the partitions are composed of Skyros Greacian [sic] marble. … On the floor of the lobby will be placed round top marble check tables with carved pedestal which will depict certain events of early California history. In addition to these there will be two built in settees and a drinking fountain.”

Five thousand people attended the grand opening of Santa Cruz’s new Bank of Italy, which included live chamber music and free flowers for the ladies. One of the attendees was J. A Brown, who happened to be the last depositor at the old location, and the first depositor in the new location. It is his bulb ranch which is now Brown Ranch Marketplace in Capitola, and the location of the county’s first Trader Joe’s.

Art Deco statuary on the old Bank of Italy Building. Serendipitously, the cornucopia is appropriate for both a bank and a food market. Photo: Jim Whitehead/Mobile Ranger

When the bank opened, and as far as I can tell, nobody clutched their pearls about big naked male bodies or god knows what historically correct art was carved into the pedestals of those check tables. Today, on the outside walls of the building, the robust gods of commerce remain, blessing the healthy enterprise of local agriculture, and gazing down on the scruffy, the immigrant, and everyone.

The S.S. Palo Alto is a curious oddity with a rich history. It has also become an inspiration to artists who use it to inspire environmental awareness and promote ocean sustainability through the arts. Social Practice Arts Research Center at UCSC is sponsoring the “S.S. Palo Alto Project” which uses the ship as a “thought hub” around which to host art-based projects and events to teach ocean education and inspire environmental awareness.

Depiction of the S.S. Palo Alto by a UCSC art student.

Richard Desanto, who is coordinating the project says “I wouldn’t look to any one of our events or projects as a distillation of our goals; instead, each functions as a building block to a more environmentally sound future.”

Event: Armour Our Shore

In 2014, across from the visitor center near the “cement” ship, the S.S. Palo Alto Project partnered with Save Our Shores and the Public Art class of Professor Dee Hibbert-Jones to bring art to the shores of the park. Joined by local students of the Mt. Saint Madonna Middle School, teams performed skits to highlight the state of our waters. Alongside the plays were information rich posters covering various issues concerning the oceans as well as activities to further engage with the public. Local television broadcasters were present to cover the event.

Skit next to the S.S. Palo Alto titled “Armor Our Shore.” This was an event put on by the S.S. Palo Alto Project in 2014. Image: Courtesy the S.S. Palo Alto Project

Art: Fish Pack Your Trash

The Suitcase. The sculpture is made of items ranging from drinking straws to motor oil containers that flow through the urban catch basins to the beaches following rainstorms. Image: Kim Abeles

Kim Abeles from the S.S. Palo Alto Project has created the “Dolphin Suitcase” made from found trash that had washed up on the beach. The suitcase is a functional “prop” made up of disposable silverware, lighters, straws, and much more. Inside are larger pieces of trash. Abeles, accompanied by her Dolphin Suitcase, visits classrooms and teaches about how trash can become part of the pollutants that get into streams, and then flow into rivers and the ocean.

Ables built the Dolphin Suitcase as a functional sculptural “prop” to discuss storm drains and recycling. Image: Kim Abeles

The exterior detail creates reality. Every kid knows about a drinking straw, and they think of it as one. When they see them all collectively, it begins to have an impact that statistics or facts alone really couldn’t do. Image: Kim Abeles

The interior contains larger objects found in streams and rivers. These are secured with snaps and bindings, then presented home-shopping-network-style during the performance. Image: Kim Abeles

Dynamic Art: Bike Around the S.S. Palo Alto

The Velodrome Powerstation Project by Nathaniel Freeman and Paul Hempstead, aims to have people bike around a the S.S. Palo Alto on a temporary platform. The bikes are set up with batteries charged by the human-mechanized energy of the riders. These batteries are then plugged into a charging station (in visual range of the Moss Landing coastal power station located 20 miles south) that serves as the central power source of the structure itself, as well as being available for visitors to charge personal electronic devices.

Velodrome Powerstation Project by Nathaniel Freeman and Paul Hempstead. Image: Courtesy the S.S. Palo Alto Project

The structure is designed to mimic the existing architectural elements of the pier, and will use reclaimed and sustainable materials as much as possible. The walkway is made in part of a transparent material to allow for views of the vessel and the surrounding water; the same material is used to surround the interior of the track, ensuring rider safety and a clear view of the ship. The project aims to produce enough energy to sustain itself, as well as to incite visitor dialogue and create experiential learning opportunities for alternative energy generation.

For more information and upcoming events as part of the S.S. Palo Alto Project, check out the S.S. Palo Alto Project website and contact Barbara Benish at barbara.benish@gmail.com.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • SS Palo Alto Art Park, by Barbara Benish. Social and Environmental Practice in the Arts at UC Santa Cruz, 2012. Sparc.ucsc.edu website.
   • Personal communication with Barbara Benish, University of California Santa Cruz Art Department Research Associate, Santa Cruz County, April 2016.

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]]> /santacruz/ss-palo-alto-war-ship-to-night-club-to-modern-art-hotspot/feed/ 0 /santacruz/the-lighthouse-at-ano-nuevo-island-stories-of-shipwrecks-and-sea-lions/ /santacruz/the-lighthouse-at-ano-nuevo-island-stories-of-shipwrecks-and-sea-lions/#respond Wed, 12 Oct 2016 16:00:20 +0000 /?p=9764

Abandoned lighthouse-keeper’s house on Año Nuevo Island in San Mateo County, California, November, 2005. Photo: Jef Poskanzer

It’s usually a fair bet that where there is a lighthouse, there is a history of shipwrecks. The area around Point Año Nuevo along California’s Highway 1 between San Francisco and Santa Cruz is no exception. The wreck of the Coya in 1866 claimed the lives of all but three of the 30-member crew and led to the installation of a steam fog whistle on Año Nuevo Island six years later (it is visible from the beach covered in elephant seals). That same year, the first light went on at the new Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

Ano Nuevo Light Station when in operation, sometime before 1948. Photo: Unknown federal employee

A High Price for an Ocean View

The first settlers on the island, who were to operate and maintain the whistle, paid a heavy price for their waterfront vista. In 1883, the lighthouse keeper, Henry Colburn, along with his assistant and two neighbor boys, drowned in the large surf while rowing out to the island. Even with keepers like Colburn risking their lives to lead captains and their crews to safe passage, large ships continued to crash between Pigeon Point and Point Año Nuevo. Finally, in 1890, a light was installed on the island.

Año Nuevo Island tank house with light at top, unknown date (prior to the construction of the light tower in 1913). Photo: Unknown federal employee

The keepers had to monitor the new light 24 hours a day and constantly scan the horizon in search of approaching fog. Perhaps the most difficult part of life on the island, though, was dealing with the sea lions that regularly overran the gardens and occasionally even the house.

Make Way for Pinnipeds

In 1948, the last keeper and his family moved off the island and was replaced by a marker buoy with an automatic light, sound, and radar reflector. Ten years later, the California Department of Parks and Recreation acquired the Año Nuevo State Reserve, including the island, which was classified as a scientific preserve. In the early ‘60s, after visitors to the island damaged the existing structures and deterred sea lions and elephant seals from returning to the island, the preserve was closed to the public.

The lighthouse and surrounding buildings on Año Nuevo Island in 2009. All of the dots and textured areas that you might think are seaweed are sea lions. Photo: Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project

Today, only researchers and designated personnel are allowed on the island, and just the three structures remain: The keeper’s dwelling (built in 1906), the fog signal building (front section built in 1881, back section in 1899), and the fuel storage building (built in 1908). Researchers use the fog signal building to store their equipment and as a respite from the howling winds. Not surprisingly, the dilapidated keeper’s house is still overrun by sea lions, the rightful owners of this rugged island.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Año Nuevo Island Light Station: Documentation of the Light Station Complex, Año Nuevo Island, Año Nuevo State Reserve, San Mateo County, California, by Matt C. Bischoff, June 2005.
   • Pigeon Point History. California Department of Parks and Recreation website.

