Pescadero Memories

Author John Schmale to Adventurer John Vonderlin

Email John Schmale: outwest@sonic.net

Email John Vonderlin: benloudman@sbcglobal.net

Hi John,

It is nice to hear from you.

It has been about 30 years since I have been to Palmer Gulch. I am sure that a lot has changed since then. My friend and I walked into the beach there. Many trestle bents were still in place though the had fallen to the ground.

The Palmer Gulch trestle was built in 1909 and that is the year all construction halted. I have somewhere a newspaper article describing, and I was also told by Ocean Shore RR engineer Adolph Seigel. that the construction company building the Ocean Shore Railway tried to cut down a bluff and fill the right of way just north of San Gregorio by use of Hydraulic monitors from the gold mining days. It proved too hard to contain the debris so they gave up on the idea. The tracks were to run very close to the ocean and to use cut and fill construction. I have enclosed three photos of the Palmer Gulch trestle. One shows Lorin Silleman standing on trestle taking a photo. I think the year is 1938. Notice the sagging. The second one is the original that Stanger used in his book. It is Palmer Gulch.

I am certain that there were no other trestles on the Northern Division. The shot looking up shows the sag in the center. I am sure that much of the grade put in by the Ocean Shore RR has fallen away. This last shot

gives one an idea of how high from the surf the bed of the trestle was.

Regards,

John Schmale

Story by John Vonderlin

Email John: benloudman@sbcglobal.net

Hi June,

This post is a continuation about the events precipitated by my noticing a 1908 picture of the Palmer Gulch trestle in Dr. Stanger’s book, “Sawmills in the Redwoods” In the photo, the trestle of the Ocean Shore Railroad (OSRR), is shown entering a deep cut as it heads south along the bluffs just north of San Gregorio Beach. Because the remnants of the trackbed from the end-of-the-line Tunitas station to the canyon the trestle spanned manifest no cuts I’m aware of, I was surprised by what the picture showed. Today the remnants that still exist are just a series of flat ledge sections with washouts between them.

With a second visit recently, I discovered there had been a massive cliff collapse of the promontory that formed the cut, sometime before 1972. This picture I took illustrates that collapse today.

It didn’t look much different nearly forty years ago as shown in CCRP Picture #7218039 at the California Coastal Records Project website. My feeling is that sometime after 1908, the Ocean Shore Railroad construction initiated or accelerated the natural processes involved in coastal erosion, and a huge chunk of cliff-side fell into the ocean, leaving a barren scar for over a hundred yards south, even to this day.

Satisfied that I had my answer, we started hiking back to the car when I decided to do some cliff-climbing to bolster my belief that the track route had swung inland at the nude beach parking lot and avoided the steep but fragile bluffs just north of San Gregorio beach and nicely lined up with the best spot for the trestle to cross the San Gregorio Creek. That being about where Highway 1 crosses the creek. I had settled on this belief after finding no track remnant along the cliffs south of the path that leads to the beach from the nude beach. Instead you see a highly eroded stretch, ending in a sheer cliff from which I’m shooting the picture below

When, during my first visit, I had located several deep, seemingly manmade ditches, near the intersection of Highway 1 and 84, that were in a straight line between the likely spot the trestle would have crossed the creek and the track’s path if it had taken an inward turn, or so it seemed obvious in my mind. Though several parallel ditches or channels were there, instead of one giant one as at Pomponio Beach, and, as I’ve posted about before, I just assumed that was the stage they were at when the Ocean Shore Railroad’s financial house of cards collapsed. An old newspaper article mentioned there were work gangs at numerous spots along the gap between Scott Creek and Tunitas, with 80% of the grading complete when work was halted.

The reason I made the precarious climb to this one section  was that I was bothered by the fact that, if you examine what I assume are the remnants of the trackbed south of Tunitas on California Coastal Records Project (CCRP) (Pictures #6217 -6221) you see trees often growing on them. Obviously, it makes sense that a flat area would provide a more hospitable site for tree growth then a steep cliff. As you are connecting the dots of track remnants heading south, it bothered me that the trees seemed to continue beyond where I thought the track had turned inland. You can see that on CCRP by looking at Pictures #6219 to 6221. South of there the line of trees disappears. It was in that essentially treeless section that I began exploring.

