ABSTRACT: An important part of the State Park General Planning
process is a detailed evaluation of the history of the park area
and recommendation for preservation of appropriate artifacts and
sites. The following, in addition to doing that, provides a
great deal of insight into the history of areas near Saratoga
Gap. It includes a number of interesting and provocative
vignettes of our legacy.
Castle Rock State Park General Plan -- Resource Element
EURO-AMERICAN HISTORY
The demand for firewood and building lumber by the citizens and
towns of the Santa Clara Valley produced a road over the summit
from Saratoga to the San Lorenzo Valley in 1870. Prior to this
entry, the Castle Rock area had been visited by tanbark
choppers, hunters and an occasional settler in the lower or
southern portion of what is now the park. A brief non
financially rewarding "gold rush" rocked the upper San Lorenzo
prospecting in 1855; was soon over, but did leave the earliest
known place name - "Tin Can Springs." Potential mining claims
would be made for the next six decades, but none proved valid.
When the Saratoga-Pescadero Turnpike crossed the summit and
headed down the San Lorenzo Valley the area was opened for
settlement.
There were two earlier horse trails, apparently only
occasionally used by horse back travelers. Neither trail
allowed wheeled vehicles. Along Damon Ridge, there was a trail
noted in federal survey records (1868) as the "Santa Clara"
or "Santa Cruz Trail." The trail was irregular and difficult to
trace in federal notes. A second trail was well known as it
traversed the top of Pescadero Ridge from the gap at the summit
to the "Waterman Gap" area. This trail was known for James
"Buckskin" Lawrence, a professional hide hunter, who killed and
cured deer skins for the glove industry in San Jose. Lawrence
left the area in the early 1870s and the name slipped into
obscurity. The two trails were used to give access from the
summit into the game areas during hunting seasons when Nimrods
after deer and trout or salmon trekked into the San Lorenzo
"Gulch" or to Big Basin. Buckskin Lawrence Trail disappeared
under the Carmichael and Hubbard Logging Company logging road,
which became John W. Chace's road which became part of Highway
Nine in 1916.
The Saratoga Toll Road crossed the "Gap" at Summit Ridge in 1870
and passed through the property (the extreme southern edge) of
Casey Newhouse's 160 acres. That same year, authorized by the
owners of the toll road, an easterner, William S. Brewer and his
wife, leased a piece of Newhouse's property and built a toll
station and developed a tavern, with bar, restaurant and
"hotel." Brewer also built several barns, corrals, a feed lot
and out buildings. For ten years, the family, Brewer, wife, son
and daughter, struggled to survive on the operation of the rest
stop and the percentages of the tolls he collected. The road
was not heavily traveled except for wood products wagons which
often featured dual outfits: two wagons and ten to twelve
horses. Commercial ventures, such as stage coaches, failed
regularly and there were few tourists who used the badly
maintained, rutted, dusty (or muddy) route. Lumber wagons did
dominate the toll road into the Santa Clara Valley through the
early 20th Century.
In the fall of 1880 a major fire burned up Pescadero Canyon from
sea shore to beyond the summit and wiped out "Brewer's Station."
Brewer moved to Saratoga and opened a hardware store and lumber
yard on the Saratoga to Santa Clara Road. John W. Peery, of
Lorenzo, with a sawmill in Boulder Creek had managed the "San
Lorenzo Road" as the toll road was officially referred to in
Santa Cruz records, from 1874. In 1875, Santa Clara County
declared the east half public and finally gained control in 1880
after the fire wiped out "Brewer's Station." Peery, in 1881,
put a toll collector at the gap, but the station soon failed.
The station collector did not collect enough tolls to pay his
wages. And, the toll road only covered a little over eleven and
a half miles. The southernmost toll gate was at G. Fergusson's
Ranch and Fergusson collected the toll from his doorstep.
As work on the Saratoga Toll Road progressed down the north side
of the upper San Lorenzo Valley, a squatter named Henry Tracy
sold his 160 acres to a William H. Hall. The next year, Tracy
purchased his claim from the federal government thereby making
his sale to Hall legal. At a site just below the modern
intersection of the Saratoga and "Beekhuis" Roads, Hall put in a
roadside resort that served as a rest stop for travelers. No
description of the facilities at "Hall's" has been found and
only two references to the site have been located. Both notices
were during the summer of 1875 by eastern excursionists
traveling from Saratoga through the northern Santa Cruz
Mountains to Santa Cruz.
