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.

Companies: Coast Drum and Box Company

In the decade after the closure of the San Vicente Lumber Company plant at the northwestern boundary of the City of Santa Cruz, several small agricultural-oriented businesses sprang up along the Davenport Branch on the West Side between Natural Bridges Drive and Almar Avenue. One of the earliest was the Coast Drum and Box Company.

The Coast Drum and Box Company factory on Mission Street on fire, September 4, 1953. [Santa Cruz Sentinel-News – colorized using MyHeritage]

From early in its history, the business had a close relationship with the Half Moon Bay Drum and Box Company, which was incorporated in February 1923 in San Francisco as a packaging material maker catering to vegetable growers operating along the San Mateo County coastline. The business was initially run by Louis G. Pardini, A. Bartolozzi, R. Tomei, and C. Raffanti. Not much is known of the firm in the 1920s, but its main facility was located on Battery Street until March 1930, when a catastrophic fire leveled the three-story building. The firm rebuilt in Daly City, where it operated a large factory until May 1939, when it too burned down. Though the company continued to exist, it shifted its focus to the south.

The Half Moon Bay Drum and Box Company and Colma Vegetable Packing Association plants on fire in Daly City, May 28, 1939. [San Francisco Examiner – colorized using MyHeritage]

Meanwhile, in Santa Cruz County, the agricultural industry, especially along the North Coast, was growing rapidly. Artichoke and Brussels sprout, along with peas, had taken off as an industry in 1915. By the 1920s, it required its own packaging plants and related industries. Thus, sometime in the late 1920s, a group of farmers formed the Coast Drum and Box Company in Davenport beside the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The purpose of the business was to make drums, crates, boxes, and hampers for local growers, a task that employed seven men during the harvesting season. In August 1932, the group completed construction on a much-enlarged plant on property they had purchased property from Gilbert Caiocca. This was located on the east side of Davenport across from the main village and was erected by Palmer & Balsiger of Santa Cruz for $1,700. Archie Marracci of San Francisco served as manager of the plant during this time.

Things became more corporate in January 1934 when R. Willis of San Francisco took over the company. While daily operations did not change, new blood from the Bay Area was brought in that shifted the focus of the business. In 1935, Ed Marracci became owner of the company. Yet elsewhere, the Half Moon Bay Drum and Box Company was making inroads. Louis Pardini was named an officer of the Coast Drum and Box Company by September 1935. In May 1937, he took over, turning the company into a subsidiary of his own firm. Pardini appointed himself president while Albert A. Axelrod became secretary. Feeling that there was too much competition on the North Coast with the nearby Davenport Drum and Box Company, Pardini made the decision to move the company’s operations south.

Aerial photograph of the Coast Drum and Box Company factory, showing the railroad spur with boxcars and the new additions to the original plant, 1940. Photograph by Fairchild Aerial Surveys, Inc. [Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

Pardini immediately set to work finding a site for a new drum and box factory within the Santa Cruz city limits, ultimately settling on a site near Swift Street on Mission Street beside the railroad tracks. He hired Wilson & Castagnola, a local firm, to build a new plant for $15,762.50. The new drum-making facility and packing plant was jointly run by the company and farmers of the Santa Cruz Artichoke Growers’ Association, who had been advocating for a new plant closer to their fields. As a result, the facility catered to customers from West Side Santa Cruz to Laguna Creek—the boundary of the Coast Dairies property. In early September 1937, the Santa Cruz City Council authorized the installation of a spur across Swift Street to cater to the packing house. The facility was formally opened on September 19, 1937, and Thomas McCambridge, manager of the packing house in Seabright, was given management of this new plant as well.

The Coast Drum and Box Company did well on the West Side. Within just two years, it petitioned the City Council to build a $10,000 annex that more than doubled the size of the existing facility. The new buildings provided space for a dedicated box factory and a paraffin house where Brussels sprouts could be sealed. Due to the destruction of Pardini’s facility in Daly City in May 1939, the Half Moon Bay Drum and Box Company merged its operations with the Coast Drum and Box Company in Santa Cruz. This led to the year 1939 becoming the Santa Cruz-based company’s biggest year yet, with all of the artichoke and sprout harvest from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz packed and shipped from the Mission Street plant. The company employed around 80 workers that fall, making it seasonally one of the largest employers in the county. Each day, four to five boxcars left from the company’s siding on the Davenport Branch. The cars were loaded with hampers and containers made out of strips of basswood, each of which contained a bushel of vegetables.