By climbing up the steep sand dune piled against the cliff, and clawing my way across the steep slope made ball-bearing-slippery by the loose sand, I found myself on a flat projection, nearly invisible from the beach. I had a revelation. This IS a track remnant. Nature does not usually create flat ledges in sand dunes and this was too perfectly flat for anything but a manmade feature. Looking north I thought I could see another short ledge segment across a huge sandslide that filled the gap. Here’s a picture of what it looks like looking from the ledge towards the point I had shot the previous shot from the clifftop. I’ve marked the point I made that shot with parentheses.

Realizing I had been wrong, I was able to return yesterday to look once again for any sign of a cut that would have connected this track remnant to grading leading to the trestle over San Gregorio Creek. I was embarrassed to see it was incredibly obvious. I’m hoping I hadn’t noticed it because I was still blind in my left eye at the time I had missed it. But, it is so easy to see, even that isn’t a very good excuse.

It’s huge, but not anywhere as near finished as the Pomponio cut. Here are a few pictures of it from the parking lot 

and from the top of the cut. Such a huge cut couldn’t have been made by erosion, because there is no watershed to supply water to erode it, as one of the rangers concurred when I pointed it out. Climbing to the head of the partially excavated cut, I saw it would have perfectly lined up with a trestle across San Gregorio Creek, as you can see in these photos.

And when I walked further uphill, following the line of the cut if it had continued to the clifftop, I found myself looking directly down at the ledge I had just explored. Angelo, [Misthos], you are “The Man.” I’ve marked the ledge in this last picture.

I believe it is the last bluffside remnant of the OSRR trackbed as it headed south from Tunitas. But, I may be proved wrong again.

The only loose end left to tie up was, what were those strange, obviously manmade, parallel ditches just to the north and west of the intersection of Highway 84 and Highway 1 that I had thought were the beginning of the sluice cuts? I think the answer to that is provided by looking at the CCRP picture of the area from 1972. (Picture # 7218036.

It shows, not far to the north from the head of the cuts, that there is a fair sized lake, impounded by a low earthen dam, and with a much smaller pond/wetland area below that. Though the cuts probably weren’t caused by overflow from the lake, but rather were constructed, I’m sure they are related to the lake. Note that in Picture #197218039 from 1972, the hillside below the lake, and above the parking lot, shows lines that run perpendicular to the cuts, east and west across the hillside. I remember walking in a three- foot- wide ditch  on my first visit there, just where the bare sand forms one of those lines in the 1972 photo. I had thought it was an erosion control ditch of modern construction when I saw it on my first trip. I now think it was built for some kind of irrigation for farming at some point in time.

I’m afraid I’ve got to admit, just as at the end of the Pescadero Creek Hole-in-the-Wall series of postings I made last year, there’s still plenty I can learn from oldtimers, who have clear memories of what they saw long ago. Oldtimers 2, Young Shmart Feller 0. Enjoy. John

Story by John Vonderlin
Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

Hi June,
It wasn’t my regular time off from my caregiving commitment, but with a little horsetrading I was able to use a few hours to zip out to the Native Sons Hall in Pescadero to attend a Pescadero History Club meeting this week. I was so glad I was able to bide-a-wee. Bide-a-wee is Scottish for “stay a while.” It was also the name of a paper published in Pescadero a hundred years ago. A group of attendees from the Dearborn area had a yellowed, fragmented copy of the “Pescadero Bideawee,” from October 23, 1909. It was so fragile it had been sealed in plastic to preserve it, but was basically intact. When it was passed around for viewing I took a few photographs of part of it, hoping I would have another chance to capture it completely. It is a treasure trove of ads for Pescadero businesses of that era along with some interesting stories. Despite searching online I could not find any reference to this newspaper. I’ll keep looking. Here’s a photographic tease until I get a chance to research it further, particularly with the folks that brought it. Enjoy. John.