"Hall's" was noted as providing refreshment for "horses and
men." An examination of the ground and using other such road
side rest stops of the era as a yard stick, one can project a
possible image of the resort. Facing the Saratoga Road might
have been a two-story structure; the upper floor was level with
the road and probably featured a hash house and tavern. Wagons
and buggies would be parked at the edge of the road next to the
building. The lower floor could have been enclosed quarters for
the owner or an opened faced storage area. A road would have
passed between the tavern and out buildings to the rear. This
road, or lane, is now part of the Beekhuis Road. The area to
the rear of the station site is large enough for a barn, hay
lot, corrals and small support buildings. Because descriptions
are so meager, and no one recorded an over night stop, it is
unknown if "Hall's" offered night time accommodations. Probably
not, since a "hotel" was situated at the Gap five miles above,
and the town of Lorenzo (now part of Boulder Creek) was only
seventeen miles away. There is no mention of "Hall's" after
1876, and nothing seems to be at the site after 1880. It is
very possible that the fire which wiped out "Brewer's" at the
gap, also erased "Hall's" rest stop.
Santa Cruz County, reacting to John W. Peery of Lorenzo,
operator of the toll road who wanted a 50-foot right-of-way,
surveyed the "San Lorenzo Road" in 1885. The toll road section
began at Station One, i.e., Fergusson's Ranch, and toiled up the
eleven plus miles to the "Saratoga Gap." The last citizen with
a farm-residence along the road was Lawrence Hollis, who lived
in what is today the San Lorenzo Valley Water District property
south of Waterman Gap. For some unexplained reason, the
surveyors declared the abandoned Saratoga Gap toll house as
"Station 360." They noted "no toll is collected here" nor had
"anyone lived here for some time." John Peery finally gave up
trying to enlarge the toll road or operate it and Santa Cruz
County bought up the right-of-way, opening the road to the
public in 1891. The county now accepted a 27-year continual
struggle to maintain the road officially now known as the San
Lorenzo Road.
At the turn of the 20th Century, the Castle Rock school district
along Summit Road was in financial trouble. The county school
superintendent did not wish to continue leasing the parcel where
upon rested the school, and he wanted to abandon the school and
attach it to the "San Lorenzo District" which had a school near
Fergusson's Ranch. The County Board of Supervisors agreed and
then changed their minds when Thomas Hubbard and Daniel and Neil
Carmichael (Hubbard and Carmichael Lumber Company) donated a one
acre lot and lumber for a school house. Local residents
constructed the building, which also served as the election
precinct house for Castle Rock. The school house apparently was
southeast of the intersection of Saratoga and Summit Roads, or
the south edge of the Cal-Trans Vista Point parking lot. The
precinct, which was also nearly combined with North (or #2)
Boulder Creek voting precinct in 1900, had thirteen registered
voters and usually voted Republican on a 9-4 ratio.
Landowners came slowly. The first were speculators claiming the
redwood forest between the San Lorenzo River and Pescadero Ridge
(1870s). They were too early, for it would be a quarter of a
century before Boulder Creek loggers pushed into the area. When
the logging companies arrived in the mid-1890s, it took only
five years to totally harvest the forest of "the San Lorenzo
Gulch." This does not mean that parcels were not available for
harvesting as the first sweeps claimed primarily redwoods. This
left Douglas firs, for the fruit box industry in the Santa Clara
valley and oaks and madrones for tanbark and firewood choppers.
The last commercial logging in the Castle Rock area took place
in the early-1970s.
Summit Ridge presented a different story south of where the
Saratoga Road crossed over from Santa Clara to Santa Cruz
County. The ridge and its slopes were remarkably bare of
timber. Wood choppers supplying the cook fires and heating
stoves of the valley to the east had worked up and over the
ridge beginning in the late 1860s. By 1870 several families had
squatted on the ridge to cut firewood and remained to file a
patent under pressure from settlers or had moved on as the
parcels were cleaned out. A trail, or narrow road, snaked along
the top of Summit Ridge and naturally was called "Summit Road"
(now Skyline Boulevard). A note of caution, there are three
distinct historical "Summit" areas in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
There is a summit district south of modern day Highway 17; a
summit district north of Highway 17 to the Saratoga Gap and a
summit district north of the intersection of Highway 9 and 35.
In the mid -1880s, farmers unable to afford property in the
Santa Clara Valley, or speculators, began to claim land along
the slopes of Summit Ridge. Taking Homestead Act of 1862
options or buying the land outright from the federal government,
settlers of the domestic variety carved 120-160 acre farmsteads
out of the open, dry, rocky soil. Vineyards and orchards of
apples and pears were planted. On the fringes of these farms in
areas not suitable for large scale orchards, a new breed of
owner joined the community, the weekend recreationists. Some of
these urban types bought the land on the speculation that lumber
companies would buy the timber footage existing on their
isolated pieces of property, or that having a parcel near a
proposed road, particularly a new road leading to Big Basin
Redwoods State Park, would lead to a community development. Two
communities were planned; both failed. The "Indian Rock Ranch"
community would not appear until the late 1960s. The majority
of owners sought peace and quiet and relief from late 19th and
early 20th century urban sprawl.