Updated: October 12, 2016

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]]> /davenport/when-money-washed-up-on-the-shores-of-greyhound-rock/feed/ 0 /santacruz/elkhorn-slough-sea-otters-offset-agricultural-runoff/ /santacruz/elkhorn-slough-sea-otters-offset-agricultural-runoff/#respond Wed, 28 Sep 2016 20:00:53 +0000 /?p=11740

Today, much of the land surrounding Elkhorn Slough near Monterey, California, is managed to reduce nitrogen input. Nevertheless, there is still 150 times more nitrogen in the slough than a century ago. Because of those levels, Elkhorn Slough mudflats are often covered in a thick, green sludge of nitrogen-loving algae. Algae could also be growing on eelgrass, blocking its access to light. Instead, the slough harbors beds of healthy, dark green eelgrass. So what’s the secret? It turns out to be everyone’s favorite keystone predator, the California sea otter.

Otters help keep kelp forests healthy and also contribute to healthy eelgrass habitat. Photo: Bart Selby

Brent Hughes from the University of California, Santa Cruz was first to make the connection between a charismatic carnivore and an unassuming perennial marine plant. He looked at 50 years of historical data that compared areas with and without otters and discovered that areas with larger populations of sea otters had healthier beds of eelgrass (Zostera marina).

Everyone’s favorite keystone predator, the California sea otter. Photo: Bart Selby

The reason: Otters love to eat crabs, which love to eat grazing invertebrates such as sea slugs, which love to eat the algae that grow on eelgrass.

This pup will learn to eat crabs from its mom, indirectly protecting eelgrass habitat. Photo: Bart Selby

This top-down management of species is known as a trophic cascade. A top predator alters the abundance of its prey, which in turn reduces predation on the next trophic level down the food chain.

The trophic cascade at Elkhorn Slough. The top predator is the sea otter (E. lutris), the mesopredators are crabs (Cancer spp. and Pugettia producta), the epiphyte mesograzers are primarily an isopod (I. resecata) and a sea slug (P. taylori), and algal epiphyte competitors of eelgrass primarily consist of chain-forming diatoms, and the red alga Smithora naiadum. Solid arrows indicate direct effects, dashed arrows indicate indirect effects, and the plus and minus symbols indicate positive and/or negative effects on trophic guilds and eelgrass condition. C, competitive interaction; T, trophic interaction. Image: Original artwork by A. C. Hughes and used with permission of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 2013 (see full citation below)

You can see the difference between an area with otters and one without when you look at Elkhorn Slough compared to Tomales Bay. Even though Tomales Bay has lower levels of nutrients (such as nitrogen from fertilizer), it has significantly fewer otters. The result is brown eelgrass covered in algae. Without as many otters preying on the crabs, the crustaceans are four times as abundant and 30% bigger than the crabs in Elkhorn Slough. This leaves very few sea slugs to keep the eelgrass grazed clean of algae.

Otters hard at work, keeping Elkhorn Slough’s ecosystem balanced. Photo: Bart Selby

Where to See the Sea Otters

For the best view of sea otters, visit the Moss Landing Wildlife Area (on the east side of Highway 1) or Moss Landing State Beach (on the west side of Highway 1, just off Jetty Road). At the beach on the same side as the harbor, you can often see a raft of male otters floating together out on the open water.

Keep any eye out for otters when you visit the slough. Photo: Bart Selby

Elkhorn Slough – A Protected Place for Otters and More

Elkhorn Slough is one of the few coastal wetlands remaining in the state, second in size to San Francisco Bay. At nearly 7 miles long, this estuarine waterway shelters an abundance of marine life, providing essential habitat for over 700 species, including aquatic mammals, birds, fish, invertebrates, algae, and plants. It is also part of California’s statewide program to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). MPAs are a lot like our landlocked state parks except that they extend many miles off our coastline. These “underwater parks” are established in areas that are biologically diverse (lots of different marine species), culturally rich (think sunken ships like the S.S. Palo Alto and buried anthropological treasure), and economically important (fishing and tourism are a big deal to these coastal communities).

The MPAs in Santa Cruz County. Image: California Marine Sanctuary Foundation

Elkhorn Slough is home to three marine protected areas—Elkhorn Slough State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA), Elkhorn Slough State Marine Reserve (SMR), and the Moro Cojo Slough SMR. There are several different types of MPAs, and each one has its own set of rules. See the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website for details.

Image: Courtesy the Ocean Conservancy via the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Sea Otters: Your Defence Against the Algal Apocalypse. Ed Young. National Geographic. August 26, 2013.
   • Sea otters promote recovery of seagrass beds. Tim Stephens. August 26, 2013. University of California Santa Cruz Newscenter Website.
   • Recovery of a top predator mediates negative eutrophic effects on seagrass Brent B. Hughes, Ron Eby, Eric Van Dyke, M. Tim Tinker, Corina I. Marks, Kenneth S. Johnson, and Kerstin WassonProc Natl Acad Sci, September 17, 2013. Issue 38:15313–15318.

]]> /santacruz/elkhorn-slough-sea-otters-offset-agricultural-runoff/feed/ 0 /santacruz/the-accidental-date-palm-at-santa-cruz-city-hall/ /santacruz/the-accidental-date-palm-at-santa-cruz-city-hall/#respond Sun, 18 Sep 2016 17:00:19 +0000 /?p=12712

Santa Cruz City Hall gardens. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Today’s City Hall at 809 Center Street was built in 1937-38 in the Monterey Colonial style, a new style at the time. The enclosed Spanish Gardens are part of this style, but the date palm there today is not.

A Canary Island date palm leans away from Santa Cruz City Hall at Center Street and Church Street. Photo: Laurel Wee

According to Leslie Keedy, Santa Cruz City Arborist, the Canary Island date palm tree was probably planted by a bird via its droppings. The bird probably got the date seed from one of the other Canary Island palms in the city. The palm took root next to the building but has been growing away from it, reaching toward the light.

Santa Cruz City Hall in the 1940s. Notice that there was no date palm to the right of the fountain then. Image: From the collection of Linda Rosewood

Palm trees are native to tropical regions and are part of the Arecaceae family, which is common in the tropics. Because it is native to the Canary Islands, it grows in mild and tropical climates, which makes it desirable to plant widely across the globe.

The leaves and fruits are very important to some cultures for food, fiber, and shelter. Animals also have myriad uses for these palms. Squirrels eat dates and store them in the folds of the trunk for later. Kestrels, barn owls, starlings, and other birds also nest in these large protective trees. Thus, it certainly makes sense that this palm owes its existence to help from a bird.

Postcard of Santa Cruz City Hall circa 1940s. There is no date palm in the hall courtyard, but there is one across the street. Image: From the collection of Linda Rosewood

Canary date palms, and palms generally, were commonly planted along the sidewalks or property boundaries of Victorian homes in Santa Cruz. In the 1800s, when the houses were built two palms were typically placed on either side of the home or the path to the home. The Italian cypress was also used in this manner, but not to the extent that the palm was.

Two Canary Island Date palms on the edges of the Darling House along West Cliff Drive. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Leaves

Palms are separated into two groups: feather palms, which have pinnately compound leaves that resemble a feather, and fan palms which have palmately compound leaves that resemble a fan.

Feather palm leaves of the Canary Island date palm in front of Santa Cruz City Hall. Photo: Laurel Wee.

This palm is a feather palm with leaves that reach up to 20 feet in length. Each leaf contains up to 200 leaflets that alternate on the sides of the central branch (rachis).

Flowers

Flower clusters are four to six feet long and orange. Female flowers are produced on separate plants. For this reason, you’ll see dates on only some Canary Island palms.

Palm trees are monocots. Other monocot plants are lilies, irises, and aloe.

