If anyone has other photos to contribute from the same location that fill in the time series, either forward or backward in time, please email them to julia@mobileranger.com, and we will update this page. Earlier, the sea stack was a continuous part of the cliffs, so it would be great to see photos of that era.

Update October 29, 2016: Several people have contributed photos (thank you) and they are denoted with an asterisk after their name.

More Photos and Stories of West Cliff Drive Erosion

From Natural Bridges to Bird Rock: An Exploration Through Vintage Postcards and Photographs, by Frank Perry. Online History Journal of Santa Cruz County, September 2015.

From Three Bridges to an Arch, by Julia Gaudinski. Mobile Ranger.com website, September 8, 2014.

The Vue de L’eau: Vacation Hot Spot and Home of Many Arches, by Julia Gaudinski. Mobile Ranger.com website, February 16, 2015.

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

Swabby’s grave at Pine Knoll Pet Cemetery in Santa Cruz, California.

Swabby was a German shepherd and member of the Marine K-9 Corps during WWII. His remains lie in a grave at the slightly dilapidated Pine Knoll Pet Cemetery, in Santa Cruz, California. He was one of several dogs sent to the Pacific Theater. Swabby and his handler Don Sprauge, served in Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. Sprauge and Swabby saw fierce fighting and Swabby is said to have saved his unit more than once.

Swabby was honorably discharged and after the war went through a retraining program in California with Sprauge. Sprauge gave him to his neighbor John Heuvers, who moved to Santa Cruz in 1949. Swabby died in 1952. His story was unearthed by Dan Model who discovered the old grave while exploring at the Pine Knoll Pet Cemetery and was intrigued by the U.S. Marine Corps medal. Model honored Swabby by placing a U.S. flag by his grave last Veterans Day (read the Sentinel article here).

Dogs in the World Wars

The use of dogs in warfare goes back to ancient times. They have typically been used as scouts, sentries and trackers but sometimes were used in battles to attack the enemy. In World War I dogs were used extensively by both the United States (U.S.) and international forces and many were killed in action. After WWI, the U.S. largely abandoned training dogs for military purposes. However, after Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7th 1941, the U.S. military started a program called Dogs for Defense which worked with the American Kennel Association to get people to donate their healthy dogs to the U.S. Army.

Officers and men of the 135th Aero Squadron with their mascot “Rin Tin Tin” shortly after his rescue as a puppy in 1918. Photo from Bwmoll3.

The War Dog Program, or “K-9 Corps” was established in March of 1942. The program started out taking in over 30 breeds of dogs, but quickly limited the acceptable breeds to only seven: German shepherds, Belgian sheep dogs, Doberman pinschers, collies, Siberian huskies, Malumutes and Eskimo dogs. The dogs were given basic obedience training for 8 to 12 weeks, then were given specialized training as either sentry dogs, scout or patrol dogs, messenger dogs or mine-detection dogs. Scout dogs proved to be essential in combat situations as they alerted patrols to the approaching enemy and prevented sneak attacks.

War Dogs post WWII

After WWII the U.S. military continued the K-9 units. During the Vietnam War 232 dogs and 295 of their human dog handlers were killed, though it’s estimated that the k-9 units saved over 10,000 lives.

K-9 units continue to be incorporated into many different aspects of military operations. One sign of how entrenched dogs are in the military of today can be seen in the U.S. Armies’ on-line ads for positions as Military Working Dog Handler.

Famous War Dogs: Rags (c. 1916 – March 6, 1936)

Rags with Sergeant George E. Hickman, 16th Infantry, 26th Division. Photo from FlowerofScotland.

Rags was a mixed breed terrier who became the U.S. 1st Infantry Division’s dog-mascot in World War I. Rags achieved great fame when he saved many lives in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive by delivering a vital message despite being bombed, gassed and partially blinded.

Sergeant Stubby (1916 or 1917 – March 16, 1926)

Sergeant Stubby wearing military uniform and decorations circa 1920. Photo in the public domain.

Sergeant Stubby was the official mascot of the 102nd Infantry during WWI. Stubby was with the 102nd for 18 months and served in seventeen battles on the Western Front. He alerted his regiment to surprise gas attacks, found wounded soldiers, and once held a German soldier by his pants until the Americans came and found him. Sergeant Stubby made the American newspapers frequently.