Story by John Vonderlin

Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

Hi June,

Here’s a bit of silliness about something I’ve never witnessed before. It’s funny how a pod of beached whales, slowly dying in a hostile environment, will bring out hordes of volunteers attempting a rescue, many with tears in their eyes. Yet the same situation, multiplied many times over if it involves snails, is invisible to our hearts, or even worse, produces a darkly humorous view of the matter. Or is that just me? Still suffering from the trauma caused by these vicious predators when I was an avid gardener?

Hi June,

A while ago I posted about the Cowell-to-Purissima Bluff Trail that P.O.S.T. was having built on their property south of the Ritz Carlton.

I recently read that financial problems have stopped the project before completion. When the opportunity arose, I visited both ends of the project and was able to see that the parking lot, the wide, all-weather path, the southerly bluff overlook, and the fencing protecting the farm fields, all seemed to be ready. Apparently, though it’s hard to tell from afar, the three bridges meant to span the small canyons along the path are not doing that. When this will change, I don’t know.

I also viewed another sad situation that day. It’s a tragic tale of a massacre, precipitating a desperate diaspora of the traumatized or injured survivors. A headlong flight that left them in a hostile environment; without food or water, vulnerable to predators, broiling in the sun, and with nowhere to go for succor.

Fortunately, these victims are just common garden snails, often objects of such contempt that they are stepped on just for the pleasing sound the pop of their shells produces.

But, even I, who has been known to play a form of baseball with his siblings using snails as the projectiles, upon viewing their plight, was moved to compassion, in thought, if not deed, by what I saw. Though, I must admit the E word (escargot) might have been intemperately used in jest.

The morbidly curious, or extremely insensitive, or just plain hungry, who are willing to walk out to the Cowell Beach Overlook path, can also view this odd event. It first came to our attention when I noticed a shiny substance on several plants’ leaves alongside the path. Peering closely, I opined that it looked like snail slime, even though that was unlikely, as this is not real snail territory. It’s dry, rocky soil, with unfriendly looking low weeds, most of which had rough, spiny leaves, bound to irritate the fleshy, softness of a snail’s foot.

Noticing the ubiquitousness of this strange substance on nearby low shrubs, I began to investigate.

I started riffling the leaves of a small bush with some of the shiny substance on it and discovered a common garden snail. Ahhh. Mystery solved?

To be sure, I started looking around and apparently the snails had decided we were harmless, because they dropped their cloak of invisibility. Suddenly, they were everywhere. I could see them, alone, hanging from the weed’s lower branches, bunched in groups at the stalk’s base, even clustered at the top of metal poles like dead, brown Brussels sprouts still on the stalk in an abandoned field. There were thousands of them. Check this picture of a small bush: When I shook it, fifty snails dropped to the ground.

Such large numbers of snails, left to survive in such a hostile environment, made no sense. Even in the most snail friendly environment, I’ve never seen such numbers. Was this some ecological oddity? Or another harbinger of global warming? Was a tsunami wave of snail infestation heading toward the hapless gardens of Half Moon Bay?

Probably not, (as you can see in some of the pictures I’ve attached)  the field in the background was being prepped for planting. I believe that was the cause of this diaspora. With their Fava Bean homeland destroyed, those not immediately killed in the massacre had fled for their lives to the much drier strip of vegetation on the side of the field.

I saw a number of snails that, despite parts of their shells cracked, had  crawled to the relative safety of this sun-baked, barren strip. Checking across the path, I was able to find a few who, disturbed by the crowded conditions of their refugee camp, had ventured into the even drier, weedy wasteland nearby.

That clinched my faith in my analysis of this strange scene. Whether the Endangered Species Act applies to this “rare species of snails,” endowed with the power of invisibility, I don’t know.  But, if I could get a grant, I would be glad to go there and rescue several five- gallon buckets of them. I’d bring them home, get them back to good health with cornmeal, and spritz them regularly. Then I’d release them in a far, far better place then they’ve ever been before, a savory Land of Milk and Honey, sometimes called Garlic and ButterLand.   Enjoy. John

Story by John Vonderlin

Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net\

Pioneer Sawmills

Hi June,

A while ago I posted some excerpts from the old history books that seemed to lean towards Dennis Martin constructing the first sawmill in San Mateo County, rather then Charles Brown, who is credited by many.  Both are credited as possibilities on the plaque on Portola Road, commemorating the first San Mateo sawmill. One account I shared even had somebody else building the first mill on Brown’s property and leasing it from him. Well, here’s an article from the “Call,” that seems to add another possibility.