Fruits

The fruit is a small drupe, similar to an avocado, about 2 cm long and 1 cm across. It contains a single seed.

Clusters of Canary Island dates. Photo: Laurel Wee

Closeup of Canary Island dates. The one on the lower left is the seed. Photo: Laurel Wee

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Tree Tour made possible by UCSC Environmental Studies student Laurel Wee with support from the Kennith S. Norris Center for Natural History. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Trees of the California landscape: A Photographic Manual of Native and Ornamental Trees, by Charles Hatch and Phyllis M. Faber. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
   • Trees of Santa Barbara, by R. N. Muller, J. R. Haller, and K. K. Muller. Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, 2005.
   • Personal communication with Randall Morgan, Naturalist, Santa Cruz County, February 2016
   • Personal communication with Leslie Keedy, Parks urban forester/arborist, Santa Cruz County, February 2016
   • Santa Cruz County History - Architecture Institutions in Santa Cruz County -- 1850-1950 by Susan Lehmann.

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]]> /santacruz/the-accidental-date-palm-at-santa-cruz-city-hall/feed/ 0 /santacruz/where-have-all-the-bridges-gone-at-natural-bridge-state-beach/ /santacruz/where-have-all-the-bridges-gone-at-natural-bridge-state-beach/#respond Wed, 14 Sep 2016 20:00:26 +0000 /?p=11096

The lone remaining arch at Natural Bridges State Beach in April 2012. Photo © Mobile Ranger.

The name Natural Bridges may seem deceiving when you first visit the state beach at the end of West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, California. Just one picturesque rock arch stands offshore in the crashing waves. You can’t even call it a bridge because it doesn’t connect to anything.

The three natural bridges circa 1900. At this time they were connected to land so technically are considered arches as well as bridges. Photo courtesy of Frank Perry and UCSC Special Collections

So why does the name imply multiple bridges? Perhaps Alexander Weiss, one of the local park rangers back in the ’70s and ’80s, said it best in his poem, “Ode to the Natural Bridges Arch” (see the end of this post for the complete poem):

Once three arches stood in this park
As if windows to the sea,
But wind-blown sand and storms like sharks
Attacked them constantly

The two remaining natural bridges circa 1950. Photo: Courtesy Frank Perry

Time Takes Its Toll

Before 1905, two additional stone arches connected today’s remaining arch to the cliffs where the parking lot sits today, forming three natural bridges. This cliff was once a long, narrow peninsula before the ocean eroded away everything but the middle section, which is now the last arch. Bridges typically form in peninsulas like this one as the waves are bent around the headland, focusing energy on both flanks. The waves sometimes erode caves on either side of the rock that eventually meet, or the bridge can originate from a small hole that grows bigger over many years and eventually erodes through to the other side.

Waves both created and destroyed the three bridges that once stood at Natural Bridges State Beach. Photo: Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

At Natural Bridges, the rock is Santa Cruz Mudstone, which is fairly resistant to erosion. This means that after a bridge is formed, it will last for decades. Eventually as the base of the rock erodes, the opening enlarges until the entire formation collapses, as did the outermost bridge sometime after autumn of 1905. Some believe that the 1906 earthquake caused the collapse, but there’s no evidence to prove this theory. It was probably just time taking its toll.

The second-to-last arch came close to collapsing in winter 1979. Photo: Courtesy of Frank Perry

In 1974, a couple was married atop one of the two remaining bridges. Their wedding day marked the last time visitors were legally allowed onto the eroding mudstone formation. Six years later, on the dark and stormy night of January 10, 1980, the bridge closest to shore gave way. The park rangers were so saddened when the second bridge fell that they held a wake to commemorate its passing. Alexander Weiss, a park ranger, recited this poem that he wrote for the occasion:

Ode to the Natural Bridges Arch
By Alexander Weiss
January 13, 1980


Once three arches stood in this park
As if windows to the sea,
But wind-blown sand and storms like sharks
Attacked them constantly


This force made one disappear
Sometime ’round 1900;
The other two, like some stone brassiere
Would not be split asunder


But time and storms, they do not care,
And the near arch slowly shed
Bits and pieces here and there
Til it looked quite underfed


In February ’79
That shed quite a chunk,
And again in October, into the brine
Went some more kerplink! Kerplunk!


The arch now was thin and weak,
But gave not up and stayed;
As if it had some goal to seek,
It saw the new decade!


But as the seventies passed on
And the eighties had begun,
It knew it could not last for long
For it was erosion’s son:


For through erosion it was born
And through erosion it would die
And such a death one does not mourn
One merely says goodbye.


The night of January 10th
It gave up the ghost,
And we are here not to lament,
But to offer it a toast:


Here’s to arches that are gone
And to new ones on the way,
For just as sure as there’s a dawn
There’ll be some more some day!


And to our last remaining arch
That now stands like some island fort,
We pledge that we will always march
To give our arch support

Visitors walk through the remaining arch during an unusually low tide. Photo: Jim Whitehead/Mobile Ranger

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • From Three Bridges to an Arch, by Julia Gaudinski. Mobile Ranger website.
   • The Rocks of Santa Cruz’s North Coast: The Mighty Mudstone, by Julia Gaudinski. Mobile Ranger website.

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]]> /santacruz/where-have-all-the-bridges-gone-at-natural-bridge-state-beach/feed/ 0 /santacruz/surfing-over-kelp-forests-at-cove-beach/ /santacruz/surfing-over-kelp-forests-at-cove-beach/#respond Thu, 08 Sep 2016 00:00:41 +0000 /?p=9749

Surfing with the kelp. Photo: Steven Tyler PJs

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) run along the coastline of California. They were created to maintain the precarious balance between keeping places wild and allowing people to interact with the landscape. In the Año Nuevo MPA, 55 miles south of San Francisco and 20 miles north of Santa Cruz, lies Cove Beach. This is a popular spot for seasoned surfers who fear the loss of this rugged coastline more than the great white sharks cruising the waters in search of fat seals. Gary Strachan, a park ranger and wildlife biologist, is often one of these surfers. He has seen firsthand how the waters have changed over the decades.

Surfer at Cove Beach, April 2015. Photo: Mike Merritt

A typical central California kelp forest community at 40 foot depth, Pebble Beach, California, June 2010. Photo: Chad King/NOAA BMNS

The Loss of Kelp Forests and a Killer Surf Break at Cove Beach

In the summer of 1967, large kelp harvesting boats anchored in the bay and started harvesting kelp. By the end of the summer, the surfers noticed that the waves were choppy or “blown out” on windy days and could be hard, even dangerous, to surf. It seemed that the removal of the kelp patches was affecting the surf. Who knew what implications this massive harvesting could have on the marine ecosystem? Anecdotal evidence from fishermen says that the fishing was much better before the harvest, but scientific data on kelp forests goes back only to 1984. Even recent data does little to clear up the mystery.

Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) draped over the ocean surface, August 2011. The R/V Fulmar, a research vessel, is in the background. Photo: Chad King/NOAA MBNMS

A 2008 baseline data collection study surveyed the species found in kelp forests at 14 central coast MPAs. Surprisingly, their data showed that the density of a kelp canopy was not related to the number of species found within the canopy. In fact, sometimes more species are found in areas of sparse kelp canopy cover than in areas with dense canopy cover.

Image: Courtesy the Ocean Conservancy via the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation.

Harvesting of kelp at Año Nuevo Bay, by hand, was allowed until early 2016, when it’s status changed from a State Marine Conservation Area to a State Marine Reserve. As a Reserve, it has the highest level of protections and the take of all living, geologic, or cultural marine resources is prohibited. Blown-out waves or not, plenty of surfers still flock to this section of coastline in addition to hundreds of elephant seals.

