Stations: Brookdale

Few communities in the Santa Cruz Mountains are more shrouded in mystery and confusion than Brookdale. The village began life as Clear Creek, a descriptive name applied to the fast-running mountain stream that runs down the east side of Ben Lomond Mountain until emptying into the San Lorenzo River about a mile south of Boulder Creek. In the 1870s, the flume was constructed through the area, a likely site for several of the more scenic photographs since the structure was situated relatively low to the ground here. In addition, a feeder flume was erected up Clear Creek. It was along this feeder that the first logging activity in the area that would become Brookdale began.

A Southern Pacific train approaching Brookdale with passengers waiting to board, circa 1915. [Courtesy George Pepper – colorized using MyHeritage]

In March 1880, McKoy & Duffey acquired stumpage rights to the Ellsworth tract on Clear Creek. The property itself was likely owned by a lumber combine of Grover & Company and James P. Pierce, who hired itinerant mill crews to harvest timber tracts outside their core domain. Andrew Duffey left the partnership in March 1882 to pursue a new enterprise leaving sole ownership of the mill to Hubbard Wilson McKoy, who closed it in 1883 to take over management of the Central Hotel in Felton. Duffey was not done with the area, though. The Comstock brothers, led by Jared W. Comstock, joined with Edward P. Reed and leased property from Pierce a half mile up Clear Creek in early 1888. They brought Duffey on as a partner in October. Their mill was capable of producing 15,000 board feet of lumber per day. It benefited from the replacement of the flume by the Felton & Pescadero Railroad—though a spur beside Clear Creek is not mentioned in Southern Pacific documents until 1892, it seems likely that it was installed at the same time the mill opened in spring 1889. The Duffey & Comstock partnership only lasted a single season since Jared Comstock died in October 1889.

Survey of Grover & Logan's properties at Clear Creek shortly before the start of development, based on E. D. Perry's August 1894 survey. Reed's Spur (called Reid Switch) features prominently in the top-left quadrant. [Courtesy Santa Cruz County GIS]

Reed’s Spur survived the collapse of Duffey & Comstock and Duffey continued to run the mill there in partnership with Frank W. Simmons until September 1891. In January 1891, Reed purchased the property outright from Pierce’s Ben Lomond Land and Lumber Company and he may have taken over the mill in 1892 following Duffey’s departure. In April 1895, he hired Irvin T. Bloom and Patrick Patton to manage the mill, which ran with a crew of forty men. At the same time, the Grovers began milling lumber at a site further to the north at a bend in the San Lorenzo River. The economic recession in the mid-1890s led to the brief closure of the mill but it reopened in 1897 with a focus on clearing the remaining standing timber in the vicinity of today’s Brookdale Lodge. However, by this time, the area had grown in prominence as a camping and picnic destination, so the company wisely decided to retain the larger trees and hired W. H. Booth to clear the undergrowth, specifically in the area between the river and the County Road along either side of Clear Creek.

Feeder flume over Clear Creek, circa 1884. [Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

The Grovers’ decision reflected a fundamental shift in attitude toward the area around Clear Creek. Whereas just a decade earlier, clearcutting marketable timber was the only reason for owning land in the San Lorenzo Valley, the economic turbulence of the 1890s paired with a growing concern that the natural beauty of the valley was being destroyed led several lumber firms to pause operations and reconsider their long-term goals. Much worked in Clear Creek’s favor—high somewhat flat shelves sat on either side of the San Lorenzo River, creating five areas perfect for campgrounds and vacation cottages. Furthermore, the railroad passed directly through all five areas, meaning access would be simple. And the lumber firms had not entirely cleared all of the territory, so towering redwood and fir trees still stood tall. On top of those benefits, the river meandered slowly and eddied in multiple places, creating several ideal locations to erect seasonal dams for fishing, boating, and swimming. The spectacle of the area was captured in early photographs and camping became one of its hallmarks.

View of the San Lorenzo River at Brookdale, circa 1910. [Courtesy ebay – colorized using MyHeritage]

From the late 1880s, groups of Santa Cruz, Oakland, San Francisco, and San José elite gathered together each year at camps strung along the San Lorenzo River. The three-mile stretch between Ben Lomond and Boulder Creek was the most popular destination as it was the least developed and a few old groves of trees had withstood the threat of the axe. Two of the earliest named camps were Camp Thunder and Camp Lightning, led by prominent Santa Cruz families, both established in 1887 about a mile south of Clear Creek. The first major camp on Clear Creek was established in July 1890 as Camp Yelland, named after its most famous attendee, artist Raymond Dabb Yelland. For three summers, Oakland and Santa Cruz elite bivouacked on either side of the creek at the camp. News of camp sites around Clear Creek goes quiet over the following years, possibly because of the activities of the nearby mill. A fire in April 1897 burned part of the mill and lumber yard, as well as much of the remaining timber tract, prompting Bloom & Patton to close the mill. Shortly afterwards, James Harvey Logan took over management of the property for the Grovers and began laying out a formalized campground on Grover Island.

Narrow gauge tracks south of Reed's Spur, May 5, 1901. Photo by Henry King Nourse. [Courtesy California State Library – colorized using MyHeritage]

Having just retired as a superior court judge, Logan shifted roles quickly and was elected an officer of Grover & Company in June 1897 alongside Stephen F. Grover, Lafayette F. Grover, Joseph Schwarts, and H. E. Makinney. He took a personal interest in Clear Creek and erected a country home there in April 1898, from which he could oversee the development of the company’s mountain resort. Over the next three years, Logan and Stephen Grover erected cottages for themselves and their families, using still-living trees to help support the rustic structures. They also sold lots close to the river to Alameda families, who also built cottages, platforms for tents, and other amenities. By 1902, the seasonal community had grown large enough to justify the addition of a post office, which opened in April under the name Brookdale.