Bill Pease (Peace?) is acknowledged in the other accounts as being the first sawyer, but only as a hands-on kind of guy, without a sawmill.  This article seems to state otherwise. It is from the March 1st, 1889, issue of the “Call.” Enjoy. John

P.S. You’ll notice this came up on an “Isaac Graham” Search. He has a lot of connections to interesting people, and events, sometimes not so pleasant connections, but often colorful.

PIONEER SAW-MILLS. Early Methods of Making  Timber of California Redwood.

Pacific Coast Wood and Iron

In the early history of California all the lumber required for the use of its inhabitants, not a great deal, was gotten out with the whip saw and tbe axe, the thinner boards being manufactured with the saw, while the planks, beams, etc., were first split out and afterward hewn into the desired shape. As most of the lumber then used was made from the redwood, the manufacture of the coarsest kinds was an easy matter, owing to the facility with which that timber rives. The first sawmill in the country was put up at Santa Cruz by Isaac Graham, in 1843. It was driven by water, and though of limited capacity, was able to meet all the requirements made upon it. Such a contrivance for cutting lumber greatly astonished the natives, who had never seen anything of the kind before. Though all talked about “la maquina” and wondered at its performance, it excited neither jealousy nor opposition, the. ease-loving Californians being only too glad to avoid the laborious task ol getting out lumber by the old methods. The extra wages paid lumbermen were not with them so much an object as a decent excuse for shirking hard work altogether. And so this pioneer sawmill proved a good thing all round: Isaac Graham made money out of it, while los wvaqueros, through its operations, were relieved from tbe irksome toil of making lumber with the whip-saw, the beetle and tbe axe.

In the fall of 1845, Captain Stephen Smith, of Baltimore, put up a sawmill on Bodega Bay, this being the second one erected in California. Captain Smith had been on this Coast before, having arrived here first in the month of May, 1841, bringing his vessel around Cape Horn. Visiting Bodega Bay at that time, and noticing the fine timber growing in the vicinity, it occurred to him that a good opening offered there for cutting lumber for the use of the Russian settlement near by, for the settlers in Sonoma Valley, and for the San Francisco and other markets further south. Returning to Baltimore by the Isthmus of Panama, he brought out on his return trip machinery for a steam sawmill, as well as a steam flouring mill, both of which were set up on the shores of Bodega Bay, the latter being used for grinding the wheat raised at the Russian settlement at Fort Ross. In connection with this enterprise, Captain Smith obtained from the Mexican Government a grant for eight leagues of land lying adjacent to the bay, much of it well timbered with redwood. A little later in the same year. General Vallejo built a sawmill in the redwoods six miles above the town of Sonoma. A good deal of lumber was made here, the occupation of the country a year later by the Americans greatly increasing the demand for this article. The following year, James Peace (sp?) built a sawmill at a point about twenty miles south of San Francisco. It was located in the redwoods in the southern part of what is now San Mateo county. Then followed the Sutter-Marshall mill, erected in the fall of 1847, on the South Fork of the American river, where stands the town of Coloma, or rather, where it did stand, for it is now nearly all washed away…..

Story from John Vonderlin

Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

Hi June,

Here’s a little more info on the beach traverse that was necessary at Waddell Beach for so long. This excerpt from the January 20th, 1865 issue of the Pajaro Times, a Santa Cruz newspaper, refers to the problems it caused:

“great hardship and injustice to the

people living at Pescadero and its vicinity.