The opening of the San Lorenzo Branch of the Saratoga-Pescadero
Toll Road developed the lumber-wood products business of the
west slope and the north side of Castle Rock State Park. The
peak of the Redwood lumber business lasted less than 30 years
and a railroad from San Jose to Boulder Creek robbed any
potential that the road would be a main artery of travel. The
route was never a financial success nor was it a well-traveled
connector of northern Santa Cruz County with the Santa Clara
valley. Travelers and businessmen preferred the railroad via
Boulder Creek, Felton, Los Gatos and San Jose. One of the
nicest statements about the "Saratoga Road" was that "it was a
miserable piece of work." The road needed constant, expensive
repairs. A plan to construct a rail line through Summit Ridge
from Campbell's Springs to the headwaters of the San Lorenzo at
Deer Creek (King's Creek today) failed due to lack of financial
support.
The acquisition of the Redwoods State Park (Big Basin Redwoods
State Park) led a sixteen-year movement to create a highway
which connected Saratoga and the Saratoga Gap with Big Basin
down the top of Pescadero Ridge. The Sempervirens Club led the
way and finally in 1916, following old horse trails and lumber
roads, what became Highway 9 and 9A (into Big Basin) was carved
into existence. The highway alignment has been widened and
improved a number of times since 1927.
Other historic roads connected the Saratoga Toll Road or the
Summit Road with the interior of future Castle Rock State Park,
leading to the farms, wood lots or retreats of the various
owners. The Smead-Damond-McDonald Road (Kings Creek Truck
Trail) opened the south eastern half of the future park to
orchards and cabins for deer hunting and summer quiet. The F.A.
Hihn Company dramatically improved the road in 1907 from
McDonald's to the summit. Louis Seek, a retired blue water
sailor opened a road in 1884 that connected his one room cabin
to the Saratoga Gap (now Indian Rock Ranch Road). Seek's
property became the center of one of Archibald Francis McDuff
Craig's many coastal holdings and Seek's little cabin was
rebuilt as Craig's elaborate four room cottage named "Craigmore"
after 1900. Craig built a new road in 1905-06, from the Moody
and Partridge Farm area on the summit down to his cottage. The
British-born San Francisco furniture merchant owned real estate
from Sonoma to Santa Cruz County. The above three interior
roads still remain and lead to various historic sites.
The continued growth of tourism into the Redwoods State Park,
and its many civilian-owned concessions, overwhelmed its
existing water system. A water source, named as "Craig's
Springs," was developed on A.F. McDuff Craig's property in 1916
by the Santa Clara Valley Mill and Lumber Company and connected
by pipe with the new State Park. This water pipe, is still
extant and no longer in use.
The agriculturists of Castle Rock fought a long battle of
survival (1885-1960s). Lack of irrigation and weather
conditions caused their produce to ripen late in the year, at
the very end of canning season. Often the canneries were closed
before wagons of apples, pears and grapes came down off Summit
Road. World War II caused the Santa Clara Valley to start an
unending change as industry took over from farm land. In the
1950s, the canning industry was caught in labor disputes plus
the issue of continued unlimited supply of water for sewage
disposal of by-products. Water for urbanization of the
developing "Silicon Valley" won and canneries began to close.
By 1955, the canneries of Santa Clara were no more. The few
farmers left in the Castle Rock area turned to growing and the
seasonal sale of Christmas trees. Today (1998) only one
Christmas Tree farm is still in business outside the boundaries
of the unit.
At some point in the early 20th century the James P. Loghry
family purchased a denuded (or burnt over) ridge in the northern
edge of the unit, just north of the Los Altos Gun Club. Loghry
planted a selection of nonnative trees in what he considered to
be a "demonstration" forest. In 1944, the family donated the
acreage to the Department of State Forestry. Forestry declared
the parcel a "State Forest," but apparently did little in the
unit until the mid-1960s. The Loghrys continued to live there
until the late 1940s or early 1950s when they moved to Santa
Cruz. The Loghry house was still standing in 1966, but now only
a crude fireplace-chimney, mantled in green moss, remains, and
the pad where the house was once sited.
The era of the "Cold War" between the U.S. and the Soviet Union
introduced a military facility at the Loghry residence area. The U.S.