Image: Courtesy California Marine Sanctuary Foundation

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

Elkhorn Slough with Moss Landing Power Plant in the background. The orange stuff is called dodder (Cuscuta) and is a parasitic plant. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

At Moss Landing, Highway 1 crosses over Elkhorn Slough, one of the largest estuaries in California. Estuaries are places where the sea meets freshwater. They are home to a rich array of plants and animals that can live in this unique habitat. At Elkhorn Slough, the seawater enters the estuary at the harbor mouth directly west of the Highway 1 bridge, and freshwater comes from several sources: the Salinas River; Tembladero Slough, which runs south of Castroville; and upland creeks that feed into both Moro Cojo and Elkhorn sloughs.

Most of the Elkhorn Slough Watershed and the majority of fresh water sources that drain into it. Image: Courtesy of The Elkhorn Slough Foundation

People have lived along the shores of Elkhorn Slough for at least 8,000 years. Successive waves of people have used the slough in different ways, including harvesting shellfish, fishing, hunting, agriculture, and even helping to generate electrical power. Conservation work in the last few decades has protected much of the natural habitat at Elkhorn Slough and has restored areas that were impacted by earlier human uses.

Today, it is one of the largest and most ecologically important estuarine systems in California. It provides habitats for native shorebirds, marine mammals such as sea otters and sea lions, and a wide variety of marine invertebrates. The slough also serves as an important nursery for a variety of fish species.

Moss Landing harbor at Elkhorn Slough. Photo: a7pointstar

Habitats and Wildlife at Elkhorn Slough

Elkhorn Slough tidal habitats encompass extraordinary biological diversity, providing critical habitat for more than 135 aquatic bird, 550 marine invertebrate, and 102 fish species. The slough is also home to sea lions, harbor seals, and California sea otters. More than 200 different bird species use the slough as a resting spot during their annual migrations.

The upland habitats within the watershed include three of the top 10 most imperiled US habitats: freshwater wetlands, coastal prairie, and maritime chaparral. These systems are amazingly diverse, with coastal prairie being the most species-rich grassland in North America.

Several harbor seals rest at a side channel in Elkhorn Slough. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Estuaries like Elkhorn Slough are among the most threatened ecosystems in California, facing rates of habitat loss between 75 and 90 percent. As a result, a disproportionate number of rare, threatened, and endangered species reside in these areas. In the Elkhorn Slough watershed, two dozen species are included in these categories. Because experts recognize the value of these resources to the country, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) designated areas of Elkhorn Slough as part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and as a National Estuarine Research Reserve.

There are few native oysters left in Elkhorn Slough due to overfishing in the 1920s and habitat burial by sediments. Restoration work is underway. In this photo the growth rates of native oysters are being surveyed. Photo: Elkhorn Slough Reserve

Moss Landing Harbor

The estuary habitats were profoundly affected by the creation of the present day Moss Landing Harbor. In 1947, just two years after the end of World War II, the Army Corps of Engineers dredged a channel through the barrier dunes for a new harbor entrance.

Modern day Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing Harbor. Photo: US Army Corps of Engineers

Elkhorn Slough in 1979 with the expanded harbor. Photo: © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project .http://www.Californiacoastline.org

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Elkhorn Slough Tidal Wetland Plan: Evolution of Elkhorn Slough and Associated Wetlands 20,000 years before present (ybp) to 1880 A.D. Andrea Woolfolk. Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Reserve, September 7, 2005.

    

   • Elkhorn Slough Tidal Wetland Plan: 150 Years of Human Alterations and Tidal Habitat Change (1870 - Present) . Barb Peichel, Kerstin Wasson, Andrea Woolfolk, and Eric Van Dyke. Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, February 20, 2005.

    

    

   • Changes in a California Estuary: A Profile of Elkhorn Slough. Edited by Jane Caffrey, Martha Brown, W. Breck Tyler, and Mark Silberstein. Elkhorn Slough Foundation, 2002.
   • What is a Salt Marsh? National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Website.

    

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]]> /santacruz/elkhorn-slough-interface-between-land-and-sea/feed/ 2 /santacruz/why-chinese-fishermen-were-chased-away-from-the-monterey-bay/ /santacruz/why-chinese-fishermen-were-chased-away-from-the-monterey-bay/#comments Wed, 17 Aug 2016 20:00:06 +0000 /?p=10816

Chinese fishing village in Monterey, 1875. Photo: Dressler, Albert, California Historical Society, Public Domain

Santa Cruz was not always the open-minded, progressive community that it is today. In the mid 1800s, the Northern California beach town was known as the national epicenter of anti-Chinese laws and regulations, even though the Monterey Bay regional economy depended on Chinese as laborers in agriculture and for building railroads.

The Chinese were also very skilled fishermen, and in the 1870s, they caught most of the fish around the Monterey Peninsula. By 1878, they were catching half of all fish caught in Santa Cruz County. Chinese fish peddlers were a common sight walking along the streets of Santa Cruz, Capitola, Soquel, and Watsonville, their shoulders hunched with the weight of bamboo poles hung with fish baskets.

Their success in the fishing industry angered the other local fishermen, who were mostly Italians and Portuguese at the time. They urged political leaders to push the Chinese off the beaches with local ordinances that were rigorously enforced in Santa Cruz County. By the 1880s, Chinese fishermen had been pushed completely out of the Monterey Bay area.

Fishermen of European descent felt they were in direct competition with Chinese fishermen in the 1870s. Photo: Courtesy of John Hibble and the Aptos History Museum

The Chinese Exclusion Law

The Chinese Exclusion Law of 1882 was the first immigration law in the U.S. that restricted a particular race from entering the country. The Geary Act of 1892 extended this law for another 10 years and required Chinese immigrants to carry ID cards at all times. Other laws forbid the use of carrying poles on public streets (the same poles they used to peddle their fish), as well as “Chinese activities” such as flying kites. Those of Chinese descent were also commonly the target of acts of violence.

Before the laws were passed, there were several Chinese fishing villages throughout Monterey Bay. One was located just north of Seacliff at a beach that was then called China Beach. The village consisted of 29 Chinese fishermen (no women or children) living in a ramshackle structure of driftwood and shakes at the base of the high bluffs. Atop those same bluffs now sits one of the most popular campgrounds in California: New Brighton State Beach.

The fishing village at New Brighton State Beach was where the public restrooms are today, just behind the eucalyptus tree in this 2012 photo. Photo: Richard Masoner

Chinese Fishing Villages Trumped by Tourism

When the railroad finally connected Santa Cruz to the San Francisco Bay Area via Los Gatos in 1875, it opened a gateway to tourism but closed the door of opportunity for the Chinese fishermen in Monterey. Thanks to the railroads, more fishermen and visitors of European descent came to Santa Cruz and the Monterey Bay region, and the Chinese were viewed as unwanted competition. The Chinese peddlers and fishing villages began to disappear just three years later.

New Brighton State Beach looking north from the restrooms. Photo: Lauren Salazar/Mobile Ranger

In 1878, Camp San Jose opened on the bluffs above what is now New Brighton State Beach to accommodate the many tourists arriving on the new train. Shortly thereafter, the Chinese were forced to move their fishing villages there and told to move farther down the coast.

As the railroad moved south, the Chinese fishermen were continually pushed farther south also. The last fishing camp was set up near the mouth of the Pajaro River at Camp Goodall. By 1888, this camp closed too, and fisherman of Chinese descent had moved away from the Monterey Bay completely.

The restrooms at New Brighton State Beach mark the site of the fishing village. Photo: Lauren Salazar/Mobile Ranger

The site of the fishing village at New Brighton State Beach is now marked only by restrooms built for the many tourists who flock to this sunny stretch of sand. There is only one known photograph of the village that shows the precarious driftwood structure that the fishermen called home.