”… “one of the most abominable roads this side of Kamchatka (Siberia)—a road, a portion of the distance must be traveled

“along the beach which is encompassed by a high bluff upon one side and the foaming billows upon the other…”

For those not familiar with this area, the evergrowing Virtualparks.org website has some great photos of this area, compiled as a 360 degree panorama, that you can rotate as if you were standing there taking it all in. If you want to get a good idea of what this area is like and what explorers, and travelers faced until the 1900s go to the website, type Waddell in the Search box, and choose the 3rd option:

Virtual Reality of Waddell Beach by Highway 1 Overpass, a QuickTime panorama by erik goetze

I’ve attached  ScreenShots looking north and south from this panorama to illustrate its contents. While you’re at the website check out some of the others, of the thousands that they have of our area. They really give you a feel for what an area is like in the “picture is worth a thousand words,” tradition. Enjoy. John

Story from John Vonderlin

Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

WHALE FALL

Story from John Vonderlin
Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

1863 Daily Alta Obituary
Death or an Old Resident.— Captain Isaac Graham, an old mountaineer, trapper and Indian fighter, and one of the earliest pioneers of this State, died last evening in this city at half-past eight o’clock, aged sixty-four years. The details of this man’s life, if correctly told, would be of value to the historian, and of absorbing interest to the lovers of romantic and thrilling incident. He was born in Botetourt county, Va., from whence he removed, at an early age, to Kentucky, becoming schooled in the rough and dangerous scenes of border life in infancy for his subsequent years of activity and adventure among the savage tribes of New Mexico, the Kovky and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Capt. Graham was one of those links which connected the present generation with the past, he having been intimate with many of the veteran explorers of the West, among whom was the renowned Daniel Boone, at whose death he was present. He has been for over thirty years a resident of California, living for the most part in Santa Cruz county, whore he possessed valuable estates. He leaves several children and numerous friends; who will sincerely deplore his demise. Thus another of the great landmarks of the age has crumbled away. A hero and a warrior sleeps, unsung but not unwept. His friends can view his remains at the rooms of Nathaniel Gray until three o’clock P. M..to-day, when they will be conveyed to the steamer Salinas for removal to his home at Santa Cruz.

Trivia: In the 1830s Isaac Graham established one of the first American communities west of the Rocky Mountains, Roaring Camp in the Santa Cruz mountains. He was a fur trapper and nephew to Daniel Boone. He was said to have created the first highway in the west; it is now known as Graham Hill Road!

November 14, 1863, Santa Cruz Sentinel
Capt. Graham: This old resident who for thirty years has been identified with the history of this vicinity, and especially with its earlier traditions, died in San Francisco the 8th inst.[sic] His remains were brought to Santa Cruz and buried in the cemetery[Evergreen]on Tuesday.
Although only 64 years of age, at his death, his entire system both mental and physical, had been breaking up for a number of years. This early decay may be partly attributable to the vicissitudes of a frontier life full of adventure and excesses.
He was born in Boutetourt county Virginia, but removed early in life to Kentucky, then the “dark and bloody ground” where he was conversant with the explorers and heroes of the border, among them Daniel Boone at whose death he was present. He afterwards went to Texas where he married, and Mexico; subsequently he roamed for years beyond the limits of civilization, through the immense Territory bounded by the Mississippi and Gila Rivers, the Pacific and British Possessions, and figured in many thrilling incidents, with the mountainers and trappers. About thirty years ago he came to Santa Cruz where he has since lived.
Before his decay by age he was engaged as a lumberman, distiller and ranchero, and was at one time very wealthy, but through litigation and excesses, very little of his property remained to him at his death.
He had a powerful frame, a persuasive address, an unerring eye with the rifle, and that daring which is always a concomitant of strength and power.
He was of litigious spirit and in his prime had both friends and enemies, but his last years of child-like age had pacified all enmities and he left none but friends behind him.
Late 1818 – 1820
Travels to Marthysville, Missouri, where he spends time with the famous trapper, explorer, and politician Daniel Boone. Daniel Boone died on Sept. 26, 1820, with Isaac Graham and others at his bedside. His wife buried him on a hilltop overlooking the Missouri River. Years later his body was taken back to Kentucky.