Chips (WWII)

Chips was a German shepherd-collie-Siberian husky mix and the most decorated war dog from World War II. Chips and his handler were trapped on a beach by an Italian machine gun unit during the invasion of Sicily. The dog apparently ran into the dugout of the machine gunners, forced them out and they ultimately surrendered to the Americans. After the war, Chips was returned to his original family but after a visit from his war-time handler, the family gave Chips to the handler.

Lex (1999 – March 25, 2012)

Marine K9 Lex with Cpl Dustin J. Lee. Photo by L. Rich.

Lex and his handler Corporal Dustin J. Lee were stationed in Iraq in 2007. On March 21st, they were hit by a rocket attack and Lee was killed. Lex, though wounded, refused to leave Lee. Lex eventually had to be dragged away to be treated. Lex recovered and was returned to active service. The Lee family, however, wanted to adopt the dog, and with national media attention were able to get the dog retired from active service and adopt him before his official retirement age. The Lee family and Lex continued to give of themselves throughout Lex’s retirement. They frequently took Lex to visit wounded veterans and soldiers and became involved with the Paws 4 Hearts program. Lex died in 2012 from cancer.

Jerome Lee and Lex meet with World War II Veterans. Photo from Psc349.

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Holy City circa 1920s. Photo courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.

For several decades in the 1900s eight Santa Claus statues welcomed motorists driving along the Old Santa Cruz Highway to a mysterious place called Holy City. The “city” — a tiny town that took five minutes to walk from one end to another — was established in 1918 by Father William E. Riker, also known as “The Emancipator,” “The Comforter,” “The King, ”and “The Professor.” This eccentric individual, like many cult leaders, has a muddied past of manipulation, showmanship, and morally questionable choices.

William and Lucile Riker. [Betty Lewis Collection] Photo: Courtesy of Richard Beal.

Before establishing Holy City in 1918, Riker earned his nickname “The Professor” from reading palms. He also travelled the country performing a mind reading act before he was arrested for bigamy in San Francisco. Leaving his two wives behind, Riker fled to Canada, where he developed the “Perfect Christian Divine Way.” To follow this new way required total celibacy, abstinence from alcohol, hard-core white supremacy, and communal living. Obviously, not the life for everyone, and yet at its peak in the 1930s, Father Riker had 300 devoted disciples.

The Cult’s Beginnings

In 1918, Riker purchased 30 acres just south of Los Gatos for only $10 that became “Holy City” according to Betty’s Lewis’s account in Holy City: Riker’s Roadside Attraction in the Santa Cruz Mountains. His following began with 30, mostly elderly, disciples who gave him all their money so they could focus on their new “religion.” Some called the group a religious cult but the only place of “worship” in the City was a redwood grove where Father Riker gave sermons that were more like philosophical lectures.

Riker himself actually referred to his group as a cult in the Rules and Regulations for Members:

Holy City in the early 1930s. [WIlliam A. Wulf Collection] Photo: Courtesy of Richard Beal.

Early in his new career as a spiritual leader of sorts, Riker first incensed one of his disciples by straying from his own strict rules and taking a wife. His disciple tried unsuccessfully to sue Riker. Instead of losing face (and the money he’d taken from his elderly follower), he soon began making $100,000 annually from his religious enterprise which included a restaurant, a service station, an observatory (10 cents to view the moon and stars through a telescope), and a mineral water business he ran on the side. By 1929, Holy City had a weekly newspaper and a radio station (KFQU). The radio station lasted two years until its license was revoked because Riker kept using other station’s frequencies.

Santa Claus Statues and Strange Signs Draw Tourists

By the 1930s Holy City had become a popular tourist spot for curious motorists traveling along the Old Santa Cruz Highway. Eight shoulder-height Santa Claus statues beckoned you onto the property. Several signs at the entrance boasted bold statements:

Riker’s idea of perfection, it seems, was an entirely white population (another one of his controversial, and in this case downright offensive, signs read “Asians and Negroes keep out of Holy City until you’ve learned your place”) and one where everyone except for Father Riker had to follow a strict set of rules and live without money or worldly possessions.

One of the buildings in Holy City, 1968. Photo courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.