The company was it its peak in the 1940s, with few events of note happening other than small fires breaking out occasionally at the plant. A minor addition to the complex was the erection of a machinery shed detached from the other buildings, which cost $5,000 when it was built in 1944. A small addition to the main building, costing $1,500, was made in November 1945. The company broke away from the Half Moon Bay company that same month, with Axelrod elected president and Gladys C. Okerstrom and R. J. Hecht joining as officers. Pardini stayed on as general manager until his death in 1951. A larger, albeit unremarkable addition to the complex came in April 1947, this one costing the firm $9,000. When Maywood Manufacturing Company relocated to Santa Cruz in December 1949, it leased space from Coast Drum and Box until it was forced out in mid-1951 to make room for corporate offices relocated from San Francisco.

More fires and lawsuits over workplace injuries and other incidents dominated the news throughout the 1950s. Emil C. Nissen of the American Box and Drum Corporation succeeded Axelrod as president of the company, effectively turning the business into a subsidiary of another firm. Daniel A. Whitehead, his son-in-law, became vice president and took over as general manager following Pardini’s death. By August 1953, the partners had managed to buy the shares of the Capurro, Chiappari, Falco, Marracci, and Church families, giving them an 80% controlling interest, with Margaret Bard the only notable holdout. Shortly afterwards, a catastrophic fire erupted in a warehouse at the factory causing $25,000 in damages, primarily to nailing machines, two cranes, a small lumber mill, and the warehouse itself. Fortunately, the plant was insured and the warehouse was quickly rebuilt.

A log being prepared for processing at the lumber mill inside the Santa Cruz Veneer Products factory on Mission Street, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on June 17, 1956. [Colorized using MyHeritage]

In December 1954, the company changed its name to the Santa Cruz Veneer Products Company. By this point, Nissen seems to have left the business and Whitehead was in full control. Nissen passed away in May 1967. In 1959, Whitehead made another expansion to the buildings, a $3,000 addition to the main complex to increase its lumber-making capacity to 45,000 board feet per day. This resulted in high quantities of basket bottoms, with excess timber being used for lumber, which was sold commercially. Despite the shift in focus getting the reluctant approval by the city planning commission, the lumber products failed to find a market. Whitehead listed the machinery for auction in 1961.

Aerial photograph of the Santa Cruz Veneers Products facility at its maximum extent, 1965. Photograph by Clyde Sunderland. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

Santa Cruz Veneer Products Company ceased to operate sometime in late 1966 following repeated complaints by neighbors over trash smoke and a slump in the labor market . Whitehead trialed running the business exclusively as a veneer manufacturer but this proved unprofitable. He went on to found Dan Whitehead Travel Agency, which he ran with his wife until his death in June 1981. In June 1967, the Santa Cruz Veneer Products property was listed for rent, with the railroad spur included as an incentive. The expansive yard in front of the building was soon leased for storing mobile homes, trailers, campers, and boats. With no patronage, the railroad spur was cut back around 1970 to the edge of the property, only catering to the adjacent Mondo Brothers warehouse. In June 1976, the City Planning Department rezoned the complex from industrial to commercial use, but few seemed interested in using the buildings on a long-term basis. Finally, in September 1983, Mission Industrial Lands, Inc, acquired the property and began its slow transition into a creative arts venue. In 1994, it was rebranded Mission Industrial Studios and began hosting art studios and workshops. Several arts and crafts businesses now use the space for woodworking, sewing, metalworking, sculpting, glass working, and art conservation.

Citations & Credits:

• Los Angeles Times, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Recorder, San Mateo Times, Santa Cruz Evening News, Santa Cruz Sentinel, and Santa Cruz Sentinel–News, various dates 1923–1994.

Stations: Yellow Bank

Nine miles north of Santa Cruz, the coastal terrace narrows to such a point that the mountains of the Coast Range nearly fall into the Pacific Ocean. Here there is little room for agricultural fields, yet bold dairy farmers and ranchers saw no obstacle to practicing their trades.