The Cascades, James H. Logan's first summer house in Brookdale, circa 1903. [Courtesy Scott Tucker – colorized using MyHeritage]

The unusual name raised some eyebrows. A writer for the Evening Sentinel misread the announcement as “Brookville” and asked: “Why not call it Loganville or Groverville?” The name’s origin, though, has older roots. In 1887, a Camp Brookdale arose in an unspecified location near Boulder Creek—possibly at Clear Creek, which was associated with its neighbor at the time. This camp returned in 1889 before disappearing, possibly to be replaced by Camp Yelland the next year. In 1897, grocer John B. Bias’ Brookdale Cottage appeared on Olive’s Sulphur Springs on a tributary of Soquel Creek, not far from the Grovers’ primary mill. Bias had previously been a business partner with Lafayette Grover, Stephen Grover’s son, in 1892 and the two ran in the same social circles. Ultimately, the name was descriptive, possibly brought over by the Grovers from their home state of Maine, where both “brook” and “dale” were far more common terms than in California. It likely gained increased notoriety, though, due to Brookdale Farm of New Jersey, which was widely publicized in newspapers throughout the 1880s and 1800s as one of the foremost stables for breeding and training racehorses. Thus, contrary to popular belief, the name Brookdale was likely chosen by the Grovers rather than Logan.

A Southern Pacific passenger train at Brookdale Station, circa 1915. [Courtesy Grant Correll – colorized using MyHeritage]

The evolution of the industrial settlement of Clear Creek to the resort destination of Brookdale readily embraced by the railroad. Reed’s Spur first appeared as a flag-stop on employee timetables in April 1902 and was renamed Brookdale in October 1903. A single-story passenger shelter with an agent booth was added shortly afterwards, with a small freight platform installed just to the south. The existence of this platform and a short-lived freight shed suggests that Grover and Logan still anticipated some industrial revenue to derive from Brookdale, at least in the short term. The 239-foot-long spur also remained and was even extended to 400 feet during the standard-gauging of the Boulder Creek Branch in 1908. But retaining this feature can be easily explained since several photographs show passenger cars and excursion trains parked on the spur to keep the branch line clear for regular rail traffic. The station was staffed seasonally, functioning as a scheduled stop from late spring to early autumn and as a flag-stop the rest of the year.

Map of Brookdale, Santa Cruz Co., Cal., published by the Union Litho Company for James H. Logan, 1910. [Courtesy Library of Congress]

Brookdale became a tourism boomtown. Grover Island was sold in late 1902 to Arthur H. Breed, city auditor of Oakland, who renamed it Huckleberry Island and quickly began selling lots to hand-selected friends. Between the County Road and the river, fifteen lots were laid out and four permanent cottages soon erected. On the west side of the County Road, Lafayette Grover enlarged and expanded his summer residence Minnehaha, named after a character in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, into a boarding house to be run by Augusta “Gussie” Heubeling. And as part of their first promotion drive, Grover and Logan installed electrical lighting, sewage, and telephone services throughout the community. To manage this new resort and oversee property sales, the partners founded the Brookdale Land Company around May 1903, with Logan serving as site manager and Grover keeping the books and managing advertising. They went their separate ways at the end of 1905, leaving Logan in sole charge of Brookdale.

Entrance to The Brookdale, circa 1920. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

The same year, The Brookdale opened as the first dedicated hotel in the hamlet. Madame N.M. Du Quoy ran the hotel from 1905 until 1910 on behalf of the Brookdale Land Company. In early 1911, Logan sold most of the remaining undeveloped land in Brookdale to John Dubuis, while he sold his interest in the developed parts of the community to the Santa Cruz Emporium Company, run by William M. Aydelotte, in February, including The Brookdale, the town’s general store, the Chateau, the Cuckoo Cottage, Rose Cottage, Near Spring Cottage, the community dance hall, a stable, and a warehouse. At the same time, Du Quoy bought Logan’s home on Cascade Street—formerly The Cascades and renamed by her Burlwood—and converted it into a new hotel. Logan’s interest in Brookdale should have ended with these sales, but Dubuis defaulted on his payments in early 1912 and Logan petitioned to have the sale rendered void. Instead, Dubuis’ property went up for auction in March and was sold to Theodore A. Bell. By 1914, Bell and Logan must have come to some agreement as both began selling property in the area and Logan began the erection of the two-story commercial building at the corner of Pacific Street, where the general store and post office later relocated.

Brookdale passenger shelter and office with a keg on a handcart outside, circa 1918. [Courtesy George Pepper – colorized using MyHeritage]

Brookdale held steady for the next decade as a vacation spot for travelers wishing to remain within easy reach of the Bay Area. Both trains and automobiles brought visitors to the mountain town, and the village evolved into a seasonal town complete with stores, homes, and amenities. But this also deprived the hamlet of the that made it desirable, namely untamed wilderness and rustic charm. Thus, in 1923, Dr. F. K. Camp of Pasadena purchased the aged Brookdale Hotel and began a comprehensive renovation and expansion. He demolished much of the old resort and in its place built 34 cottages of several rooms each featuring tiled baths, heating, lighting, and private garages. On the County Road, he erected a rustic lobby flanked by redwood columns, walled with creek stones, and heated by a floor-to-ceiling fireplace. Over Clear Creek, he created a sprawling dining room divided across three terraces and intersected by a waterfall and the babbling stream. And opposite the dining room he installed a pair of concrete swimming pools, steam heated and lighted from under water. The Brookdale Mountain Lodge and Redwood Terrace Gardens opened to the public on May 18, 1924 to great fanfare. Over the next several years, Hollywood celebrities visited the hotel and dined at the Brook Room, making the hotel famous on the Central Coast.

Colorized postcard of the Brookdale Lodge's Brook Room, circa 1924. [Courtesy ebay]

By this point, the importance of the railroad to the community had reached its end. The Brookdale Lodge was primarily a destination for automobile drivers cruising the highways of California on a never-ending journey of adventure and discovery. The train was just old fashioned, and every year fewer and fewer people were taking it to Brookdale. Passenger service along the Boulder Creek Branch ended sometime after summer 1930 and never resumed. All public transportation to Brookdale after this point was by Pacific Greyhound buses. When the tracks were removed in the spring of 1934, most residents probably sighed in relief since it meant an end to the occasional freight trains interrupting their rural solitude.