Riker was a man full of contradictions. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Adolf Hitler and yet he was overly friendly to Jews and welcomed them with open arms into his flock. He preached celibacy and yet he was a bigamist before founding Holy City and took a wife after establishing his strict ideology. He also preached sobriety and yet encouraged the man leasing the restaurant on his property to add a bar to the establishment. (He then later made him shut it down because too many of his disciples were frequenting it.)

“To My People I am God”

Despite his blatant hypocrisy, Riker’s cult-like group persisted through the Depression. He was quoted saying, “My people will do anything I tell them to do. To them I am God.” The Holy City fared well for a while, profiting from both dedicated followers and curious tourists. A variety of businesses attracted drivers to pull off the Old Santa Cruz Highway: There was a gas station, post office, grocery and meat market, restaurant, barber shop (the disciples had to borrow money from Riker to get a haircut), print shop, lecture hall, zoo, motion pictures, and ballroom with a sign reading:

“The Emancipator” (as Riker liked to call himself) also had grand plans for an amphitheater that would seat 17,000 people and host shows where he would miraculously “cure” people posing as blind, deaf or crippled.

The Fall of Riker’s Kingdom

The popularity of the cult finally fizzled as Riker’s followers began to see their leader as the manipulative and deceitful man he really was. Riker wouldn’t allow spouses to live together in Holy City yet rumors spread that the leader slept with all his female disciples. By 1938, only 75 men and 4 women lived at the site.

An old building in Holy City.

The opening of Highway 17 (which bypassed Holy City) in 1940 and gas rationing with the start of World War II, led to a sharp decline in tourists. In 1942 the FBI charged Riker with sedition for letters he wrote to Hitler showing his open support and his anti-semitic, British, Filipino, and Chinese propaganda. He avoided jail but had to give up his pamphlets and paid a large sum of $15,000 in legal fees by the end of the trial.

Father Riker still held on after the trial and after losing most of his land in a bad real estate transaction in 1959. That same year a series of mysterious fires burned most of the City’s buildings to the ground. Still, a handful of followers remained with Riker even after the 94-year-old cult leader converted to Catholicism in 1966. He died three years later with three loyal disciples still residing in Holy City.

A building in the Holy City of 2015.

Today, all that remains of Holy City is one modern building and the narrow road that bears its name. The old buildings have disappeared except for a derelict shack that may or may not have been a part of Father Riker’s small empire. A shop with a dayglo sign reading “Holy City Art Glass Holy City, California” reminds those few who drive by that a tract of 30 acres here in the Santa Cruz Mountains was once bustling with loyal disciples and curious tourists.

The Art Glass shop is the only remaining business in Holy City, 2015.

Holy City Road will take you up to Highway 17.

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North America: Three grizzly-bears in a forest next to a carcass. Coloured lithograph.
Image from Wikimedia Commons via Welcome Images.

“Mountain Charley” McKiernan had finally met his match. Face to face with a 1,000 pound grizzly bear, standing almost ten feet tall on her haunches, McKiernan was acutely aware of his mortality. Her paws were raised in preparation for a deadly bear hug, and she was so close he could feel and smell her hot, fishy breath.

Two painfully long seconds passed and McKiernan raised his gun, aiming and firing shakily at the bear’s chest. The bullet found its mark but the bear was only momentarily stunned. Without enough time to reload his rifle, McKiernan beat the bear over the head with it until it broke, but this only enraged her. Lunging at McKiernan, she sunk her teeth into his skull. When the bear released her grip, he reached up to cover his face with his hands and the mother bear’s massive mouth closed around both his arms.

McKiernan’s 26 years flashed before his eyes and then the bear turned and left, as quickly as it appeared, lumbering quickly toward her cubs who were being attacked by the dogs of McKiernan’s hunting partner, Taylor. McKiernan was somehow still conscious but couldn’t move his legs. There was nothing for him to do but to sit and wait for help.

Mountain Charley McKiernan’s legendary fight with a California grizzly bear in 1854 made his name famous throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains. McKiernan was already respected for his bear hunting skills, and even though he lost this fight, it was said that after this encounter the grizzlies let him pass through their territory in peace.