Rancho Arroyo de la Laguna had been pastureland since Mexican times. At some point in the early 1860s, William Elder & Company, a San Francisco dairy business, acquired most of the rancho from James and Squire Williams and soon operated a small dairy alongside Yellow Bank Creek. T. H. Hatch & Company took over the business in May 1866 and continued to run the North Coast dairy among its other operations. Hatch employed several overseers through the years, with William Chalmers in charge of the dairy throughout the 1870s and W. R. Shaw superintendent around 1880. Two Swiss dairy farmers, Jeremiah S. Respini and James Fillipini, likely had worked at Yellow Bank Dairy for several years when, in April 1882, they purchased Shaw’s interest in the company. Over the next decade, Respini gradually acquired the rest of the property.

Men milking cows probably at Yellow Bank Dairy on the Coast Road south of Davenport, ca 1910. [Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

Yellow Bank is a unique name in Santa Cruz County, obviously descriptive in nature but with an uncertain origin. The earliest recorded mention of the name appears in the Santa Cruz Sentinel in September 1873, where it is claimed that the name comes from the sulfurous nature of the creek that turns the banks a bright yellow. A year later, a different Sentinel article asserted that “it is derived from the fact that the earth in the vicinity is of a deep golden cast from the iron pyrites, and that the buildings [of the dairy] are painted yellow.” Modern sources attribute the name to rust iron bands of sedimentary injection deposits in the mudstone cliffs or more generally the yellowish hue of oxidized iron in the cliffs. In addition to the dark yellowish bands, the cliffs and hillsides also show blackish-blue bands indicative of oil-rich sand injections, the largest such outcropping in the world. The State Minerologist asserted in 1900 that some of these bands had been “blown up by heat” creating the yellow color, hence the source of the name. The presence of these bands prompted an ultimately unsuccessful oil speculation frenzy on the property in 1901.

As with all of the dairies along the North Coast, Respini and his predecessors focused on producing cheese and butter, two products that could endure the long journey to market. The property was notable for its two tall milking barns that were built by F. A. Miller in 1874. Construction of these reportedly required Miller to build a small sawmill on nearby Liddell Creek and a planing mill near the construction site. These barns were 160 by 36 feet each in size and were designed to feed and house around 200 dairy cows. A creamery nearby was modern in design, with plumbing installed to help maintain sanitation and a ten-horse engine used to separate the cream from the milk. By 1900, the facility included extensive hay fields and storage facilities, a blacksmith and tool shop, a horse barn, a bunkhouse for up to twenty men, a flower garden, and a ten-room ranch house for the superintendent and his family. Because the dairy was situated directly beside the Coast Road, it also had telephone service. Around 1891, Respini had partnered with his neighbors F. A. Moretti and the Moretti Brothers to manage their properties jointly. Together, they had at any given time 170 milking cows, with 600 more cows grazing in one of fifteen separate fields across a 4,400-acre property.

Earl Stone wearing a boy's brigade uniform while driving a cart for the Seaside Creamery outside the Seaside Creamery store on Pacific Avenue, 1904. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

In April 1901, Respini formally combined his property with those of the Morettis to form a new business, the Coast Dairy and Land Company. This quickly grew to encompass five dairies south of Davenport Landing with a total population of 800 cattle. The dairy products were sold primarily in San Francisco but also throughout the Monterey Bay and Bay Area. In Santa Cruz, the company took over the Hugo Hihn flatiron building at Pacific Avenue and Front Street and turned it into the Seaside Creamery, where butter was churned fresh every day after an early morning delivery of cream and milk. The store also served ice cream and sold buttermilk and varieties of cheese. For fifteen years, the company thrived under Respini’s and Moretti’s leadership. Indeed, most of the modern town of Davenport as well as the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company’s plant were built atop Coast Dairies land. In 1912, the company sold a section to Santa Cruz to provide water for the city (it still provides approximately 20% of its drinking water). Throughout this time, the dairying complex at Yellow Bank served as the heart of the operation, with around a dozen buildings associated with the business along the Coast Road.