China Beach Plaque at New Brighton State Beach. Photo: Lauren Salazar/Mobile Ranger

China Beach plaque at New Brighton State Beach. Photo: Lauren Salazar/Mobile Ranger

A plaque at the south end of the parking lot commemorates the Chinese fishermen. It was the first plaque in the Monterey Bay region dedicated to the memory of these Chinese pioneers.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Chinese Gold: The Chinese in the Monterey Bay Region, by Sandy Lydon. Capitola Book Company, 1985.
   • The Japanese in the Monterey Bay Region: A Brief History, by Sandy Lydon. Capitola Book Company, 1997.
   • Chinatown Dreams: The Life and Photographs of George Lee, by Geoffrey Dunn, Lisa Liu Grady, Tony Hill, James D. Houston, Sandy Lydon, Morton Marcus, and George Ow, Jr. Capitola Book Company, 2002.

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]]> /santacruz/why-chinese-fishermen-were-chased-away-from-the-monterey-bay/feed/ 2 /santacruz/multitudes-of-monarchs-at-natural-bridges-state-beach/ /santacruz/multitudes-of-monarchs-at-natural-bridges-state-beach/#respond Wed, 10 Aug 2016 20:00:43 +0000 /?p=11091

A monarch butterfly. Photo: Courtesy of Elise Wormuth

For decades, tens of thousands of West Coast monarch butterflies (Danus plixippus) have overwintered at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, California. From October through March, in the park’s wind-protected grove of eucalyptus trees, the monarchs rest from their long migration. Thick clusters of monarchs intertwine their legs and hang from the branches like orange leaves, except that these leaves take flight when the temperature rises above 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

A monarch cluster in Lighthouse Field, December 2005. Although they are next to a eucalyptus tree, the monarchs are on a branch of Monterey cypress. Monarchs cluster together on branches to stay warm. Photo: Courtesy of Vicki and Chuck Rogers

Monarchs are the only butterfly species that takes multiple generations to complete one round-trip migration. They travel 50–100 miles a day to escape the cold, and the round trip requires 4–5 generations to complete. A single generation can make the ~3,000 mile trip south, but the journey back north takes 3–4 generations to complete.

Monarchs that live east of the Northern Rockies overwinter in the Sierra Madre mountain range of Mexico, and those west of the Northern Rockies overwinter along the California coast. The butterflies return to the same groves each year for much-needed rest and to lay their eggs on nearby milkweed, which is the only plant that their larvae can eat.

Close-up of a monarch larvae on African milkweed (Asclepias fruticosa) in the milkweed nursery at Natural Bridges State Beach. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Silky gold milkweed (Asclepias curassavica). You can buy these plants in the visitor center and plant them in your yard to provide food for monarch larvae. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Monarch populations everywhere have significantly decreased. In Santa Cruz, the population has dropped from a high of 150,000 to just a few thousand butterflies. Both Roundup and deforestation are to blame. Illegal logging has shrunk the eastern butterflies’ winter habitat in Mexico, and the introduction of Roundup-ready corn and soybeans in the US has almost eliminated milkweed from much of their habitat. Fortunately, parks such as Natural Bridges are being actively managed to keep some monarch habitat intact.

Two monarch chrysalises on African milkweed inside the visitor center at Natural Bridges State Beach. You can see the butterfly inside each chrysalis. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

A Monarch Refuge

Natural Bridges State Beach park rangers tend a milkweed garden for their winged visitors so the butterflies have a place to lay their eggs. They also maintain adequate shelter for the adult monarchs. Since a fungal disease called pitch canker killed some of the Monterey pines that protected the monarch’s eucalyptus grove from the wind, they have been planting cypress trees in the park as a replacement wind break.

A row of cypress trees planted on the east side of the eucalyptus trees. The monarchs cluster on the leaves of the eucalyptus, but the cypress trees provide important shelter from the wind. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Docents lead tours of the Monarch Grove at Natural Bridges from mid-October through January at 11 AM and 2 PM on weekends. Tours start at the Visitor Center. The park also holds a Welcome Back Monarchs Day on the second Sunday in October and a Migration Festival on the second Saturday in February for the beloved butterflies.

The entrance to the trail that leads to the Monarch Grove. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Even with lower numbers than in the past, it is still spellbinding to stand in the quiet eucalyptus grove at Natural Bridges and see the orange clusters of monarchs weighing down the branches. As the temperature warms and the butterflies begin to gently flit around the grove in search of food, their delicate wings glow in the sun like stained glass. The only sound is the creaking of eucalyptus branches, the click of cameras, and hushed murmurs of awe as visitors witness one of nature’s most beautiful phenomena.

The delicate wings of the monarch butterfly are nature’s tiny stained glass artworks. Photo: Crystal Birns Photography

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Natural Bridges State Beach. California State Parks website.
   • Migration and Overwintering. USDA Forest Service website.
   • Personal communication with Martha Nitzberg, California State Park Interpretive Ranger, Natural Bridges State Beach, April 2016.
   • Tracking the Causes of Sharp Decline of the Monarch Butterfly, by Richard Conniff. Yale Environment 360 website, April 1, 2013.

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]]> /santacruz/multitudes-of-monarchs-at-natural-bridges-state-beach/feed/ 0 /santacruz/waddells-wharf-ordeals-of-shipping-lumber-from-ano-nuevo-bay/ /santacruz/waddells-wharf-ordeals-of-shipping-lumber-from-ano-nuevo-bay/#respond Wed, 03 Aug 2016 20:00:26 +0000 /?p=9779

Cove Beach at Año Nuevo State Park. Waddell’s Wharf went out to the sea in the center left of the photo where you see a large clump of trees and the waves are at the highest point on the beach. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/ Mobile Ranger

Over 150 years ago, the coastline at Año Nuevo State Park, between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, California, was home to a bustling lumber industry. Even though the wharf at Cove Beach in Año Nuevo Bay once shipped over two million feet of lumber in just one year, it’s hard to find signs of its existence today. The story of this wharf begins about two miles south of Cove Beach at Waddell Beach, now a popular spot for kite surfers and the coastal entrance to Big Basin State Park. In the 1860s, William Waddell, a failed businessman from Kentucky, built his home, a steam-powered lumber mill, the first of two shipping wharves, and a five-mile tramway here in the canyon that now bears his name.

Waddell Beach, the site of the unsuccessful first Waddell’s Wharf, unknown date. Photo: Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

The millworkers cut an impressive 20,000 feet of lumber a day at the mill’s peak operation. Waddell had one major problem, though: He didn’t have a way to ship his lumber to the market.

A Tale of Two Wharves

To solve this problem, he began construction of a 1000-foot wharf in 1864. He built it at the mouth of what is now called Waddell Creek. Unfortunately, he hit a layer of bedrock after spending $30,000 ($686,000 in today’s money) and had to abandon construction.

Not to be deterred, Waddell built a second, 700-foot wharf at Cove Beach. Less than a year later, the wharf was washed away in a storm. Waddell replaced it, only to have a large portion washed away again in 1870. It took four men and a horse to retrieve that section.

The Waddell Wharf, circa 1868 at Cove Beach. It shows a newer platform built on top of an older wharf likely damaged in a storm. Photo: Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

In the center of the photo just past the wooden step, is where Waddell’s Wharf went out to the sea. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/ Mobile Ranger

Cribs built by William Waddell for the rail line that took his lumber to Waddell’s Wharf at Cove Beach. This area later became the foundation of a Santa Cruz County road. Unknown date. Photo: Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

It Ends with a Bear

On an autumn day in 1875, Waddell went hunting with his dog and the local blacksmith. Near the entrance to a ravine, a grizzly bear attacked him, but his faithful dog jumped into the fray and lured the bear back into the woods.

A rough and tumble with a grizzly by H. Bullock Webster, ca. 1874 – 1880. Image: University of British Columbia

He made it home, but he died five days later from blood poisoning and was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Santa Cruz. Waddell was one of the last grizzly bear victim fatalities recorded in California before the species went extinct statewide, from hunting, in 1922.