The site of Brookdale Station today, looking southeast down the right-of-way, October 3, 2013. [Photo by Derek R. Whaley]

The station shelter was sold at auction and may have been converted into a cottage. One of the station signs eventually found its way to the San Lorenzo Valley Museum, though it has been shortened on both sides to allow it to fit atop a fireplace mantle. Most of the right-of-way was sold but small sections survive over Clear Creek, on the banks of the San Lorenzo River, and on Huckleberry Island. After weathering the Great Depression, Dr. Camp sold the Brookdale Lodge in 1945 and it soon after passed to Barney Marrow, who owned the Brookdale Inn across the County Road. During Marrow’s years of ownership, the lodge gained an unsavory reputation that stayed with the hotel to the present. The lodge continued to change hands over the decades and suffered substantial fires in 1956, 2005, and 2009, leading to its condemnation in 2011. The Brookdale Lodge is now under the ownership of Pravin and Naina Patel and reopened in July 2025 following many years of extensive renovation work.

Citations & Credits:

• Bender, Henry E., Jr. “SP Boulder Creek Branch (ex-South Pacific Coast Ry.)” [SP22A]. April 2019.
• Chown, Jon. “New Chapter Starts at Brookdale Lodge,” Times Publishing Group Inc. August 4, 2025.
• Gibson, Ross Eric. “Historical Memories Haunt Brookdale.” From San Jose Mercury News, 10/20/1993, 4B.
• San Francisco Chronicle, Santa Cruz Evening News, Evening Sentinel, Morning Sentinel, Sentinel, and Surf, various articles, 1887–1924.
• Southern Pacific Railroad, various material, 1892–1931.
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA: Zayante Publishing, 2015.

Stations: New Brighton

Much like Robroy to the east, New Brighton served as a resort flag stop throughout its entire existence, catering specifically to a hotel and campground situated on a coastal terrace roughly midway between Aptos and Capitola stations. This area had been granted to Martina Castro as Rancho Soquel by the Mexican government on August 2, 1834. On August 28, 1850, Castro partitioned her property between her eight children, with this specific section passing to her second child, María Luisa Cota, wife to Jean Richard Fourcade, a French immigrant who adopted the Spanish name Ricardo Juan. While the subsequent sequence of events is not entirely clear, on January 19, 1863, the Fourcades’ 124-acre property were sold at a sheriff’s auction to Jeremiah David Hyde. Hyde was co-owner of the Santa Cruz Sentinel but left the next year for Visalia, where he became a prominent entrepreneur. His brother, Richard Eltinge Hyde, who ran a mercantile store downtown, briefly took over his brother’s affairs and properties before following him to Tulare County around 1867. Why the Hydes were interested in this section far away from downtown Santa Cruz is unknown—it may have simply been a real estate investment.

Pathfinders at New Brighton Beach, circa 1929. [Courtesy Pathfinders Club of San Jose – colorized using MyHeritage]

Prior to leaving Santa Cruz, Richard sold the property on April 20, 1866, to Thomas Fallon. Fallon, a brother-in-law to the Fourcades, wanted to harvest, process, and ship timber cut on his lands in the Soquel and Aptos forests. Hyde’s property was a perfect solution and was large enough for a sawmill and lumber yard. He also purchased an easement through Benjamin Porter’s adjacent land to the north to allow him to transport timber from his forest tracts to his mill and yard. Down a gully along the east border of the property, Fallon built a road to the beach where he may have erected a short pier. Little is known about this lumber operation or how long it operated.

The Chinese fishing community near New Brighton Beach, likely after it had already moved east toward Aptos or beyond, circa early 1880s. [Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

In 1874, grading crews of the Santa Cruz Railroad wrapped around the northern boundary of Fallon’s property. Even before the railroad was completed in 1876, former Chinese laborers set up a fishing colony on the beach just to the west of Fallon’s property, which soon became known as China Beach. Hundreds of boxes of fish were sent seasonally to nearby Soquel and Aptos Stations, with up to half of the county’s fish exports derived from this colony in 1877. The Chinese lived in ramshackle plank buildings constructed directly on the beach and used shallow hulled boats and seine nets to catch their fish. The close proximity of the colony to Fallon’s property led his property manager to evict the camp in 1878, even though it was technically on Hihn’s property. The fishermen moved east of the property boundary toward Aptos and continued moving annually until forced out of the county entirely in 1888.

Map of the Fallon Estate and New Brighton resort, undated. [Santa Cruz GIS A11-014]

The removal of the Chinese from the beach coincided with Fallon’s second attempt to profit off his scenic clifftop property. In the summer of 1877, he hired Captain J. W. Hammond & Son to run a resort called Camp San Jose, likely reflecting Fallon’s desire to attract wealthy families from his hometown. Hammond built several rustic cottages and cleared and leveled an area for a campground overlooking the bay. He also erected a modest boarding house on the cliff. It provided year-round lodging for guests and its dining room doubled as a dance hall in the evenings. The former haulage road down the gully became the campground beach access path, while a pier was built or the former one restored. Hammond personally ran a charter tour boat service from the pier. The San Jose Republic noted that the beach was pure sand with no undertow, two praises that were repeated over the years.

A group of people picnicking on New Brighton Beach, circa 1910s. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

The Santa Cruz Railroad probably established its flag stop at Camp San Jose in 1877, though the first mention of it is in the following year. While no photographs or official information regarding a station structure exists, the Sentinel reported in July 1880 that several San José boys vandalized the depot by tearing off the railing. The same article suggest that the structure was not railroad property, but rather Fallon’s. Andrew J. Hatch’s Official Map of Santa Cruz County, published in 1889, also implies a structure was located on the northeastern corner of the estate. The station appeared on public timetables from June 1881, shortly after the line was taken over by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Only the daily train in each direction stopped there.

Santa Cruz Sentinel advertisement for the New Brighton Hotel at Camp San Jose during the time of the Mangenbergs' management, published July 15, 1882.

The Hammonds ran Camp San Jose through the summer of 1881. By the end of their tenure, the resort had seen better days. As soon as Fallon took control of his property, he began making improvements. He planted thousands of ornamental and shade trees and laid out new pathways. He improved the camp’s large barn and outbuildings, and erected a two-story addition to the boarding house that could now support thirty bedrooms, in addition to several cottages. Fallon also probably demolished the pier at this time. A Sentinel article at the time likened the property to Brighton, England, because “as the visitor looks up and down the beach and out on the endless expanse of the ever-moving ocean, he, in imagination, sees the elite of Europe gathered on the deep-sounding sea shore.” Prior to the start of the 1882 season, Fallon leased the property to Kimball & Company, who hired Guido Mangenberg of San Francisco to run it. One of them, although it is unclear who, christened the boarding house the New Brighton Hotel.