The arrival of the Ocean Shore Railway in early 1906 changed everything for Coast Dairies. For the first time, the company’s extensive farms would be on a mainline route to San Francisco. The railroad, however, first had to overcome a major obstacle in its path: Respini Creek and its tidal lagoon. As it did with several other inlets, the railroad constructed a traditional trestle across the lagoon and then, as part of its arrangement with the adjacent Coast Line Railroad, the trestle was filled in and widened to support three sets of rails. A drainage tunnel was built through the adjacent hillside to allow the lagoon to drain. Construction on the bridge over Yellow Bank Beach ran from late December 1905 to early February 1906, and it was in the process of being filled around the time that the Francisco Earthquake struck on April 18. A result of the construction was the rerouting of the Coast Road. The road had previously followed along the top of the cliff before darting inland around the head of the lagoon in a horseshoe bend known as the Yellow Bank Curve, a dangerously sharp turn in the time of the automobile. The railroads’ construction forced the entire road to shift to the east of the tracks, lessening—though not eliminating—the deadly curve.

Ocean Shore Railroad, “Plans of the Oceanshore RR Co.” 1912, showing the location of Yellow Bank, the fill over Respini Creek, the Coast Line (Southern Pacific) tracks, and the old and new route of the county (Coast) road. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz]

The earliest timetables for the Ocean Shore Railway do not mention Yellow Bank as a station, though all employee timetables for the first several years have been lost. The Santa Cruz Evening News first names it as a flag stop in December 1907 alongside four others between Santa Cruz and Davenport. However, unlike most of the other flag stops, Yellow Bank did not feature a passenger shelter or siding, though there was likely a freight platform beside the mainline. This meant that dairy and agricultural products had to be loaded directly onto passing trains. In addition to freight traffic for the dairy, the station also likely catered to beachgoers wishing to dip their toes in the waters at Yellow Bank Beach. This beach no longer goes by that name—beachgoers in the 1950s discovered that a rock at the beach resembled a dark wildcat. Thus, the locale was rechristened Panther Beach. Since the beach sat directly below the tracks, it became one of the more popular picnic and surf swimming spots along the line.

An artichoke field on the Coast Road near Yellow Bank, ca 1930. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

By the time the First World War broke out in 1914, Respini had already died and the other Swissmen of Coast Dairies were in trouble. Switzerland forbade its citizens from fighting in a war and the United States was considering conscription. As a result, in 1915, Luigi Moretti, his brother-in-law G. Marotti, and his nephew S. Respini returned to Switzerland. They never permanently returned, though the Moretti family remained the primary owners of Coast Dairies. Daily management of the dairy fell to Leonard T. Winterhalder and Frank Bowell, whose families managed the property until 1924. At the same time, the property was changing. In March 1914, the Coast Road was shifted east of the main dairy complex, reducing the severity and grade of the Yellow Bank Curve, though not entirely eliminating the danger. In 1919, part of the Coast Dairies property was repurposed for planting artichokes and other vegetables, a trial that would change the fortunes of the company in the long term.

Aerial photograph of Yellow Bank dairy shortly after the demolition of the Ocean Shore Railroad line, 1928. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz]

In October 1920, the Ocean Shore Railroad ceased operations. It seems likely that the San Vicente Lumber Company, which continued to operate the line for another three years, offered its services to the Coast Dairy and Land Company during this time. Southern Pacific, in contrast, had never established a stop at Yellow Bank and there is no evidence that it ever catered to the dairy there until after San Vicente ended its operation in 1923. In November 1924, Yellow Bank appears for the first time in a Southern Pacific employee timetable as a flag-stop. This suggests that the dairy at least entertained the idea of shipping via Southern Pacific after Ocean Shore Railroad had been abandoned. Yet likely higher freight fees and less frequent service made this option unappealing. In response, the dairy company shifted to shipping out goods via truck and Southern Pacific abandoned its station sometime in the mid-1930s. Despite these setbacks, the company continued to thrive throughout the 1920s, possibly buoyed by bootlegging and black-market smuggling along the remote North Coast. At the same time, the company continued to expand its shift to agriculture by leasing a large section of the property to the Grossi family for artichoke growing.

Crews working to demolish the two large barns at Yellow Bank Dairy, February 1955. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

The Great Depression led to more pronounced changes for Coast Dairies. Stricter health code laws passed in the 1920s and 1930s made it much more difficult to produce dairy products on the difficult-to-access North Coast. Federal regulations mandated that dairy cattle be tested for tuberculosis, while state laws increased the frequency and standards of sanitary inspections. These made it increasingly difficult to turn a profit. Meanwhile, the company was still owned by the original Swiss families who remained in Switzerland, making leadership distant and abstract. In December 1934, stockholders in the company revolted and ejected Luigi Moretti from leadership, though he retained ownership of the firm. Management was taken over by John R. Wilson of the Anglo–California National Bank of San Francisco, with Fred Pfyffer appointed secretary and general manager.