Isaac Graham, a frontiersman, came from Hardin County, Kentucky, in 1833. Three years after his arrival he assisted Juan B. Alvarado in expelling Governor Guiterres with the understanding that the country should be free from Mexican domination. However, shortly after Alvarado came to power, Graham and his associates were arrested as dangerous foreigners and placed in confinement on a boat in Monterey Harbor. A few of the group were released before Dan Jose Castro sailed with the prisoners for Mexico and all were released by Mexican authorities after their arrival. It was reported Isaac Graham received $36,000 as indemnity for the outrage done to him. With this money Graham cast his eyes on the Zayante Tract. Graham, along with his friend Henry Neale, induced Joseph Majors who was a Mexican citizen, to apply for the grant. Majors was named as grantee of Zayante and the adjoining San Augustine Rancho of 4,436 acres.Majors actually procured the land for a syndicate of “foreigners” who declined to become Mexican citizens.

Zayante
Named after an Ohlone tribe, this canyon was the first settlement in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Isaac Graham, a colorful and somewhat infamous rogue, ran a huge and notorious logging and moonshine camp. Graham may be most famous for assisting the empire of Mexico to overthrow Monterey land barons in the ‘Alta California’ revolution.Graham and his ‘riflemen’ as they were known helped create one united state of California under Mexican rule in 1839. By 1850, with tremendous land grants, he was one of the county’s richest men.

Story from John Vonderlin
Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

Hi June,
After the discovery that the “Leathers and Rags” secret society was formed in Loma Mar; it only seems right that Pescadero should have had its own cabal. Now admittedly, a secret society that has an article about its formation and installation of officers in the newspaper, is obviously employing the risky, “hiding in plain sight” technique. But, it seems to have worked. I say that because I’ve never heard of them, and I’ll bet you never have either. The “Order of Chosen Friends,” might still be out there, underground, planning something, somewhere, maybe soon.
I think this subject needs a hard-hitting expo-”Say What?,” that will reveal just what the heck was going on out there in the deep redwood forest of the isolated Coastside so long ago and what it means to our Homeland’s security today. I’m on it.
But for now, this is what I got: (From the February 24th, 1896 issue of the “San Francisco Call.” Note the stage of their operations is indicated by the fact their officer positions include a warden, a guard and a sentry, but not a munitions expert. I only recognize C.J. Coburn amongst the plotters, but will start dossiers on the others. I do however, like the name “Ocean Gem,” for their chapter, as it ties in nicely with the still-glorious-at-that-time Pebble Beach, as well as their proximity to the ocean. Enjoy. John

Order of Chosen Friends.
Grand Recorder F. C. Wallis, assisted by Grand
Assistant Councilor M. Boehm and Organizer S. C.
Hargreaves, instituted Ocean Gem Council No. 12
at Pescadero last Wednesday evening, with thirty
charter members. The following officers were
elected and installed : Past councilor, C. F Wil
son; councilor, K. Hoskins; vice-councilor, Julia
D. Wilson; instructor, D. E. Briggs: secretary. C.
J. Conurn; treasurer. M. L. Wilson : prelate, Mrs.
I>. K. Brlggs; marshal, Minnie Hoskms; warden,
William Stewart; guard, F. L. Annas; sentry,
Mr-. Annie F. Maxey.