Two women posing wearing seaweed dresses at New Brighton Beach, 1925. [Courtesy Capitola Museum – colorized using MyHeritage]

The hotel was opened in a grand celebration in June 1882. With the new additions came a bar room designed in imitation of a Comstock mine, which the Sentinel noted “is a beauty in its way.” The Mangenbergs began pushing the New Brighton Hotel as a destination resort, moving Camp San Jose down a line in advertisements. Fallon, either leading the charge or following the Mangenbergs’ lead, announced in December that Camp San Jose would be permanently rebranded New Brighton. Southern Pacific also acknowledged this change from October 28, 1882, when it renamed the station “New Brighton (Camp San Jose)” on timetables. Almost all mention of the old name disappeared by mid-1884. The Mangenbergs only lasted two seasons. They left in November 1883 and opened Avalon Gardens in Capitola the next year. Even before this, Fallon was planning his next move. In fall 1882, he announced a plan to subdivide the property into lots to sell to seasonal campers, much like Pacific Grove across the bay. Fifteen of his San José friends pledged to buy lots. The predecessors of the homes on the beach today may have begun at this time.

Women preparing food at New Brighton, 1931. [Courtesy San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum – colorized using MyHeritage]

Still not ready to switch from resort owner to property developer, Fallon hired George Bailey of San Francisco to run the hotel and campground “as a quiet family resort” for the summer of 1884. He also left his bodyguard, Charles Barr, in New Brighton to act as his local agent. Barr assisted Bailey in daily operations there, though he was not known for his customer service etiquette. Prior to the start of the season, Fallon announced that a large and elegant new hotel would be erected. Tragically, these plans would never be realized. Fallon fell terminally ill from liver disease in the summer of 1884 and died on October 25, 1885. Immediately before his death, he leased 35 acres of the property—presumably encompassing all of the resort—to Barr for a five-year-span at $100 per year beginning November 1. Shortly afterwards, Emmanuel T. Trout sued Fallon’s estate to recover nearly $2,000 that he had spent maintaining the New Brighton resort, though when precisely he was responsible for this is unclear. Trout may have been hired to upgrade the property after the Hammonds left in 1881, or he may have served as property manager before Barr leased the property.

Landslide on the Southern Pacific track west of New Brighton along Park Avenue, 1909. [From the Neil Vodden Collection, courtesy Jack Hanson – colorized using MyHeritage]

The aftermath of Fallon’s death led to the temporary collapse of New Brighton as a resort. The name quickly became associated with the beach rather than its namesake hotel on the cliff’s edge, though the boarding house remained a feature until it was demolished in 1939. Despite its seeming decline, in January 1887 the station appeared in Southern Pacific agency books for the first time, while on July 10 it also appeared on employee timetables. However, the station structure disappears from all sources shortly afterwards and was likely demolished sometime in the early 1890s. In July 1890, the resort was subdivided into five lots averaging eight acres each and transferred to Emmanuel Trout, William Fallon, Isabelle Brittan, and Fallon’s ex-wife, Carmel. Following the death of Trout in 1897, Carmel sued his estate to reclaim the property and by February 1898, she had purchased the other three lots. Earlier, in November 28, 1896, the public railroad timetable was reformatted and New Brighton disappeared. It was removed from agency books and employee timetables the next year. Carmel transferred her newly-consolidated property sometime in the early twentieth century to a niece, Amelia Littlejohn, and her husband, Robert Parker, who continued to run the resort as a campground and picnic area.

Map of the Partition of the tract of land known as New Brighton, January 31, 1898. [Santa Cruz GIS 012M16]

The enduring popularity of New Brighton’s beach in the early 1900s prompted Southern Pacific to re-establish the station, although the location was only marked with a simple sign and never featured any services or facilities. It was first listed as an additional stop on employee timetables on December 1, 1901. In September 1907, it was added to the schedule of stations, while in January 1908 it returned to agency books as well. Despite this sudden elevation in status, nothing seems to have changed at New Brighton during this time—the nearby beach remained a tourist destination each summer, picnickers returned year after year to Fallon’s forest for feasting and dancing, and campers continued to pitch their tents on the old Camp San Jose site. The old hotel and dance hall may have returned to purpose, but neither are mentioned in the sources. From all appearances, the resort had evolved into an informal venue for countless summertime events and the railroad took advantage of this fact.

Clifftop cabins at New Brighton resort, early 1930s [Courtesy Harry Kay – colorized by MyHeritage]

Amelia Parker’s death in November 1924 led to Robert’s retirement the next year. The property was acquired by a cousin, Geraldine G. Moore, a granddaughter of Thomas Fallon. She leased the resort to Frank Thrane of San Francisco, who planned to add a service station, grocery store, and ice cream stand. It is unclear if these were ever built, but Thrane built a new dance hall, erected new cottages atop the cliffs, and added an electric-powered community kitchen. In 1933, the adjacent property once belonging to Frederick Hihn was sold to the State of California to create what would eventually be named New Brighton State Beach. The large undeveloped western half of the Fallon estate, which had long served as the Parker family’s farm, was soon acquired by the state and developed into the state park’s campground. The resort, though, remained separate despite the fact that the state park took its name as its own. Over the next several years, waves of Civilian Conservation Corps recruits operated out of nearby Camp New Brighton (the National Guard’s former Camp McQuaide) to build seawalls, nature paths, camp sites, and parking lots for the new state park.

The Civilian Conservation Corps station at Capitola called Camp New Brighton, 1938. [Annual Report of Fresno District, CCC – colorized using MyHeritage]

This heavy activity in the area may have helped keep railroad passenger service on the Santa Cruz Branch alive through most of the Great Depression. Indeed, New Brighton Station survived beyond the end of regular passenger service in 1938. It remained available for excursion trains, but few likely stopped there, especially after the United Stated entered World War II. Southern Pacific petitioned for the station’s abandonment on April 9, 1946, stating that no passenger or freight business had been transacted there for over two years. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved and the station was abandoned on May 5. Because there were no structures other than a sign, there is no surviving evidence of the station today. The area is now heavily overgrown with eucalyptus and ivy.