Portrait of Fred Pfyffer, published in the Santa Cruz Evening News, May 31, 1935.

Pfyffer had first arrived in Davenport in 1928 and was soon employed by Coast Dairies. In June 1931, he incorporated Davenport Artichoke Growers’ and Shippers’ Association and began collectivizing most of the artichoke and brussels sprout operators leasing land from Coast Dairies to assist them in packing and shipping their vegetables across the United States. At the same time, he oversaw the conversion of most of Coast Dairies’ land from dairying to agriculture and beef cattle raising. The last corporate dairying operation ended in 1940, which also marked Pfyffer’s removal to a new facility in Santa Cruz on Mission Street, where he built a larger plant beside the Southern Pacific tracks. The last vestige of the old dairy ended in February 1955 when the two old barns at Yellow Bank were demolished leaving only concrete foundation blocks.

Advertisement for Davenport Artichoke Growers and Shippers Association, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel September 17, 1939.

Coast Dairies was dissolved in 1996 and its property was purchased by Bryan Sweeney of the Nevada and Pacific Coast Land Company. However, Sweeney did not realize the difficulties he would face in trying to turn a profit from this property. His plan to subdivide the land into 139 parcels went public in 1997, and soon several conservation organizations joined together to purchase the entire property. The transaction was concluded in October 1998 and the 400 acres west of State Route 1 were transferred to the state in 2006 to create Coast Dairies State Park, a unique seaside park that runs uninterrupted from Red White and Blue Beach to Davenport Beach. The Bureau of Land Management acquired the remainder of the property in 2014, most of which has since become the Cotoni–Coast Dairies unit of the California Coastal National Monument.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
36.9928, -122.1685
8.9 miles north of Santa Cruz from both the Ocean Shore and Santa Cruz Union depots

The site of Yellow Bank Dairy is to the east of State Route 1 at Panther Beach. A long parking area is directly to the south on the west side of the highway. The dairy property itself is leased by the Federal Bureau of Land Management—no trespassing is allowed. Likewise, the surviving Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line grade is owned by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission and trespassing is not allowed. However, Panther Beach itself is publicly accessible as part of Coast Dairies State Park. The site of the former railroad station at the southern end of the fill across Yellow Bank Creek, which may explain the raised parking area there.

Citations & Credits:

• Barboza, Tony Barboza. “Stretch of Northern California coast to be permanently protected.” Los Angeles Times. April 14, 2012.
• Bender, Henry E., Jr. “Ocean Shore Railroad”. 2017.
• Comelli, Ivano Franco. La Nostra Costa (Our Coast): A Family’s Journey to and From the North Coast of Santa Cruz, California (1923–1983). Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006.
• Environmental Science Associates, for The Trust for Public Land, "Coast Dairies Long-Term Resource Protection and Use Plan: Existing Conditions Report for the Coast Dairies Property." 2001.
• Griggs, Gary. "Our Ocean Backyard: Yellow Bank Beach," Santa Cruz Sentinel. September 11, 2018.
• Majors, Thomas Earl. “The Majors Family and Santa Cruz County Dairying: An Interview Conducted by Elizabeth Spedding Calciano”. Santa Cruz, CA: University of California, 1965.
• Neely, Christopher. “Parking battle leaves Santa Cruz County’s lone national monument gated from the public.” Lookout Santa Cruz. May 30, 2023.
• Ocean Shore Railroad Company. “Plans of the Oceanshore RR Co.” 1912.
• Orlando, Alverda, Sally Iverson, and Ed Dickie. Images of America: Davenport. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2020.
• Piccione, Gavin. "Panther Beach, an Extraordinary Geologic Feature in Santa Cruz." Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. April 3, 2025.
• Santa Cruz Sentinel, Santa Cruz Evening News, and Santa Cruz Surf, various articles, 1866–1960.
• Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Coast Division Employee Timetable No. 121 (November 1, 1924).
• Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Coast Division Employee Timetable No. 143 (February 16, 1936).