Where to Look for Remnants of the Wharf

A few remnants of the mill and Waddell’s Wharf remain, but you have to know where to look and the last pier has been eroded away from the beach for decades.

The last remaining piling of William Waddell’s Wharf at Cove Beach, January 16, 1977. Photo: Courtesy of Gerald Weber

Many of the wharf timbers were reused to build the dairy and horse barn at Año Nuevo State Preserve, which are now the visitor center. Boilers from the mill now function as culverts at May Creek and an unnamed stream. And about two-thirds of the way up Waddell Canyon, you can still find four posts from the five-mile tramway.

Timbers from Waddell’s Wharf were salvaged and reused by Edwin Dickerman to build a dairy and horse barn in 1881. These buildings and their supporting wharf-derived beams are now part of the visitor center at Año Nuevo State Preserve. Photo: Mike Merritt

These leftover pieces are reminders that Highway 1 was once a wild place where pioneers tried to stake their claims on the land, only to be knocked back again and again by the forces of nature. Today, we try harder to coexist with these wild places, study them, explore them, and protect them for many generations to come.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • The Story of William Waddell & The Waddell Mill, by Mike Merritt.

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Aerial image of El Jarro Point in 1993. This is area is about 3.5 miles south of Greyhound rock. The buildings in the center-top portion are what is now Swanton Berry Farms. Photo: © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project .http://www.Californiacoastline.org

​Greyhound Rock lies right next to one of the major faults within the San Gregorio Fault Zone. This fact might be no big surprise in earthquake-prone California, but what is startling is how ridiculously close we came to building a huge nuclear power plant right on top of this active fault zone.
​
In 1969, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) announced it had leased 6,800 acres of Coast Dairies and Land property and intended to build a 6,000-megawatt-generating nuclear power plant at El Jarro Point, a wide marine terrace between Scott Creek Beach and Davenport Landing. The plant would have stood approximately where Swanton Berry Farm is now and required a major rerouting of Highway 1.

Geologist Gerald Weber standing in the field where El Point Nuclear Power Plant was to have been built. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

“It is a classic exposure of fault movement. The fault had been completely covered by vegetation for probably hundreds of years. If not for the El Niño storms of 1972 and 1973, no one would have ever noticed it.”

​

The entire zone between the two black arrows is the Frijoles Fault at Año Nuevo/Cove Beach. Notice that it is a “zone” about 70 feet wide. To find it when you go to our Año Nuevo/Cove Beach stop, look for the trees and the slumped area. If you see the dark tilted layer in the cliffs, above the right-most arrow, you know you have found the fault. Image: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

In the 1970s, the San Francisco Bay Area was well-known for earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault, of course. But the San Gregorio Fault, which extends from San Francisco to south of Santa Cruz all along the coast, was just being discovered and mapped. Weber’s work was crucial in detailing the faulting around Año Nuevo State Park and Greyhound Rock.

Faults in the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Cruz coast region. Image: Courtesy Gerald Weber

By 1971, a passionate group of people was already on the move to stop the nuclear power plant at El Jarro Point. In September 1971, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 for a moratorium “in principle” on a permit for the plant. But it was really Weber’s discovery of the Frijoles Fault and other faults in the San Gregorio Fault Zone at Cove Beach that stopped the El Jarro Nuclear Power Plant dead in its tracks.
​
For a nuclear power plant to be approved, there can be no nearby active faults and, in geologic terms, “active” means a surface rupture within the last 10,000 years. By using radiocarbon dating of plant remains at the base of the cliffs at Cove Beach, Weber was able to prove clear movement within the San Gregorio Fault Zone at Año Nuevo/Cove Beach in the last 10,000 years.

A map of the many faults in this area. The fault exposed at Greyhound Rock is still not well mapped. Image: Created by and courtesy of Gerald Weber

Faults from the San Gregorio Fault Zone continue north and south and can be seen in the beach cliffs at Greyhound Rock. Greyhound Rock itself is not faulted.

These cliffs at Greyhound beach clearly show fault movement. The two black arrows point to the most obvious places where rocks have slid past each other. There are likely two other faults in this area two but they are a bit harder to see. Image: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

One way to cope with the threat of earthquakes: poke fun at the threat with a t-shirt!

​
As you enjoy the California coast, keep in mind that it could start moving and shaking at any time. The San Gregorio Fault Zone has moved in the last 10,000 years and it will move again. We just don’t know when. Geologist Gerald Weber admits that he hopes the San Gregorio Fault Zone, which he spent much of his life laboriously mapping, might show some modest sign of movement while he is still alive.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • The Geology from Santa Cruz to Point Año Nuevo, with the San Gregorio Fault zone and Pleistocene Marine Terraces. Gerald E. Weber and Alan O. Allwardt. University of California, Santa Cruz

   ​

   • Personal communication with Dr. Gerald (Jerry) Weber, Lecturer Emeritus University of California, Santa Cruz, Geologic Consultant. May and June 2016.

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]]> /santacruz/greyhounds-almost-nuclear-powerplant/feed/ 2 /santacruz/keeping-a-strawberry-farm-protecting-the-elkhorn-slough/ /santacruz/keeping-a-strawberry-farm-protecting-the-elkhorn-slough/#respond Wed, 20 Jul 2016 20:00:13 +0000 /?p=11742

The crops at Azevedo Strawberry Ranch used to run right up to the water’s edge. Photo: Elkhorn Slough Foundation

Row crops were introduced to the areas around Elkhorn Slough in the late 1800s. The majority of these crops were strawberries because the slough’s perimeter has ideal growing conditions with a moderate climate and well-drained soils.

Strawberries are farmed in abundance around Elkhorn Slough due to the ideal growing conditions. Photo: Sharon Mollerus

The Azevedo Ranch, just about one mile up the slough from the Wildlife Viewing Area, was one such strawberry farm. They grew their berries next to the Azevedo Marshes, a series of pocket wetlands that were cut off from the slough in the 1870s with the construction of a railroad embankment. The strawberries were grown right to the edge of the slough, and like all berry farmers of the day, they applied chemical fertilizers containing high levels of nitrogen to the crops.

Sediments and chemicals from strawberry fields used to run off directly into the marshes. Photo: Elkhorn Slough Foundation

If runoff goes unchecked, the addition of nitrogen can lead to massive algal blooms that deplete the oxygen in the water, making it impossible for almost any other species to survive.

Today, there is a buffer zone of native vegetation that traps agricultural runoff before it reaches the Azevedo Marshes. Photo: Elkhorn Slough Foundation

In 1991, the Nature Conservancy acquired the ranch with funding from the Coastal Conservancy. Soon after, they took the strawberry fields adjacent to the slough out of strawberry production. Instead, they planted a native vegetation buffer. Today, the ranch has 24 acres of native plants between its strawberry producing crops and the marshes. This creates a natural buffer zone that traps nutrients and sediments and decreases nitrogen input into the slough. Azevedo Ranch is still owned by the Nature Conservancy, but it is managed by the Elkhorn Slough Foundation. This is a working example of how agriculture can co-exist next to a natural ecosystem without too much negative impact.

The view from the overlook at the research reserve. Photo: Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

A Great Side Trip

We recommend a visit to the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve at 1700 Elkhorn Road. They have a visitor center and a wonderful overlook where you can view much of the Elkhorn Slough. There are also five miles of trails to enjoy the grasslands, oak woodland, and wetlands of the Elkhorn Slough. There is a small admission fee for people over the age of 16. If you have a hunting or fishing license, you’ve already paid.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Coastal Conservancy Azevedo Marshes Wetland Enhancement. Coastal Conservancy. September 15, 2004. Coastal Conservancy

    

   • Elkhorn Slough Foundation Property: Azevedo Ranch. Elkhorn Slough Website.