Map of the Lands of the Potbelly Beach Club, October 1982. [Santa Cruz GIS A80-658]

The New Brighton resort property contracted gradually from the 1950s. Before 1955, the single-road subdivision along Pinetree Lane in the forest Thomas Fallon had planted seventy years earlier was developed. Geraldine Moore and her son, John W. Sinclair, also sold several lots atop the cliff, where they kept their own home as well. Meanwhile, Moore and her predecessors had leased out portions of the beach for shacks and cottages. In an attempt to head off an eminent domain land grab from the state, which hoped to annex the New Brighton resort property to the state park, mother and son sold the beach in 1965 to their tenants, who organized themselves into the Potbelly Beach Club. Moore and Sinclair remained members of the club and residents until their deaths in 1973 and 1988 respectively. The Potbelly Beach Club survives today as a private seaside community, a last reminder of a simpler time when vacationers spent the entire summer at the beach.

Members of the Ludden and Franich families at their beachhouses on New Brighton Beach, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel August 12, 1962. [Colorized using MyHeritage]

Citations & Credits:

• Robert R. Baldwin, “Record of Survey Map of the Lands of the Potbelly Beach Club, located in Soquel Rancho” (May 1967). [Santa Cruz County GIS A80-658]
• Henry E. Bender, Jr., “SP Santa Cruz Branch [SP72]” (December 2017).
• Margaret Koch, “Ripples From The Past,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, 10/21/1973, 21:1-5.
• Sandy Lydon, Chinese Gold: The Chinese in the Monterey Bay Region, 20th anniversary edition (Capitola, CA: Capitola Book Company, 2008).
• “Map of Partition of the Tract of Land Known as New Brighton, Part of the Rancho Soquel in the County of Santa Cruz,” surveyed July 1980 by Wright and Pioda, filed for record January 31, 1898 by Edward Martin, county recorder, by B. R. Martin, deputy recorder. [Santa Cruz County GIS 012M16]
• "New Brighton Road, Soq. Ro." [Santa Cruz County GIS A11-014]
• Ronald G. Powell, The Tragedy of Martina Castro: Part One of the History of Rancho Soquel Augmentation (Santa Cruz, CA: Zayante Publishing, 2020). [Amazon link]
• Railroad Commission of the State of California, Decision No. 38845 (April 9, 1946).
• Santa Cruz Evening News, Santa Cruz Evening Sentinel, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Santa Cruz Sentinel–News, and Santa Cruz Surf, various articles.
• Southern Pacific Railroad, timetables and agency books (1887–1908).
• Carolyn Swift, "Draft Historic Context Statement for the City of Capitola" (June 24, 2004).

Bridges: North Coast Fills

The greatest engineering feat in Santa Cruz County’s history still survives to this day, though most people think little of it if they notice it at all. From October 1905 to June 1907, the quarrelsome Southern Pacific Railroad and Ocean Shore Railway put aside their differences to quickly and efficiently build an 11-mile-long line through the West Side of Santa Cruz to Davenport. To ensure the straightest and most level route possible, the companies approved the construction of at least thirteen trestles, which were afterwards filled with millions of cubic feet of rubble to support three standard-gauge tracks at the crest. These colossal structures remain today as testaments to the durability of early 20th century engineering and to the bold ambitions that motivated Progressive Era capitalists.

Shattuck & Desmond work crews in the process of filling the tall, slightly slumped trestle over Majors Creek, 1906. [Covello & Covello – Colorized using DeOldify]

Although the Southern Pacific’s Coast Line Railway was the first to incorporate in April 1905, it was the Ocean Shore Railway, incorporated a month later, that made the first move toward realizing its goal of connecting San Francisco and Santa Cruz via a coastal route. Grading for the Ocean Shore Railway began along the shoreline at Waddell Creek on June 1, 1905, an action that was intended to steal the march from the Coast Line Railway. The gambit forced Southern Pacific to show its cards. The company give up surveying beyond Agua Puerca Creek and it was revealed in August that Southern Pacific had acquired the exclusive contract to deliver the machinery of the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company to the site of the planned quarry and refinery on San Vicente Creek by January 1, 1906. In addition, the railroad would become the sole rail freight carrier for the plant. But to secure these contracts, Southern Pacific needed to build a railroad to Davenport.

Thus, the race was on. Both railroads obtained most of their rights-of-way to the cement plant site by August 1905, but neither managed to secure an uninterrupted route. Instead, the rights-of-way crisscrossed each other constantly from Wilder’s Ranch to San Vicente Creek. They also crossed the county road at least six times, meaning there would be several grade crossings. None of this was appealing to the railroads or residents. In late June, T. J. Wilson of the Coast Line Railway and L. E. Rankin of the Ocean Shore Railway, both in charge of the rights-of-way of their respective railroads, met in Santa Cruz to discuss the issues with their routes. Meanwhile, Pratchner & Company began grading the Ocean Shore through the West Side of Santa Cruz.

The Wilder's Gulch fill, from "Plans of Oceanshore RR Co.," 1912.

Earlier, at the end of June, the Ocean Shore was granted permission to bridge Wilder Gulch and Sandy Flat, though it agreed not to fill these two trestles since the Wilder family wished to retain its view of and access to the Pacific Ocean. Once construction began a few weeks later, though, the railroad decided to install a fill Wilder Gulch anyway. In fact, this is the only substantial gulch on the line that did not host a trestle first. After consulting his lawyer, D. D. Wilder went to protest the fill at the company’s office in San Francisco. Despite this, the Ocean Shore continued construction, completing the fill in late November. Probably as part of a settlement with the family, the company committed to constructing a permanent trestle over Sandy Flat, as had been originally agreed.