Curiosities: Stagecoach Lines

Before the arrival of the railroad to the Monterey Bay, people used other modes of transportation to traverse the Santa Cruz Mountains and reach San Francisco. For some, the primary methods were steamships that traveled up and down the California coastline. For others, the security of solid ground led them to choose the stagecoaches that regularly crossed the mountains. In the 1850s and early 1860s, stage travel was almost exclusively via Watsonville, San Juan, Gilroy, and Santa Clara, but the completion of the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad in January 1864 made the prospect of a shorter route directly from Santa Cruz to San José more promising.

An example of a six-horse Concord stage, at New Almaden, 1896. Courtesy Laurence E. Bulmore Collection, History San José – colorized using MyHeritage]

By 1860, a turnpike ran from Los Gatos to the Summit, which prompted Santa Cruz locals to invest in two rival turnpikes on the Santa Cruz County side. The older one, operated by Charles “Mountain Charlie” McKiernan and Hyram Scott, meandered down the Summit via Bean Creek and Branciforte Creek. The other followed Soquel Creek to Soquel and then continued along the county road to Santa Cruz. The earliest known stagecoach drivers to run on these roads were H. W. Pope and a Mr. Rockefeller. William H. Hall, owner of a San José stage line, soon hired both drivers and set the cost of travel at $5.00 per passenger. The slightly shorter distance and the higher patronage led to the abandonment of the Soquel Turnpike and its conversion into a free road, with little public funding to maintain it. Stages left Santa Cruz three days a week at 1 a.m. to meet the steamer Sophie McLean at Alviso, where it would transport passengers for San Francisco.

Stereograph of the Pacific Ocean House in Santa Cruz, with a buggy and 4-horse Concord stagecoach outside, 1866. Photography by Lawrence and Houseworth. [Courtesy California State Library – colorized using MyHeritage]

The completion of the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad caused Hall to rethink his business. Why take a steamer from Alviso to San Francisco when you could take the train? George T. Bromley saw the potential of such a relationship. In 1865, Bromley had served as the manager of the Continental Hotel on Market Street in San José. This brought him into regular contact with railroad customers traveling between San Francisco and San José, and also presumably with people wishing to continue over the mountains to Santa Cruz, where ocean swimming in the summer months was beginning to take off and walks through the redwoods were all the rage. His position as a successful proprietor caught the interest of influential people in Santa Cruz, who hired him in March 1866 to become the first manager of the Pacific Ocean House on Pacific Avenue. The hotel opened on April 4 with a grand ball attended by all of the city’s elite.

Advertisement for the San Jose Stage Line, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel March 2, 1867.

The difficulty remained bringing people to Santa Cruz, and although Bromley claimed that the hotel was never in want of customers, he still saw the potential of a stage line. He worked with Hall and William Reynolds of the Auzerais House in San José to organize the San Jose Stage Line, which would use the Pacific Ocean House as its southern terminus. Reynolds acquired three Concord coaches for the line and 40 horses, divided into nine teams of six each, plus spares, which would be stationed at waypoints along the line to ensure no horse became overworked on the run. For those seeking higher class accommodation on the journey, Reynolds also contracted with local coach suppliers to rent higher-quality coaches. Service began in mid-February 1867. Coaches left Santa Cruz daily at 7:30 a.m. for Santa Clara or San José, where passengers would meet the 6:00 p.m. train to San Francisco. Through fare was set at $5.00 for First Class travel on the train, or $3.00 for Second Class, with a set amount of $3.00 for travel via stage just to San José or Santa Clara.

Advertisement for the San Jose Stage Line, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel May 4, 1867.

On May 1, the line was rebranded the San Francisco and Santa Cruz Railroad and Stage Line. Two coaches now traveled daily in each direction across the Summit. Coaches in Santa Clara received passengers from the 8:10 a.m. train and brought them to Santa Cruz by 5:30 p.m. Passengers heading the opposite direction caught the stage at the Pacific Ocean House at 9:00 a.m. and arrived in time for the 4:00 p.m. train in Santa Clara. An advertisement on May 4 noted that the ticket agent at the Santa Clara railroad depot was H. D. Polhemus, while the agent in San Francisco in the General Stage Office was William G. Roberts. Although the names of most of the drivers are unknown, the Sentinel noted in February 1868 that George Heller was a cautious and responsible driver.