Mountain Charley, presumably before his legendary bear fight. Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

Patched up with Pesos

Charley might have survived the bear attack, but he was left disfigured. The bear’s teeth chewed away his skull above the left eye up to the top of the frontal bone. The doctor hammered together two Mexican pesos to make a silver plate used to fill in the gap in his skull where the bear had exposed his brain. The makeshift plate began to corrode within three weeks and had to be replaced. McKiernan suffered through both procedures without anesthetics which were not yet readily available.

After suffering severe headaches, the second plate was removed two years later. McKiernan was put under with chloroform, the first known use of the new anesthetic in that region, and the doctors removed an abscess that had formed around a wad of hair left in the wound. His pounding headaches subsided after the surgery and the wound properly healed, but he began to always wear a hat low over his left eye to hide the disfigurement.

When a grizzly chewed off part of Mountain Charley’s skull, two pesos were hammered together to make a plate to fill in the hole.

The First House in the Santa Cruz Mountains

Besides the bear fight, McKiernan was known as the first white man to permanently settle in the Santa Cruz Mountains. A plaque on the summit at Mt Charlie Road off the Old Santa Cruz Highway still marks the site of his simple log cabin. In the 1850s and ’60s, it was a popular place for stagecoach passengers travelling from Santa Cruz to Santa Clara to stop for dinner. It was also a county landmark for many years until it burned down in 1899.

This is most likely the replica of Mountain Charley’s cabin that was rebuilt after the original burnt down in 1899. Exact date unknown. Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

What brought “Mountain Charley” McKiernan to the Santa Cruz Mountains in the first place? Born in Ireland in 1825, McKiernan traveled to Australia and New Zealand as a quartermaster in the British Army before coming to California in 1848 when he caught wind of the gold strike. He worked in the mines, somewhere near San Francisco, for $20 a day. McKiernan had never dreamed of making so much back home in Ireland where mining wages were $20 a year.

After saving up his wages for a year, McKiernan ventured into the Santa Cruz Mountains, where land was plentiful, to look for a place to stake his claim. He found it up on the summit at a spot once popular with the area’s native peoples. He began building his cabin on a site littered with mortars, pestles, and flint arrowheads. He later built some of the first roads through theses mountains, including Mt Charlie Road, several miles of which are still in use today.

Mountain Charley built some of the first roads through the Santa Cruz Mountains, including one that still bears his name.

When Lions, Bears, and Wildcats Ruled the Summit

Back in the 1800s, the land was still wild up on the summit. McKiernan soon found out the hard way that raising sheep on land shared by mountain lions, wildcats, and grizzly bears was not such a profitable business venture. Spanish explorers in the mid-1700s made the first written accounts of the area and one padre beautifully captured its rugged wilderness (misspellings are in the original text):

“The adjecent mountains were wild and rugged, the canyons deep and dark with the shadows of the forest. Coyotes broke the stillness with their dismal howls, and herds of deer slacked their thirst in the clear waters of the San Lorenzo. Grizzly bears were numerous, prowling about in herds, like hogs on a farm.”

McKiernan lived alone in these wild mountains for three years. He gave up on sheep and, instead, raised long-horned steer and hunted grizzlies and wild deer. It is said that the deer were still so unaccustomed to humans that one could be shot while grazing in the middle of a herd and the rest of the deer would only raise their heads for a moment before continuing their deliberate munching.

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

Near Death by Grizzly: Just Another Day in the Life of a Santa Cruz Mountain Settler

The mountain man had his first neighbors, the Burrell family, in 1853. This family and other settlers also had frightening encounters with grizzlies.

While out building a fence for his pigs, Lyman Burrell heard his pigs making strange noises so he went over to investigate. There on the trail was a mother bear and her cub running straight towards him. Burrell began to run as fast as he could but he tripped and fell flat on the ground. The mother bear came upon Burrell and took his leg in her jaws, biting down with her huge incisors. Luckily, she only took one bite and then continued running down the trail with her cub. Burrell survived and his leg healed after six months.

A Frenchman living in the nearby town of Lexington was not so lucky.

The Frenchman encountered a bear while out hunting and when he missed his shot, the bear bit his left hand and then took his left arm in its paws. With his free right hand, the Frenchman began pummeling the bear with his fists, eventually hassling the bear enough to cause it to let go and lumber off. He lost his left arm but, as the story goes, the bear was found dead in the woods from the man’s mighty blows.