The start of construction on the Coast Line Railway on the bluff above the Santa Cruz Union Depot yard, late 1905. [Courtesy ebay – colorized using MyHeritage]

Continued feuding and sabotage between the two railroads and unrelated problems elsewhere delayed the start of construction of the Coast Line Railway. While Southern Pacific had blocked the Ocean Shore Railway’s access to the Santa Cruz Beach for its proposed wharf, Ocean Shore in turn had blocked the Coast Line’s ability to cross through the Coast Dairies Company’s property, which was necessary for it to reach the plant site. No further progress could be made by either company and Southern Pacific would soon be forced to renege on its contract with the cement company. After several meetings, the two rivals came to an arrangement where rights-of-way would be exchanged, access at either end would be granted, the Ocean Shore would deliver the machinery for Southern Pacific as a contractor, and the two railroads would run parallel between Lombardi Gulch and the plant site, with Ocean Shore paying two-thirds of the cost since it intended to build two tracks.

The Lombardi Gulch fill, from "Plans of Oceanshore RR Co.," 1912.

The San Francisco Construction Company was hired to build the joint railroads from the Santa Cruz city limit at Moore Creek to the cement plant, as well as the Ocean Shore’s extension to Scott Creek. It subcontracted Pratchner & Chadwick to construct drainage tunnels and grade the right-of-way, while Shattuck & Desmond of Los Angeles were hired to build the trestle bridges and fill them. Hunter Bros. of Oakland were recruited to construct the Ocean Shore’s extension to Scott Creek. With speed the new priority, the plan shifted to constructing a single line of rail in order to fulfil the cement plant contract as close to the deadline as possible. It was understood that this line would afterwards become the first of the Ocean Shore Railway’s two tracks. Shattuck & Desmond also held the contract for the Coast Line Railway within the city limits, and it got to work in October to connect the line from the Santa Cruz Union Depot yard to the first meeting point of the two railroads just before the fill over Wilder Gulch, where equipment would be transferred between the two railroads once the line was completed to the plant site.

A double-headed Southern Pacific excursion train crossing the company's trestle over Sandy Gulch, ca 1947. [Courtesy Jim Vail – colorized using MyHeritage]

With all agreements made and contracts signed, construction resumed at a breakneck pace. Work began on the Ocean Shore’s 465-foot-long Sandy Flat trestle in mid-October. The wood for all the trestles came from Oregon via ships that deposited pilings and lumber on Parsons and Laguna Beaches. Steam donkeys installed atop the adjacent cliffs hauled the wood to the railroad grade, where other donkey engines moved it to the work site. This allowed bridges to be constructed quickly, though poorly since they were designed to be used only briefly. Unique among the trestles on the Ocean Shore line, the Sandy Flat trestle was designed to support a double track, since the railroad was contractually prohibited from filling the flat. Despite the design, the bridge likely never hosted a second set of rails since the Ocean Shore failed to install its second track. The Sandy Flat trestle was completed before the end of October, by which point construction crews had already shifted to a 300-foot-long trestle over Lombardi Gulch, the first joint bridge with the Coast Line Railway.

Ocean Shore Railway auditor Ted F. Wurm on right with family members standing on a trestle, presumably over Laguna Creek due to the parallel Coast Road to the right, 1906. [Marvin T. Maynard – Colorized using DeOldify]

Two joint trestles over Little Baldwin Creek and Baldwin Creek at Parson’s Beach—measuring 300 feet and 660 feet respectively—came next and were finished in mid-November. By early December, work was already nearing completion on the trestle over Majors Creek. Indeed, on December 9, the Ocean Shore’s construction train could travel nearly 7.5 miles up the coast to work on the deep cut through the Enright and Scaroni properties. Before work on the 1,100-foot-long Laguna Creek trestle was completed in late December, some bridge builders had already moved north to Yellow Bank. However, grading beyond Yellow Bank proved difficult, and the Coast Line Railway was still stuck in the West Side of Santa Cruz. This meant that neither railroad would be able to ship the first cars of machinery to the cement plant site by the first day of the new year. Fortunately for Southern Pacific and its contract, the cement company was also running behind schedule and had only sent six cars to Santa Cruz. The only realistic option was for all three parties to continue working toward their mutual goals and allow the deadline to pass.

An Ocean Shore Railway construction train atop a bridge near Davenport, 1906. [Western Railroader – Colorized using DeOldify]

In January 1906, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that crews were busy boring tunnels through the sandstone bluffs, a necessary step before the trestles could be filled. The Yellow Bank trestle was completed in mid-January allowing crews to move to the last two substantial trestles, over Liddell and San Vicente Creeks. Progress was slowed by heavy rains that hampered construction efforts across the line and caused the trestles at Baldwin and Laguna Creeks to settle. Both were repaired within a week and trackage was extended to the south bank of Liddell Creek by the first week of February. The Liddell trestle was completed in mid-February, even as heavy rains once more incapacitated the now-partially-filled trestles at Baldwin and Laguna Creeks. These rains also delayed completion of the San Vicente Creek trestle, though the track was extended to its southern edge by mid-March. This final trestle was completed the first week of April.

The Baldwin Creek fills at Parson's Beach, from "Plans of Oceanshore RR Co.," 1912.

As the Ocean Shore Railway was wrapping up construction of the first 11 miles of the route, the Coast Line Railway was finally making progress out of Santa Cruz. Construction of the trestle over Moore’s Creek delayed the company for at least a month, while further effort was required to widen and reinforce the fill at Wilder Gulch to allow the two lines to connect. Both the connection of the lines and the completion of the track to San Vicente were completed in the second week of April. This allowed Southern Pacific to finally haul the cement company’s machinery from a long siding on the Moore Ranch to the plant site beginning around April 15, 1906. Seventy carloads of machinery had accumulated on the siding and at the freight yard by this point. However, several factors slowed the delivery of machinery to the plant site, most notably the relatively low strength of the trestles and the fact that there were no sidings or spurs yet at the plant site. This meant that short trains of only a few cars had to continuously shuttle machinery and empty flatcars between Santa Cruz and the plant site, a tiresome and time-consuming process that further delayed construction of the plant.

The Yellow Bank fills and Coast Road realignment, from "Plans of Oceanshore RR Co.," 1912.

Simultaneously, Shattuck & Desmond’s crews shifted focus from bridge-building to bridge-filling. The Ocean Shore Railway had always planned to fill its trestles along the coast—it had little choice since it planned to run two parallel tracks with electrical equipment, which was a lot to ask from a trestle. Thus, all the trestles were relatively hastily built since they were never expected to support heavy or regular rail traffic. After its agreement with Southern Pacific, Ocean Shore expanded its plan to run three parallel tracks, with the Ocean Shore’s two tracks on the ocean side and the Coast Line’s track on the inland side. The width of the fills at the top were expected to be between 36 and 47 feet. Three to four steam shovels were eventually used to accomplish the monumental task.