Navy, which conducted anti-Russian submarine patrols
from Moffett Naval Air Station discovered that radio
transmission directed from patrolling aircraft at sea to their
headquarters at Moffett were blocked by the Santa Cruz
Mountains. The Navy leased nine acres at Loghry State Forest
and established a radio relay station on the highest point.
Radio messages could now be sent from aircraft far off the coast
and out of line of sight with Moffett Field. The Navy's complex
consisted of a number of concrete-slab tilt-up buildings and
radio antenna poles. A crew of four or five enlisted personnel
manned the station. They were billeted in trailer houses as
evidenced by the pads located north west of the facilities.
Civilian access was prohibited and local citizenry today can
recall seeing naval vehicles on the highways but know nothing
about the operations which transpired there.
With the development of orbiting satellites, the relay station
passed into obsolescence and the site was abandoned. The
Department of Forestry then used several of the concrete
buildings for fire suppression training. While the facility is
now no longer used for fire training, the site is still sealed
off from the public by a chain link fence which Forestry
controls. Pipe and water diversion machinery are scattered
about the area.
There was one last, but new type visitor, those that came for
the beauty of a rejuvenating landscape. Starting as early as
1874, visitors could enjoy camping on the summit and a one or
two day buggy ride along what was known as "Twenty-seven Mile
Drive." (1874-1890?) By the end of the century, hikers were
coming up the Saratoga Road from Congress Hall Lodge to the
Summit. Seeing it at its most damaged, wide-open condition,
they fell in love with the far reaching vistas and rugged, if
torn, landscape. When Judge Joseph Welch of San Jose purchased
a 60-acre parcel portion of Castle Rock Ridge in 1908, logging
was stiff shattering the stillness down-slope. Logging would
continue in some parcels until the early 1970s. However, Welch
now made official what was once haphazard: "Castle Rock" and a
few acres around the rock were available for those who enjoyed
just the beauty of the world. Camping at the rock was allowed
by Welch.
HISTORIC FEATURES
- Partridge House - typical farm bungalow of the 1900-1935
era. This house is circa 1924 and represents the living style
of the farmers of Summit Ridge (i.e., Castle Rock District)
during the decades since 1900.
- Saratoga Toll Road - While a financial failure, the road
is historic due to its location in the northwestern portion of
Santa Cruz County and its role in opening areas in this area to
the lumber business and settlement patterns of Santa Clara
County.
- "Hall's Station" Site - A roadside rest stop on the
Saratoga Toll Road, circa 1875-1880. No visible features, but
may possess archeological artifacts to the understanding of the
buildings that existed and the traffic on the road during the
first decades of use.
- Orchards - Smead's and Partridge: Part of the
agricultural industry of apples, pears and grapes of Summit
Ridge.
- Historic Roads:
 | Smead-Damond-MacDonald Road, circa 1885 to present
| Louis Seek Road, circa 1885-to present
| James Archibald McDuff Craig Road, circa 1900-to present
| | |
These three historic roadways opened the interior of the
unit primarily from Summit Ridge and Summit Road to farms,
logging parcels, retreats and summer residences. Their routes
trace primary inhabitancy patterns in Castle Rock State Park.
- Tin Can Springs, Circa 1855 - The earliest historic site and place
name in the unit. "Tin Can Springs" reflects the earliest economic
pursuit in the unit, the short-lived "gold rush" of 1855.
- There are a number of other minor historic sites of limited
significance located in the unit. These are primary lumber products
camps, noted by artificial flats, pads, trials and material cultural
debris (commonly, "garbage") several recreational cabin-cottage sites,
and cabin sites of former orchardists or absentee owners.
Most lumber camp sites are not deemed significance on a
statewide basis. However, one shingle camp located on a minor
tributary to King's Creek, but known at the time as "Deer
Creek," as it passed through Hugh McDonald's property, has
potential historic important as a preserved time clock to April
1906. Two brothers, were killed, and the camp buried on the
morning of the great "San Francisco earthquake."
Cabin sites, for those enjoying recreation in the northern
Santa Cruz Mountains, should be marked. These sites include the
Louis Seek - A.F. Craig cabin-cottage site. Both areas feature
locations of barns or outbuildings. Other sites might be the
cabin sites of the sons of Serena Charlotta Smead, the cabin
site of David A. MacDonald and his son Jerome McDonald. David
changed the spelling of his name circa 1902. The cabin site of
early homesteader Rosetta Damon has yet to be found.
- The location of the Gap toll station, i.e., Brewer's
Station, and the last Castle Rock District school and precinct
house cannot be positively located due to modern road and
parking lot improvements.