The Pacific Ocean House passed through several owners from November 1867 throughout 1868, but Hall remained owner and Reynolds superintendent of the stage line. The business, however, appears to have suffered over the year and likely shut down for an extended period over the winter. Service resumed in May, but Hall allowed the reputation of the business to deteriorate. Reynolds became injured at some point and Hall took direct leadership over the firm, during which time several accidents occurred and customer satisfaction reached an all-time low. No longer interested in running the company, Hall sold the firm for $10,000 in December 1869 to William E. McFarland, an experienced stagecoach driver and manager.

Advertisement for the San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Cruz Railroad and Stage Line, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel December 11, 1869.

McFarland restored the company’s relationships with the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad and the Pacific Ocean House, via its new proprietor Henry Skinner, and renamed the company the San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Cruz Railroad and Stage Line. Regular service resumed immediately under the capable hands of David R. Green and Con. R. De Nise. In April 1870, a half interest in the firm was acquired by a W. J. Conner, formerly of the Watsonville Stage Company.

Advertisement for the Stage and Express Company, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel June 3, 1871.

As McFarland’s company was finding its footing, a rival appeared on January 8, 1870. This new firm was formally incorporated as the Santa Cruz and San Jose Stage and Express Company, a joint stock company, in May. The company hired as its drivers Heller and Silas Cambridge, two “old and experienced stagemen” who “have never met with an accident, are temperate men, and faithful to their profession.” Henry Whinnery served as superintendent of the line, with S. A. Bartlett appointed president and Edward Bender secretary. McFarland’s line ceased operating in October 1870, likely for the winter season, but it never resumed and appears to have been acquired by its rival. In a notice regarding delinquent subscribers to the Stage and Express Company published in the Sentinel in March 1871, McFarland is named, suggesting he had thrown in with the competition. Other subscribers included Hyram Scott, Charles McKiernan, and the Porter brothers. At a meeting on August 12, McKiernan replaced Bartlett as president and Peter Hinds took over for Whinery as superintendent.

Advertisement for Paddack's Opposition Stage Line, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel January 28, 1871.

Opposition to the Stage and Express Company arose in early January 1871 from Isaac E. Paddack, owner of the hotel in Lexington. Tired of the high prices charged by the stage line, he purchased 29 horses and a few Concord coaches and began running Paddack’s Opposition Stage Line between Santa Cruz and Santa Clara via the Soquel Turnpike. He hired as drivers Josh W. Gray and Tom Mann, who both had worked for trans-mountain stage lines in the past. Paddack’s plan worked—by the end of the month, the Stage and Express Company had ceased running passenger coaches over the hill. The situation was resolved quickly, though, when Hall returned to the business a third time and purchased both lines in early February. The Opposition line survived under that name until April 1, when all advertisements for any stage service disappeared from Santa Cruz newspapers.

Advertisement for the Watsonville Stage Company, published in The Pajaronian March 3, 1870.

There was less drama between the stagecoach lines that ran between Santa Cruz and Watsonville. In the early years, this route was the only feasible means of traveling from Santa Cruz to San Francisco until steamships almost entirely displaced this method of travel in the late 1850s. Throughout the 1860s, ships and stagecoaches over the mountains negated the need for a Santa Cruz to Watsonville stage line, though one did exist. The Watsonville Stage Company, initially run by F. C. Adams, began service around 1861. By 1870, it ran stages to San Juan, Monterey, Salinas, and other locations in Monterey County. Gilroy, however, was the primary destination for travelers because it was there that the Santa Clara and Pajaro Valley Railroad ended from March 1869. W. J. Conner managed the company at this time.

Advertisement for the Watsonville Stage Company, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel June 20, 1874.

In December 1870, the Watsonville Stage Company was reincorporated under the same name, with ownership passing to H. F. Jackson, A. W. Billings, and W. T. Warren. On November 27, 1871, the Southern Pacific Railroad reached Pajaro. Tom Sutton was the best-known driver on the line and its popularity earned it the nickname “The People’s Line.” A. J. Jennings served as both Pajaro Depot agent and secretary of the firm. A stakeholder, Scott & Company, took sole control in April 1873, at which time the Pacific Ocean House became the Santa Cruz agency for the company.

Advertisement for the Santa Cruz Railroad Stage Line, published in the Watsonville Pajaronian April 15, 1875.