Grizzly Cubs Make Poor Pets

It’s difficult to say how true these tales are, but what is certain is that grizzlies were a common sight in the 1800s. Sadly, the large number of settlers drawn to California by the promise of gold led to the extinction of the California grizzly by 1924.

McKiernan certainly played his part in the bear’s extinction. He was one of the best-known bear hunters in the Santa Cruz mountains although there’s no record of how many bears died by his hand. Another one of his encounters with a California grizzly bear ended in the mother bear’s death, leaving behind two cubs. McKiernan took the cubs home and kept them for a while until they killed one too many hogs and had to be destroyed.

Mountain Charley’s cabin burned down in 1899 but you can visit this historic marker on Mt Charlie road off the Old Santa Cruz Highway. The marker says he “…settled near here in 1850.”

Mountain Charley lived the exciting life of a homesteader and bear hunter in the Santa Cruz Mountains until his death in 1892 at age 67. His close calls with grizzly bears (and those of his neighbors) are reminders of how truly wild these mountains once were.

Further Information

Please note that Mountain Charley is not to be confused with Charlie Parkhurst, another famous character from the Santa Cruz Mountains.

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A close-up view of the highway ice plant. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Most of the ice plant you see in California is all the same species: Highway ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis). As the common name indicates, it has been widely planted in California along highways for soil stabilization and landscaping. It is native to South Africa and was originally brought to California in the early 1900s to stabilize soil along railroad tracks. It has large solitary flowers (2.5 to 6 inches in diameter) that are yellow or light pink.

If you happen to see an ice plant with a deep magenta flower, it is probably sea fig (Carpobrotus chilensis). Also from South Africa, this ice plant variant does not propagate as aggressively as highway ice plant and is much less prevalent. However, these two species hybridize freely.

Benches on West Cliff Drive completely surrounded by ice plant. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Not a Good Neighbor

A walk along the ocean on West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, California shows a great case study of ice plant dominance. For about three miles, on the ocean side, you will see only one type of ground cover: Ice plant. It is surprising how homogeneous it is. Unless the land is part of The West Cliff Restoration Project or part of another replanting project by Gateway School across from Its Beach, you will not see anything else.

Ice plant is considered an invasive exotic species because it competes with and displaces native plants. Native plants provide far superior habitat for native animals and do a better job of slope stabilization. In fact, the main animal that highway ice plant typically shelters is the non-native black rat. In winter, water-heavy mats of ice plant slough off steep cliffs and into the ocean, taking precious topsoil with them.

An example of ice plant-covered steep slopes that can slough off into the ocean. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Pickled Ice Plant

So, you might be wondering: Is there even one good thing about ice plant?

Yes. You can eat it! Carpobrotus is derived from the Greek words karpos, meaning fruit, and brotos, meaning edible. The fruits resemble figs somewhat (it is sometimes called Hottentot fig) and can be eaten raw, dried, cooked, pickled, or made into chutneys and preserves. The succulent leaves can be used in salads or as a substitute for the pickled cucumber. I have never eaten it and do not plan to give it to my kids, so if you decide to eat it, do so at your own risk.

Native Plants

The native plants that probably lived on the sea cliffs before European settlement would be a mix of low- lying shrubs (generally under six feet high) and herbaceous perennials and annuals, including buckwheat, sagebrush, yarrow, lupine, and coyote bush.

Native coastal sage scrub vegetation at Three Mile Beach (three miles north of Santa Cruz). Coast buckwheat can be seen at the bottom left. Dudleya are the yellow flowers in the center, and California sagebrush dominates the back right. Photo: Courtesy of and © Jackie Pascoe

A postcard showing West Cliff Drive circa 1920s. These plants probably are not native to California either, but it shows the vegetation before it became dominated by ice plants. Image: Courtesy of Frank Perry

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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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This mural of Charley Parkhurst was at the Soquel Village Post Office from 1985 to 2012. Artist Frank Hill. Image: Courtesy of Mrwrite

Driving from San Jose to Santa Cruz over Highway 17 is a pretty harrowing 40 minutes with tight twisting curves and crazy drivers. Just imagine driving a team of six horses and a stagecoach full of passengers over the same route—but on treacherous dirt roads barely more than trails. In the 1800s it was thought only a man could handle a job as dangerous as this. And yet, it was a woman in the 1860s, that became one of the most famous—and not to be messed with—stagecoach drivers between San Jose and Santa Cruz. Charley Parkhurst chose to live as a man for over 30 years, deftly handling horses and bravely fighting bandits throughout the west. It wasn’t until Parkhurst’s death that his secret was revealed.