    

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]]> /santacruz/keeping-a-strawberry-farm-protecting-the-elkhorn-slough/feed/ 0 /santacruz/the-evolution-of-a-monterey-bay-fisherman/ /santacruz/the-evolution-of-a-monterey-bay-fisherman/#comments Wed, 13 Jul 2016 20:00:29 +0000 /?p=10722

Photo: Becky Stamski/NOAA MBNMS

What habitat is deeper than the Grand Canyon, requires a submarine to properly explore, and is home to bioluminescent invertebrates? None other than the Monterey Submarine Canyon, an incredibly diverse habitat that extends 50 miles offshore. It provides unique opportunities for deep sea research, as well as recreational and commercial activities, such as diving and fishing.

This massive canyon is an underwater state park that protects marine life and habitat, known as a marine protected area, or MPAs. Within it, there are two areas that you’ve probably never heard of: Soquel Canyon and Portuguese Ledge. Both are valuable habitats for fish species that used to provide the livelihoods of Tim Maricich and other commercial fishermen.

This photo of a colorful blackgill rockfish (Sebastes melanostomus) was taken 1000 feet below the surface in the Sur Canyon. It was taken as a part of a research expedition conducted by National Marine Fisheries Service in December 2010. Photo: Kevin L. Stierhoff/NOAA SWFSC

From Fisherman to Captain for Hire

Maricich represents many fishermen in the Monterey Bay to whom fishing is more than a job. For them, it’s a way of life. He’s been fishing in the Monterey Bay for more than 47 years, and his roots reach back generations to a long line of fishermen in Croatia.

The MPAs in Santa Cruz County. Image: California Marine Sanctuary Foundation

In 2007 when 29 offshore areas in California were designated as MPAs, Maricich’s way of life changed. Even though recreational and commercial fishing for some species are allowed in the Soquel Canyon and Portuguese Ledge (including salmon, mackerel, and sardines), rockfish, the mainstay of many fishermen, are off limits. Rockfish-free fishing zones have helped to rebuild the dwindling populations of a valuable commercial species, but that restriction also cut into the income of fishermen like Maricich.

Fishing boats in the Monterey Bay. Photo: Courtesy of David Merrett

Fishing regulations along the California coast began several years before the designation of MPAs and have caused a huge shift in the fishing industry. Between 1981 and 2011, the number of registered fishing vessels decreased by nearly 70%. Fishermen were being pushed out of waters that they’d been fishing for decades. The good long-term intention of rebuilding fish populations resulted in the short-term consequence of putting men and women out of work.

Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) draped over the ocean surface, August 2011. The R/V Fulmar is in the background. Photo: Chad King/NOAA MBNMS

Today, Maricich still works on his boat in the Monterey Bay, but he’s letting cowcods and yelloweye rockfish (aka red snappers) swim by unscathed. He now captains a boat full of conservation biologists from the Nature Conservancy, and he’s helping them count fish.

This photo of cowcod (Sebastes levis) was taken in 2007 in the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Photo: Dave Murfin/ NOAA

The unlikely partnership between a fisherman and marine scientists helps other fishermen trust data from studies within the MPAs. It also provides an economic opportunity for those like Maricich who have an intimate knowledge of navigating the Monterey Bay in search of fish.

A tagged black and yellow rock fish. Photo: Courtesy of Noëlle yochum

There’s another, less obvious reason for this partnership, though. As journalist Paul Greenberg puts it in an article titled “The Fisherman’s Dilemma,” it also stems from one truth that unites fishermen and conservationists: “After all the closures and commissions, all the surveys and reappraisals, the ocean is still deeply mysterious.”

The Rockfish Return

The ocean is indeed a mysterious place, so scientists and fishermen are continually discovering new species and gaining a better understanding of familiar ones. A 2008 baseline study of the Soquel Canyon and the Portuguese Ledge revealed that the Portuguese Ledge has a high diversity of fish species, and Soquel Canyon is home to high numbers of commercial species threatened by overfishing, including the yelloweye rockfish, bocaccio, and cowcod.

Studies that scientists are conducting with Maricich and other fishermen will continue to shed light on the effectiveness of MPAs. For now, It looks like there’s hope that these fisheries can recover, and fishermen like Maricich can look forward to a stronger industry in years to come, thanks to MPAs.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • "The Fisherman’s Dilemma," by Paul Greenberg. The California Sunday Magazine, March 2015.
   • "How many cowcod rockfish populations are out there?" by Ed Quimby. Northwest Fisheries Science Center website, January 2014.
     January 2014.
   • Central California Marine Protected Areas. California Department of Fish and Wildlife website.
   • Soquel Canyon State Marine Conservation Area and Portuguese Ledge State Marine Conservation Area: Factsheet 3. California MPAs website.
   • Submarine Canyons. Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network (SIMoN) website.
   • Destructive Fishing. Marine Conservation Institute website.
   • California’s Central Coast Marine Protected Areas: Baseline Data Collection Summary Report, December 2008. California Sea Grant College Program.
   • "A Little Fish in Big Trouble," by Elizabeth Grossman. Food & Environment Reporting Network website, June 18, 2015.
   • Monterey Sardine Story, by Richard H. Parrish. Pacific Fisheries Environmental Group, National Marine Service. NOAA Fisheries website: Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

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]]> /santacruz/the-evolution-of-a-monterey-bay-fisherman/feed/ 3 /santacruz/natural-bridges-state-beach-and-fred-swantons-development-dreams/ /santacruz/natural-bridges-state-beach-and-fred-swantons-development-dreams/#comments Wed, 06 Jul 2016 21:00:18 +0000 /?p=11094

Natural Bridges State Beach in 1972. This could have been the grounds for Fred Swanton’s hotel. Photo: © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project

In the early 1900s, Natural Bridges was briefly at risk of becoming the site of a grand hotel in line with the vision of Fred W. Swanton. He was fortunate enough to acquire the land that now makes up the state beach through his wife, Emma Stanley Pope Hall.

“Fabulous Fred” Invests in the Wrong Neighborhood

Because he was instrumental in the development of the Casa Del Rey Hotel, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, two competing electric railroads, and a telephone company, Fred Swanton was a well-known Santa Cruz entrepreneur. He had big ideas and the ability to bring them to fruition. He was also the main person responsible for making tourism the foundation of the city’s economy. “Fabulous Fred” actively promoted Santa Cruz to neighboring areas, even traveling throughout California and Nevada with a marching band to spread the word. However, his plan for a development at Natural Bridges never came to be.

Swanton renamed Hall’s Beach (today’s Natural Bridges State Beach) as Swanton Beach Park and developed streets with the names of bigger cities, including Sacramento, Auburn, and Merced, hoping to attract buyers from the hot Central Valley. He also had plans for a large hotel with modern conveniences to cater to wealthy guests. But the cold winds and damp fog that linger in these neighborhoods, so the story goes, deterred Swanton’s prospective buyers and led him to financial ruin and bankruptcy in 1912.

Swanton Beach Park in 1905. Today, the area in the upper-middle of the postcard is Natural Bridges State Beach. Image: From the collection of Mike Patanaude

Perhaps he was just a bit ahead of his time and there were simply not enough people interested in living year-round in Santa Cruz yet. Swanton Beach Park was, in fact, one of many unsuccessful developments in the early 1900s along the Santa Cruz coast.

Swanton recovered financially and went on to do many other projects, including establishing a landing field at Swanton Beach Park in 1924. Known as Swanton Airport, it was used periodically until about 1931 when the Santa Cruz Airport opened in Capitola.

Unfortunately for Swanton, his financial recovery was only temporary. He filed for bankruptcy again in 1930 and deeded the 27-acre Swanton Beach Park to the state in 1933. He died almost penniless 10 years later. It seems Swanton’s entrepreneurial instincts and management skills waxed and waned over the years, and perhaps this is the real reason that the Swanton Beach Park development failed.