In March 1874, an opposition line, capitalizing on the popularity of the railroad, was formed named the Santa Cruz Railroad Stage Company. The Pajaronian only mentioned one driver for this line, Syd Conover. The stage left from the St. Charles Hotel in Santa Cruz at 7:30 a.m. daily to meet with the morning north- and southbound trains, and would return in the afternoon upon the arrival of the late train from San Francisco. Through tickets from Santa Cruz to San Francisco were available at the hotel from the company’s office. The presence of rival lines kept prices down but there simply was not enough traffic to warrant both lines. In mid-April 1875, the Santa Cruz Railroad Stage Company and the Watsonville Stage Company were purchased by Danforth Porter, who merged them into one service. He continued running stages until May 1876 when the completed Santa Cruz Railroad rendered the stage service unnecessary.

Advertisement for the Pioneer Stage Company, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel September 2, 1871.

The completion of the railroad to Pajaro and the stages that connected Santa Cruz to Pajaro briefly stole the thunder from the trans-mountain stage line and forced it to lower costs and reduce frequence. Nevertheless, people still wanted a line through the mountains. In August 1871, McFarland joined with George L. Colgrove (or Colegrove), a driver on one of the old lines, and J. B. Crandall, a veteran of California staging, to form the Pioneer Stage Company. While lacking a relationship with the Southern Pacific Railroad, the new company put up a fierce competition. They ran their stages over the Soquel Turnpike rather than Mountain Charlie’s toll road, and operated out of the Santa Cruz House and the New York Exchange Hotel in San José. Tickets were set at one dollar. In January 1872, George Colgrove & Company took over management of the Stage and Express Company and the two businesses combined, running as the Pioneer Stage and Express Company. The Pacific Ocean House, still run by Skinner, became the southern terminus with stops at Paddack’s hotel for dinner on all northbound stages. The business also acquired the United States Mail contract for the Summit and Scott’s Valley.

Advertisement for the Pioneer Stage and Express Company, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel June 20, 1874.

Colgrove’s business remained steady for the next eight years. He and his partner and co-driver, H. Ward, used three Troy coaches, an older and smaller style more suitable to narrow mountain roads with tight turns. The route shifted over the years. In 1873 after the merger, it turned to Mountain Charlie’s toll road. Then, in March 1875, the partners began a second route from Felton to Santa Clara via Boulder Creek and Lexington, with the main route moving back to Soquel and then running to Patchen on the Summit and Alma, before joining at Lexington with the other route. They abandoned this ambitious dual system in September due to low ridership and reverted to the Mountain Charlie route. Around this time, Colgrove hired another driver, John Dowd, he remained with the company until the end.

Advertisement for the Pioneer Stage and Express Company, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel August 24, 1878.

Advertisements for the Pioneer Stage Line disappeared after June 3, 1876, but service continued nonetheless. Late in the same month, Ward and Colgrove supplemented their usual coaches with pleasure carriages, more akin to railroad cars than traditional stagecoaches, though less weather resistant. These allowed passengers a broad view of the scenic landscape as they meandered through the Santa Cruz Mountains. On June 1, 1878, the company shifted its northern station to Los Gatos, where the South Pacific Coast Railroad had established its southern terminus as construction began through the mountains. Colgrove worked closely with railroad management to turn his stage line into a replacement service for the incomplete section of track, running dual stages to Santa Cruz and Soquel. Ward had left the business by this time and Chris C. Coffin had taken over as co-owner and driver.

Advertisement for the Pioneer Stage and Express Company, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel April 26, 1879.

The company shifted its terminus further south to Alma House near Lexington in August, and then moved it to Wright’s Station in April 1879, thereby making the travel time between San Francisco and Santa Cruz only six hours. All coaches ran via Soquel after this point due to the terminus’s closer proximity to the Soquel Turnpike. This would be the last change in the route for the Pioneer Stage Line. With the impending completion of the South Pacific Coast Railroad in May 1880, Coffin sold his stock and left the company. Colgrove, meanwhile, became a conductor for the railroad. The last regular stagecoach over the mountains ran on May 14, 1880, after which the only scheduled service left in Santa Cruz County was the regular stage to Pescadero.

Citations & Credits:

• Various articles from the Pacific Sentinel, Santa Cruz Sentinel, and Watsonville Pajaronian, 1857–1880