Not to be confused with another well-known character of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Mountain Charley McKiernan, this Charley was born Charlotte Parkhurst in Lebanon, New Hampshire and grew up in an orphanage. Dressed in boy’s clothing Parkhurst left the orphanage and according to one account, met Ebenezer Balch, the owner of a livery stable in Rhode Island, who took him in as his own son. Balch taught the young child to ride horses and drive wagon teams giving him the skills needed to later drive stagecoaches throughout California. He quickly mastered the profession and made the perilous long journey all the way across the country to work as a whip (the term then for a stagecoach driver) on the Pacific Coast.

Charlotte “Charley” Parkhurst. Image: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

One-Eyed, Bandit-Shootin’ Charley

When the almost 40-year-old Parkhurst arrived in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1850, he fit right in with the other rough and tough drivers. Known as “One-eyed Charley”, he wore a black patch over his left eye, lost when attempting to shoe a horse. His lips were stained from constant tobacco chewing and as the years wore on he talked less and less earning him another nickname, Silent Charley. When Parkhurst did speak, he didn’t hesitate to sling around swear words in a gruff voice. The only part of his appearance that was out of place was his clean-shaven face, an odd choice for a man in those days.

Parkhurst proved himself in California not only in skill with a team of up to six horses but in handling bandits. A bandit called “Sugarfoot” and his crew held up Parkhurst’s stagecoach and forced him to hand over the wagon’s strong box (used to hold all of the passenger’s valuables). He calmly acquiesced while keeping all his passengers safe, but before they left, he warned the robbers that he’d “break even with them.” Sugarfoot unwisely stopped his stagecoach again, and this time, Parkhurst shot him dead. As the story goes, Sugarfoot crawled back to a miner’s cabin and, before he died, told the miners he’d been shot by the famous driver, One-eyed Charley.

Charley Parkhurst would have driven a stagecoach similar to this one pictured at Big Basin in 1906.
Image: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

First Woman to Vote in America

Parkhurst took advantage of his disguise in other ways. In 1868, Parkhurst registered to vote. This was 52 years before the 19th amendment granted women the right! Although Parkhurst’s name is recorded on the official poll list for the election of 1868, it is unknown whether he actually cast his ballot. Still, there is a plaque at his grave, as well as at the Soquel Fire Station and Soquel Post Office, that commemorates him as the first woman to vote in the United States of America.

A Secret Revealed

During his 30 years as a stagecoach driver, Parkhurst became known as one of the best in California. In the late 1860s, as traveling by train began to replace the need for stagecoaches, Charley retired as a whip and tried his hand at other ventures. He is rumored to have raised cattle on Bean Creek and may have opened a stage station and saloon between Santa Cruz and Watsonville. It seems more certain that he worked as a skilled lumberjack for several years until rheumatism and cancer of the mouth forced him to stop.

Parkhurst’s secret was finally revealed upon his death in 1879. His reasons for choosing this lifestyle are unknown, but we can safely assume that Parkhurst would never have become a famous stagecoach driver as a woman. You can visit his grave today at the Pioneer Cemetery at 44 Main Street in Watsonville, California.

Charler Parkhurst’s grave marker.
Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History.

Further Information

• Charley’s Choice: The Life and Times of Charley Parkhurst. Fern J. Hill. 2008.
• The Whip, by Karen Kondazian. Hansen Publishing Group LLC. 2012.

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Lexington Reservoir in 2014. Photo: Courtesy of Levy Media Works

Post Updated on April 13, 2016
Thanks to the plentiful El Niño rains, in early April, Lexington Reservoir was at 69% capacity. That’s compared to 23% in February of this year. At current levels, the entire ghost town of Lexington is submerged beneath the reservoir’s surface. Nonetheless, the rich history has stayed afloat.