Natural Bridges State Beach in 2016. In the late 1800s, it was called Hall’s Beach, and in the early 1900s it was Swanton Beach Park. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Construction of beach facilities did not begin until 1954, and the area around the park was not developed for housing until the 1970s. Swanton might roll in his grave if he could see the multimillion-dollar homes that now line Swanton Avenue and his city-named streets.

If you’re looking for a resort today, head to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. But thousands of visitors prefer the tide pools, dune habitat, cool geology, and monarch butterfly refuge that are protected by what is now Natural Bridges State Beach.

Take the Self-Guided Mobile Tour

This piece is part of the Santa Cruz Marine Protected Areas Beaches Tour made possible by the Santa Cruz Collaborative with support from the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Resources Legacy Fund. Download the free app with many tours of the Santa Cruz area and beyond.

1. Sources

   • Natural Bridges State Beach General Plan. State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, October 7, 1988.
   • Resort and Recreation Development: Waterfront, beach, and boardwalk, by Susan Lehmann. Santa Cruz Public Libraries website.
   • Our Ocean Backyard: Our coastline will change, and that’s for certain, by Gary Griggs. The Mercury News website, October 22, 2011.
   • Natural Bridges State Beach. California Department of Parks and Recreation website.
   • Personal communication with Frank Perry, Historian, Santa Cruz County, May 2016.
   • Surf, Sand and Streetcars. A Mobile History of Santa Cruz, California, by Charles S. McCaleb. Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, 2005.

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]]> /santacruz/natural-bridges-state-beach-and-fred-swantons-development-dreams/feed/ 2 /santacruz/caves-and-the-moving-lighthouses-of-lighthouse-point/ /santacruz/caves-and-the-moving-lighthouses-of-lighthouse-point/#comments Thu, 16 Jun 2016 02:50:57 +0000 /?p=11893

Modern day Lighthouse Point showing the Purisima Formation and the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse, which was built in 1967. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Lighthouse Point in Santa Cruz, California, is surrounded by world class surf spots and amazing views. It’s named for the lighthouse built to commemorate a local boy who went surfing and never came back. The lighthouse is a museum of local surf history, and the whole area has grown to be a special nexus of expression for the Santa Cruz surfing community. So it seems fitting, even though unfortunate, that this gateway to the ocean’s beauty and power is threatened by the power of the ocean.

Its Beach with Lighthouse Point in the background. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Lighthouse Point is composed of a particularly resistant part of the Purisima Formation. In general, the Purisima erodes fairly easily. For this reason, the ocean was able to cut landward and create the Monterey Bay. However, Lighthouse Point and a few other resistant headlands, including San Lorenzo Point and Pleasure Point, have withstood the ocean’s erosive force. Lighthouse Point actually protects Monterey Bay’s northern beaches from much of the wave energy they would otherwise get from the dominantly northwest waves. Even so, Lighthouse Point is not immune to wave erosion.

The lighthouse circa 1888. Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz City-County Library System

Original Lighthouse Had to be Moved

The original lighthouse was built in 1869, close to the edge of the cliff. In 1878, less than 10 years later, a letter was sent to the Lighthouse Board noting that three large caves (all over 50 feet long and 50 feet wide) penetrated the point, and the largest extended to within 12 feet of the lighthouse.

To preemptively save the lighthouse from potential catastrophic cliff erosion, the Lighthouse Board ordered it to be picked up and moved 300 feet inward. Thus, from 1879 to 1948, the lighthouse was located on the north side of what is now West Cliff Drive.

Aerial view of Lighthouse Point circa 1941. You can see the beacon and the old lighthouse on the north side of West Cliff Drive. Photo: By Ed Webber, used courtesy of Frank Perry

A Long Run Comes to an End

In 1939, the Coast Guard assumed responsibility for all of the nation’s lighthouses. Shortly thereafter, the Coast Guard installed an automated beacon on top of a white wooden tower and decommissioned Santa Cruz’s lighthouse. The beacon was about 20 feet north of the current Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse. The light from the beacon was less than half as bright as that from the lighthouse. Despite a vibrant shipping past, by 1930, due to roads and railroads, Santa Cruz no longer had much shipping traffic. Therefore, the beacon was bright enough to be seen only by local fishing boats.

The lighthouse facilities were used briefly during World War II to house 200 soldiers stationed there during the war. After WWII, however, the lighthouse was not serving a particular purpose for the Coast Guard, so it was demolished. From 1948 until 1967, Santa Cruz had no lighthouse. There was just a beacon with a light so weak that local fisherman complained it couldn’t be distinguished from the car headlights on West Cliff Drive.

Aerial view of Lighthouse Point in 1957. The beacon stands alone. The only traces of the original lighthouse are the cypress trees that outline where it stood from 1879 to 1948. Photo: Used courtesy of Frank Perry

The New Lighthouse

The beacon might still be the only light here today if not for the tragic death of a local boy named Mark Abbott. On a Sunday morning in February, 1965, Mark went to the beach with his friends, went body surfing, and never returned. Mark’s parents, Chuck and Esther Abbott, were able to turn their grief from losing a child into something positive for the community: a new lighthouse at Lighthouse Point. The Abbotts made sure that the lighthouse honored even more than their son. A bronze plaque inside the lighthouse reads:

“This lighthouse is further dedicated to all our youth whose lives, through fate or misadventure, are terminated before realizing their true potential. May their spirits find new dimension in the unknown horizons that await us all.”

Same Cave Problem

The brick remains of the original lighthouse built in 1869 lie just a few hundred feet toward the ocean from the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse.

Brick remnants of the original 1869 lighthouse (center left). The round brick shape (center right) was a cistern used for collecting rainwater from the lighthouse roof. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

In 1980, one of the caves that undermined the original lighthouse was plugged with concrete because it threatened to undermine the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse. Unfortunately, the plug did more harm than good, because it deflected waves upward, increased erosion of the upper cliff, and exposed the brick foundation of the original lighthouse site. It eventually washed out in 2000.

Filling the caves under Lighthouse Point in 1980. Photo: By and courtesy of Frank Perry

During the El Niño storms of 1982–83, waves eroded the sea cliff to within 10 feet of the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse. A new concrete retaining wall was built in the 1990s, and the walkways and fences in this area are constantly being moved landward. Two caves still remain: one just to left of lighthouse, facing south (the one that had the concrete plug) and another on the west side, facing southwest. That second one is quite deep and extends almost to the lighthouse.

The cave filled in 1980, which is still eroding. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

A cave in the Purisima Formation, which is undercutting modern day Lighthouse Point on the west side of Santa Cruz. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

A crane placing rip rap rocks near Steamer Lane in 1981. Photo Courtesy of and by Frank Perry

Much of West Cliff Drive has been armored with rip rap (1– to 2–ton boulders placed in a group) and sea walls to try to prevent erosion from cutting back the coastline. Such protections at Lighthouse Point certainly conflict with its natural beauty and surf. But the caves are there and, at some point, hard decisions about additional armoring of Lighthouse Point versus saving the lighthouse will have to be made. Perhaps it could be moved back across West Cliff Drive?

A view from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the eroding coast along West Cliff Drive in 2010. Photo: © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project www.Californiacoastline.org

Further Information

• Lighthouse Point: Illuminating Santa Cruz, by Frank Perry. Otter B Books, 2002. Available at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, and Natural Bridges State Beach Visitor Center.
• Santa Cruz historian Frank Perry’s website.
• Santa Cruz Surfing Museum. Located at Lighthouse Point, the museum is open Wednesday through Monday, 10 am to 5 pm, July 4 through Labor Day and Thursday through Monday, 12 noon to 4 pm, the rest of the year.
• Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. Located at 1305 East Cliff Drive, the museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm, during summer (Memorial Day through Labor Day) and Tuesday–Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm, the rest of the year. Call 831.420.6115 for more information.
• Lighthouse Friends website.
• The Huge Boulders Along the Santa Cruz Shoreline: A Common Coastal Story. Mobile Ranger blog.

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.