The long fill over San Vicente Creek, from "Plans of Oceanshore RR Co.," 1912.

The first trestle to be filled was across Baldwin Creek, beginning in early February 1906. At Major’s Creek, an agreement was reached with the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors to incorporate the county road into the fill. Doing so eliminated a dangerous curve on the road and bypassed a grade crossing and short overhead railroad bridge. Similar agreements were made at Enright, where the county road was moved inland to avoid grade crossings, and at Yellow Bank, where the highway was redirected away from the fill. In late March, Shattuck & Desmond relocated its camp to Laguna Creek in order to fill the Laguna Creek and Yellow Bank trestles. Only around a third of the trestles had been filled at the time of the San Francisco Earthquake on April 18, which halted further progress for three and a half months. The Coast Line Railway had lain its rails to the south end of the Lombardi Creek trestle, but could go no further.

An Ocean Shore Railway train on a high fill hauling equipment, presumably for the cement plant, circa 1906. [Western Railroader – Colorized using DeOldify]

As work resumed in August, the Coast Line Railway was finally able to begin grading beyond the Wilder property. Its first task was to widen cuts to make space for a second set of rails. This required heavy use of dynamite in some places, which spread debris across the right-of-way and forced the suspension of all passenger and some freight service on the Ocean Shore line. The blasted rubble was transferred to waiting ballast cars, which took the aggregate to the nearest trestle to serve as fill. Making cuts, transferring rubble, importing additional aggregate from nearby quarries and the ruins of San Francisco, and dumping them to create towering fills took a lot of time and energy, leading to further delays. The largest fill across San Vicente Creek just south of the cement plant was 1,400 feet long and was estimated to contain approximately 1,250,000 cubic feet of material, primarily rock and shale.

An Ocean Shore construction train dumping rocks below the bridge over San Vicente Creek, circa May 1907. [Uncertain provenance – Colorized using DeOldify]

The Coast Line resumed laying rails in November 1906 and installed them whenever a fill or cut was ready, leading to piecemeal sections of track across the line that were gradually connected together. The completion of the San Vicente Creek fill in mid-June 1907, followed shortly afterwards by the installation of the Coast Line rails across it, marked the successful end to the joint construction project between the Ocean Shore Railway and Southern Pacific Railroad. Shattuck & Desmond, working for the Ocean Shore Railway on its longer route, constructed several additional fills to the north across Agua Puerca and Molino Creeks and smaller gulches in May and June 1907 before concluding the Ocean Shore’s first phase of construction in Santa Cruz County.

The single surviving Southern Pacific Railroad tracks crossing the San Vicente Creek fill, with the adjacent Ocean Shore line a sandy pathway beside it, circa 1930. Davenport Wharf and a warehouse can be seen in the distance. [Courtesy WorthPoint – colorized using MyHeritage]

The legacy of the joint Ocean Shore–Coast Line construction project to Davenport and beyond is still felt in many places along the North Coast today. For decades, the Southern Pacific Railroad’s wooden trestle over Sandy Flat, built independently sometime in 1906, welcomed picknickers, trainspotters, and photographers before it was finally filled, probably in the 1960s or 1970s. The joint fill at Majors Creek is now shared by Highway 1, while three short Ocean Shore fills north of Davenport have been repurposed for the highway.

The San Vicente Creek drainage tunnel below the former joint Ocean Shore–Coast Line Railway trackage, June 16, 2007, by Jef Poskanzer. [Courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Beneath every single fill, the original tunnels still drain creeks and lagoons, rarely requiring maintenance despite being over a century old. Though mostly out of use since the closure of the cement plant in 2010, the Southern Pacific Railroad’s former right-of-way, now owned by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, officially remains an active line with tentative plans for reactivation in the near future. Much of the adjacent Ocean Shore Railway right-of-way remains intact and is used by local farmers as a makeshift road, though parts will be repurposed for the planned Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail Network.

Citations & Credits:

• Ocean Shore Railroad, "Plans of Oceanshore RR Co.," 1912, based on survey circa 1906.
• Southern Pacific Railroad, maps and plans, California State Archives.
• Various newspaper articles from the Santa Cruz Morning, Evening, and Weekly Sentinel; The Pajaronian; and the Santa Cruz Surf.

Company: White and DeHart Company

Logging operations in the hills above Watsonville were a slower affair than similar harvesting efforts in the San Lorenzo Valley and along Aptos Creek and its tributaries. Yet that did not dissuade William “Bill” DeHart from giving the matter his full attention. DeHart moved to Santa Cruz County in 1869 after a colorful career in the U.S. Army and Marines during the Civil War. Following the war, he became a blacksmith in Vicksburg, Mississippi, bringing that trade with him to Whiskey Hill, now Freedom. In 1875, he bought a 160-acre farm and became an orchardist growing pears, apricots, and peaches. But the hills were calling.

Unidentified lumber mill in the Santa Cruz Mountains, ca 1890. [University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

In late 1887, DeHart partnered with Edward White, an early resident of Watsonville, in purchasing milling equipment to erect a sawmill on Mt. Madonna near Watsonville. For the task, White had acquired two large lots encompassing Banks Canyon, through which Casserly Creek flows, located due east of the old toll road to San José, now Mt. Madonna Road. Today, this is located in the part of Mount Madonna County Park that was transferred from Santa Cruz County to Santa Clara County in 1971. The tracts had an estimated yield of 7,000,000 board feet of lumber and the mill, under the supervision of DeHart, had a capacity of 15,000 board feet per day. The partners specialized in splitstuff, such as shingles and shakes, and made fruit boxes for customers throughout the Central Coast. Success came quickly—they incorporated their business relationship on November 2, 1889 as the White & DeHart Company. Yet fears were mounting that most of the remaining old growth timber on the hills would soon be harvested, ending an industry that had helped put Watsonville on the map.

Advertisement for White & DeHart's lumber mill in the Salinas Daily Journal, published June 9, 1889.