Original Post October 31, 2014
As you drive over Highway 17 past the Lexington Reservoir, the water level reminds you whether it’s been a particularly wet or dry year but probably not of the two towns that disappeared with the rising waters. In the third year of a statewide drought, the water is currently low enough to reveal the flooded remains of the ghost towns of Lexington and Alma. An old bridge. The stone foundations of family homes. The cement ribbon of the old Santa Cruz Highway. Today’s reservoir was named after one of these towns, which was a stage coach stop en route to Santa Cruz. The town of Lexington burned bright for a short while, profiting from the logging industry and achieving infamy from a brutal murder.

Home to the first sawmill in Santa Clara County, the town of Lexington (first called Jones’ Mill) was established in 1857. By the year 1867, Lexington was the main commerce center between San Jose and Santa Cruz. Los Gatos, then called Forbes Mill, was just a small crossroads in its large shadow. Lexington profited from heavy logging of the virgin redwood forests that grew thickly throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains and from high-quality leather and tan bark that was in high demand at the tanneries in Santa Cruz County. Pack mules delivered the tan bark through the mountains to Santa Cruz, and, although less than 25 miles, the trip in those days was a far cry from today’s 30-minute drive.

A stretch of old Highway 17 (which was rerouted before the reservoir was filled) surfaces above the waters of Lexington Reservoir in October 2014. Notice the white lines. That’s the original paint! Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

Before the 1850s, there were no roads between Santa Clara and Santa Cruz County. It took three long, grueling days to travel between what is now Los Gatos and the summit (less than 15 miles), bushwhacking through thick brush on steep terrain either by foot or on horseback. By Lexington’s heyday in 1867, a group of Santa Cruz County residents had constructed the Santa Cruz Turnpike. This was a huge improvement to the first dirt road that was so steep and narrow that wagons had to lighten their loads and take several trips, and the cattle, horses, and oxen were always in danger of a fatal slip off the road’s edge.

The Santa Cruz Turnpike was eight feet wide, built largely by hand, and a much easier passage for horses and wagons. Still, many accidents occurred and  it was not an easy road. Through one section, the highway crossed Soquel Creek 25 times without any bridges. The first toll house was located in Lexington. The toll for a wagon and two horses or oxen to pass was 50 cents.

Saloons as Prevalent as Starbucks

The Lexington House Hotel and saloons were busy with tourists, commuters, bandits, and gamblers before the roads were rerouted to bypass the town. In the 1890s, when alcohol was illegal in Los Gatos, 12 saloons lined the road between Lexington and its neighboring town, Alma.

The foundation of an old Lexington building is revealed by the low water. October, 2014. Photo: Julia Gaudinski/Mobile Ranger

A Murderous Past

It was a tumultuous period for Santa Clara County. Besides the ghosts of bandits and gamblers, the victims of a brutal murder and their killers haunt the reservoir’s waters.

In 1883, saloon-keeper Lloyd L Majors of Los Gatos sent rancher John Showers and painter Joseph Jewell with a pistol and a pair of pliers to the mountain cabin of the well-liked William Renowden. Rumored to have $20,000 in gold stashed throughout his cabin, Renowden and his partner Archibald McIntyre met an unlucky fate that day. The pliers were brought as a torture device to pull off Renowden’s fingernails one by one until he revealed where he hid his gold. Whether or not the pliers were used is unclear, but either way, two good men lost their lives for the sake of greed.

Showers and Jewell shot Renowden and McIntyre, lit a match, and set fire to the house before fleeing with the gold. Both bodies were found in the smoldering remains of the cabin. The story ends with the violent deaths of all three murderers: Jewell was executed by hanging at San Quentin, Showers was stabbed to death in a prison fight, and the plotting Majors died in a prison break at Folsom Prison.

The murder trial received national coverage and made Lexington infamous for a while, but infamy lasts only so long.

Lexington’s Demise

After Lexington lumber mills had clear-cut all the virgin redwoods in the area, the mills moved to Los Gatos, which depleted the town’s economy. The post office was then moved to the neighboring town of Alma in 1873, partly due to complaints from church-goers that women and children had to pass through the rowdy Lexington saloon to reach the post office located in the back. Then in 1880, the new railroad bypassed Lexington completely, favoring Alma instead. Most of Lexington’s families moved to Alma soon after, and the town dwindled and quieted to a mere whisper of what it once was.

The town hung on, with fewer than a dozen families still residing there, until the construction of the dam in 1952. Even then, an old woman refused to leave her home, preferring to hold her ground even as her house was lifted from its foundation and carted away.

