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

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What we think of as the traditional Thanksgiving day meal is actually not very traditional at all. Families from the 1900s had some unexpected dishes on their holiday tables like clear green turtle, oyster stew and plum pudding with rum sauce.
Photo courtesy of Ben Franske (November 2002).

How many of us can say our family serves larded tenderloin of beef or clear green turtle for Thanksgiving dinner? I’m guessing not many, but beef, turtle, duck, lamb and an assortment of other dishes filled the table of wealthy Americans in the early 1900s. As I pass the submerged Ghost Town of Alma on the drive to my parents’ house for this year’s Thanksgiving, I can’t help but salivate at the lavish feast that would have graced the table of the Tevis Estate in 1917.

At its peak, the grand Tevis Estate covered 2500 acres along Highway 17 by the Lexington Reservoir. It went through several owners but the last, Dr. Harry L. Tevis, made the largest impact on the land. During his 25 years on the estate, Dr. Tevis had up to 100 servants and ranch hands to help care for a large farm, dahlia and rose gardens, stables, and to help throw at least one extravagant Thanksgiving dinner.

So, what might Dr. Tevis have served at this feast of all feasts? If he decided to really go all out, he may have served a ten-course meal like this one from the New York Park Avenue Hotel in 1900. Keep in mind, this is not even the full menu. Each of these courses includes at least three other dishes! (See the full menu here.)

A sampling of the 1900 menu at the Park Avenue Hotel in New York

Blue Point or Cape Cod Oysters
____
Clear green turtle
____
Creamed fresh mushrooms on toast
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Boneless smelts with anchovy butters
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Saddle of lamb with kidney beans
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Larded tenderloin of beef with stuffed artichoke
Potted quail with brussel sprouts
_____
Rum Punch
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Rhode Island Turkey with stuffed chestnuts and cranberry sauce
Suckling pig with sage stuffing
Gosling with apple sauce
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Mashed potatoes and southern-style sweet potatoes
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Red-head duck with currant jelly
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English plum pudding with brandy sauce
Pumpkin pie, apple pie, assorted fancy cakes, wine jelly, frozen pudding, strawberry ice cream

And this is less than half the menu!

On most Thanksgiving menus from the early 1800s to the mid-1900s there is always some form of oysters (oyster soup, oyster sauce, oysters on the half-shell, oyster pie) which as a Californian, I’m assuming is an east-coast thing. I mean, oysters on Thanksgiving? Sounds a little fishy if you ask me.

What are some foods that you can always bet will be served at your family’s Thanksgiving dinner? Let us know in the comments below!

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

The famous “cats” guarding the road to Poet’s Canyon in 1925. The automobile is a Ford Model T (notice the spare inner tube for the tires). Photo: William A. Wulf Collection, Courtesy of Richard Beal.

Updated March 15, 2016 with new photos from Richard Beal, author of Highway 17: The Road to Santa Cruz.

Living in Santa Cruz and driving back and forth over Highway 17, I always thought the Cats Restaurant and the two cat statues just a few hundred feet south of it derived their inspiration from the nearby town of Los Gatos (the cats in Spanish). But this is apparently not true.

The eight feet tall cats, Leo and Leona, have kept watch over the entrance to “Poets Canyon” since 1922. They were commissioned by writer Colonel Charles Erskine Scott Wood and poet, suffragist Sara Bard Field to mark the entrance to their 34 acres; their safe haven and place to philosophize and write poetry.  They built a house, planted a vineyard and put big wine casks out along the road as a way to protest prohibition. The property was a hang out for artists, writers and musicians of the day. Sara wrote well known poems while living there: The Pale Woman, Barrabas, and A Darkling Plain. Charlie Chaplin, John Steinbeck and even First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the place.

Colonel (Ret.) Charles Erskine Scott Wood. Wood died at age 92 in his much loved “castle in the sky.” [Courtesy Horace Bristol] Photo: Courtesy of Richard Beal.

The statues were originally modeled in clay and then made in concrete. Created by sculptor Robert Paine, he lived on the property for the year it took him to make them and accepted only a small payment. According to Richard A. Beal, author of “Highway 17: The Road to Santa Cruz,” Charles and Sara conceived of their cat statues not  because of neighboring “Los Gatos” but because they just liked cats. Los Gatos was named in the 1840s after the wildcats in the area and Leo and Leona don’t look completely like mountain lions or bobcats, so it could be!

Wood died at age 92 in early 1944, his last years in failing health. Field, who had married Wood in 1938, continued to own the property until 1955, when she sold it to an oil executive, Fred G. Hampton.

The estate was owned by the Ogilvie family from 1960 until it sold in Nov. 2013. Eva “Diane” Ogilvie, was an entrepreneurial Los Gatos woman who apparently persuaded Hampton to sell to her. It remained in the Ogilvie family, largely unseen by the public. The Ogilvies expanded the property to 75 acres, with a total of nine parcels. Diane’s husband Bruce died in 2003 and when Diane died in 2011, the family decided to sell. Artisan Sothbys International listed the property for sale in late 2013 for $8.95 million. It sold and the new owner says the historic aspects of the site will be preserved.

“The Cats” entry to the former estate of Charles Erskine Scott Wood and Sara Bard Field in Los Gatos, California, March, 2006. Photo: Matthew A. Voorsanger.

Todays Cats Restaurant and Tavern was a stop on the old stage line from Santa Cruz to San Jose. It was a raucous social gathering place and in the 1920s was a speakeasy and bordello. In the 50s and 60s it was variably a realty office, gun shop and sporting goods store. It became a restaurant again in 1967. The Ogilvie Family bought the restaurant in 1977 and ran it until 2006. It stood closed until 2011, when new owners opened it on New Years Eve. Diane Ogilvie died on Oct 3, 2011 and was hoping to support the new owners by eating there when it opened. Unfortunately, she did not make it.

In October 2013, the Museum of Los Gatos Art and History ran a six month long exhibit “American Bohemia:  The Cats Estate in Los Gatos” it explored the lives of Wood and Field.

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.