After three years in Banks Canyon, White & DeHart relocated to the Thompson Tract at Mill Canyon near Casserly Ridge, about five miles from Watsonville. Mill crews worked fast to move the machinery and erect the new mill, finishing the job sometime in mid June 1891. Meanwhile, fellers in the surrounding forest cleared several acres in preparation for the first season at the new site. Despite two lucrative harvests, White & DeHart’s second mill shut down permanently following the 1892 season due to lack of available timber.

Sanborn Fire Insurance plan showing the original layout of the White & DeHart Company's box factory on Walker Street before improvements and expansion, 1902. [Library of Congress]

Without timber to harvest and with a slumped lumber market, the partners pivoted to box-making for all of the fruit growers in the Pajaro Valley. They leased property on Walker Street near the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Watsonville Depot and built a box factory and feed mill. The mill produced a wide range of agricultural products, including fruit boxes, berry crates, and baskets, as well as a small production of lumber and feed. During the busy months, up to fifty people were employed to make tens of thousands of baskets and boxes a day. Without a direct source of timber, the company relied on redwood and pine imported from elsewhere in California for its products.

Advertisement for White & DeHart Company's box factory in The Pajaronian, published October 5, 1893.

After a six season hiatus, White & DeHart returned to milling in February 1899 and purchased stumpage rights to M. J. Hughes’ property on Rancho Salsipuedes along Hughes Creek, which the firm estimated had about 3,000,000 board feet of lumber. The narrow canyon, located about midway between the company’s previous two mills, would take no more than two seasons to harvest and the difficulty of moving a mill to the site for such a small return led the partners to focus primarily on extracting splitstuff to construct their boxes. Earlier, in November 1896, the partners had reincorporated, possibly in preparation for Edward White’s departure in 1899. White had worked with DeHart for over a decade but sold his interest to his partner, who in turn made his son, Joseph, secretary of the firm.

Sanborn Fire Insurance map showing the full extent of the White & DeHart Company box mill on Walker Street following expansions, October 1908 (updated 1911). [UC Santa Cruz]

Under the control of the DeHart family, the company expanded quickly and purchased five adjacent lots around 1900 to support its operations. The box mill vastly increased its output to support the rapidly-growing apple trade. The feed mill was moved to a new two-story building with storage for 15,000 sacks of grain. The small lumber mill on site was completely overhauled and its equipment replaced with higher capacity and heavier duty machinery. Another two-story building was devoted exclusively to manufacturing berry baskets and storing apple boxes. And at the back of the property, a blacksmith shop continuously produced wire, nails, and other material required for the factory. The company kept its corporate office on Second Street beside the mill and several staff cottages were located on nearby streets to lessen the commute.

On May 13, 1904, White and DeHart reunited as directors of the Hatfield Lumber Company alongside D. W. Johnston, J. W. Forgeus, and William J. McGrath. The group had acquired an untouched tract of redwoods on Hatfield Creek, a tributary of Pescadero Creek north of Chittenden on lands owned by the Casserly and Kelly families. Despite assurances in The Pajaronian that the firm was separate from White & DeHart, the editor clarified that the firm “will cut, haul and saw the logs for the Hatfield company,” suggesting a close relationship. By early June, the company was already contracted to ship 100 carloads of lumber, with a new 689-foot-long spur installed beside the Southern Pacific station at Chittenden. Most of the cut timber was taken to the White & DeHart box factory in Watsonville where it was turned into lumber. It then went to a newly-built Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company yard in Watsonville to be sold.

Hatfield Lumber appears to have initially met with bad luck early in its operation. A forest fire in early November burned its way through Pescadero Creek canyon, damaging equipment and ruining timber. The area was severely impacted in 1906 by the earthquake, as well, with the San Andreas fault passing almost directly through the canyon. High demand for lumber from the people of San Francisco, however, led the company to resume operations in March 1907 on Hatfield Creek. White & DeHart built a 30,000 board feet capacity sawmill near Chittenden station, thereby eliminating the need to ship logs to Watsonville on flatcars. The first commercial load was sent to Watsonville on July 4, 1907.

A rift formed at Chittenden near Soda Lake with the southern Santa Cruz Mountains in the distance, 1906. Photo by Harold W. Fairbanks. [UC Berkley, Bancroft Library – colorized using MyHeritage]

Operations on Hatfield Creek and elsewhere on Pescadero Creek continued with only minor problems for the next three seasons. In 1908, the Independent Lumber Company purchased most of the lumber for sale at its yard in Pajaro, with the remaining timber sent to the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company yard in San José. Operations along Hatfield Creek ended in November 1909 with insufficient timber left to justify another season. DeHart dismantled the mill and shipped the mill and remaining lumber to Watsonville. Hatfield continued to cut splitstuff on the property for two more years, with White & DeHart taking over from December 1911. Nonetheless, the closure of the lumber mill signalled the end of large-scale logging at the southernmost end of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The White & DeHart Company lingered a few more years at its Walker Street location. Tragedy struck the DeHart family in July 1914 when Joseph DeHart, secretary and son of William, died of a lung infection. The next year, a fire broke out on August 5 and rapidly consumed the company’s box factory. DeHart did not rebuild and allowed the business to lapse in February 1924. The property was purchased by the Pajaro Valley Cold Storage Company around 1919. The company’s tracts on Pescadero Creek, taken over by White & DeHart from the Hatfield company sometime in the early 1910s, were leased to the Mohawk Oil Company for drilling and prospecting in 1920. William DeHart died on May 20, 1928 at his home in Watsonville. Edward White, meanwhile, became the Commissioner for Immigration under President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 and was dismissed by President Warren Harding in 1923. He died in San Francisco on May 17,1931 at the age of 80.

Citations & Credits:

• Clark, Donald Thomas. Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary, Second Edition. Scotts Valley, CA Kestrel Press, 2008.
• Guinn, James Miller. History of the State of California and Biographical Record of Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties. Chicago Chapman Publishing, 1903.
• Hatch, Andrew J. "Official Map of Santa Cruz County." A. J. Hatch: San Francisco, 1889.
• Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Miscellaneous records.
• Various articles from the Pajaronian, Salinas Daily Journal, San Benito Advance, San Juan Mission News, Santa Cruz Evening News, Santa Cruz Sentinel, and Santa Cruz Surf.