Today, when the water level of Lexington Reservoir dips low enough, you can walk the same ground as the ghosts of Lexington, searching for remnants of a time gone by.

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Along West Cliff Drive, just east of Natural Bridges State Beach, is a strange concrete cork feature on the edge of the sea cliff. Locals know it as the blowhole. If the waves and tide are just right, you’ll see and hear water being forced up and out of its three holes with a huge “THWUMP.” It’s pretty impressive. The concrete cap covers a shaft that is the last remaining evidence of a wave motor built in 1898 by local brothers, William and John Armstrong.

Old postcard showing the wave motor circa 1906. Image courtesy of Frank Perry.

The motor dates from an era around 1890-1900 when several wave and tidal energy projects were undertaken in California (including several in San Francisco near the Cliff House and one on the Capitola Wharf in 1895). While most tried to generate electricity and failed, this one, designed only to pump water, was one of the few successes.
Its purpose was to pump ocean water into a large storage tank on a high platform. The water was later used to fill a smaller tank on a horse drawn carriage and sprinkle what was then Cliff Drive to keep the dust down for the tourists. The wave motor was commissioned by the City of Santa Cruz in 1897 after the Armstrong brothers created a successful prototype at Black Point (about 5 miles east of here). The venture was a great success. Cliff Drive’s dirt streets were dust free and sparkled with salt from the sprinkled ocean water for about 12 years until the coming of pavement made the need for sprinkling sea water…evaporate.

How Did it Work?

The installation consisted of two shafts drilled 30 feet into the cliff, one eight feet in diameter and the other five feet. In one shaft was a huge 600-pound float that drove a piston within a pump in the neighboring shaft. As the wave surge entered, the heavy float in the ocean-ward shaft and the pump in the landward shaft both rose. The float and piston were attached via a cable to a rigid bar, which acted as a lever. The rising float caused the lever to pull upward on the one-way piston-pump and squeeze water up into the discharge pipe. As the wave surge went out, the heavy float dropped and check valves in the piston and piping prevented backward flow of water. On the next wave, the cycle was repeated.

Conceptual diagram of how the wave motor likely worked (not to scale).
Diagram by Masami Kiyono.

Some accounts of the wave motor report that there was a check valve in the tunnel that went out to the ocean. If this is true, when the wave surge ebbed, water would have been prevented from leaving, and (despite the piston moving downward) water could still have been forced upward through the pump cylinder, creating continuous pumping of water. To stop pumping, they simply removed the water from the barrel counter weight. The heavy float still bobbed up and down but the force was not transmitted to the rigid bar.

An Idea Ahead of Its Time

The technology available to harness wave energy in the late 1800s was a bit short of the task. Over a century later, harnessing tidal energy is again an idea being tried. In fact, France’s La Rance station has successfully generated about 250 megawatts since 1966 and there are 7 other projects around the globe in operation today generating from 1 to 254 megawatts. Several other plants are currently being planned or built, including one in New York City on the East River that is supposed to open in 2014 and generate 2.4GWh of electricity annually.

The view in 2012 towards where the wave motor stood from 1898 to the early 1900s.

The Site Over Time

The local sea cliffs are made of the fairly erosion resistant Santa Cruz Mudstone and the small peninsula on which the wave motor stood has not eroded much since the 1890s. Both wave motor shafts were intact until at least 1979. By 2004 the oceanward shaft was breached but you could still see the curved surface of the bore. The landward shaft was filled with a concrete plug in 2005.

The shafts in 1979. Picture © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project. www.Californiacoastline.org

While the cliffs have not changed too noticeably over time, the houses across the street at 2244 West Cliff Drive have. In 1979 there was a small house with few windows, surrounded by many open lots. By 2004 it had been replaced with a house that had many windows, occupied the whole lot, and was wedged in with similarly large lot-filling homes. The current house was built in 2008/9, also fills the lot, and has fewer but extra large windows. The changes follow the post 1960’s trend of increasing use and cost of oceanfront property and the desire to maximize home size and ocean view.

The shafts in 2004. Picture © Kenneth and Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project www.Californiacoastline.org

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Further Information

• About tidal energy
• Local Historian Frank Perry’s Website
• Sandy Lydon’s web page on the wave motor