Story by John Vonderlin

Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

Hi June,

With your just having posted all those links to the Ano Nuevo General plan, this might be a good time to look at the Coast Survey map of the area from 1854. The Coast Survey, originally the “Survey of the Coast,” started in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson, to map the coast of the United States, and eventually folded into the present day National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  (N.O.A.A.),  has online Archives of their historic maps going back to the 1700’s at this website: Historical Maps and Charts Coast Survey Partners. Chart Carriage Requirements. Report a Charting Discrepancy …The Office of Coast Survey’s Historical Map & Chart Collection contains over nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/ctp/ abstract.htm        The map of the Ano Nuevo area I’ve attached ScreenShots from is one of the more then 20,000 at this website.  I wanted to share my examinations of this map, which is entitled the “Preliminary Surveys of Harbors on the Western Coast of the United States,”  and its collection number is “352-00-184.” You can can access it by typing either of these in the Seach boxes..     It was when I started looking at this map fully magnified, that I started to notice some interesting details. First, here’s the progression of screenviews you’ll see as you zero in on this wonderful hundred and fifty year old document.   [Images above: Full map, Map legend, Ano Nuevo Harbor section]       These first two close-ups show San Mateo’s southern coastal gateway, or perhaps gate would have the more accurate connotations given the part they played in Coastside development. This is the famous stretch of steep, unstable bluffs that forced buggies, stages and eventually even automobiles to dash along the beach at low tides to enter or leave the isolated southern Coastside. “The History Dude” of Santa Cruz gives a talk about the Waddell Bluffs, which span this magnified view, that is entitled: Waddell’s Bluff: How a Big Lump of Santa Cruz Mudstone Changed the History of Our World   [Images above:  Waddell to Alligator Captioned and Uncaptioned]      On a more mundane level, if you look carefully, you can see the two parallel dotted lines on the beach that the artist/scientist uses to denote the “Coast Road.”  While this dramatic part of the route has been referred to in many books and newspaper articles, they never mention at what point travelers would get on and off the beach from it. I think I now know where, and as usual I was wrong in my initial theorizing.    The 1864 map doesn’t show exactly where the sand to solid ground point was on the southern end of this often wild and wooly traverse, but it’s easy to figure out. Although it only shows the dotted lines crossing Waddell Creek close to the ocean and then disappearing because of the edge of the map, by looking at the modern coast on California Coastal Records project (Pictures #6403, 6404) you can see there is a convenient slope to get off the beach about a hundred yards south of the creek. If that route isn’t taken, the slope off the beach gets progressively steeper and higher and much less likely to have been the way.    Of course exactly where they would transition from the sand to solid ground must have varied with the stream’s course. Picture #7219057 (1972 picture accessed by clicking Time Comparison Box for CCRP Picture #6404) shows what they might have faced when the stream hugged the hill to the south before flowing into the ocean.    The ScreenShot of the magnified map also shows that Alligator Rock, the curving sweep of rock jutting offshore, up the coast from Waddell Creek, hasn’t changed much in 150 years. The more expansive sand beach then, as compared to now, explains the viability of this route way back then. The Alligator Rock area was known as “Cape Horn,” by the locals at that time because of its similarities to the difficulty in passage as the same-named tip of South America. It was also the site of the experimental grading by the Ocean Shore Railroad that John Schmale shared pictures of.    The black bar to the north of Alligator Rock marks the San Mateo / Santa Cruz boundary, as designated in 1868, five years after the map was made.    The next ScreenShot, reaching further up the beach to the north, answers several questions I’ve had. There is an old road on the Coastways property that I had thought might have been the ingress and egress point to and from the clifftop and the beach.  At least at the time of the map, the road passed the Coastways road site, and went along the beach all the way to Ano Nuevo Creek, where it started up the hill. Given today’s conditions along this northerly stretch of the beach, this would have been a terrifying ride, with its sheer, unclimbable cliffs that are regularly pounded by waves during any sort of high tide or storm. Even though the map shows a much wider beach one hundred fifty years ago, this must have given travelers a thrill even in the best of conditions. It must have still been that way fifty years later, because during the automobile run to Santa Cruz, I sent you an article about, it mentioned a mile-and-a-half beach traverse was necessary. That fits the Ano Nuevo Creek to just south of Waddell Creek route shown on the map just perfectly.   [Images above: Captioned and uncaptioned north of Waddell]     The next ScreenShot shows just up the hill and a bit north.from where the coast road comes off the beach. That black mark is the only building shown anywhere on the Ano Nuevo portion of the map.  What this building is remains a mystery. It is not mentioned  in any of the old accounts that I’ve seen.  Yet, sitting right beside the coast road and being the only building for many miles, it should be well known. I’ll keep looking.      House marker greatly magnified     The next ScreenShot is of Ano Nuevo Point and Ano Nuevo Island. Note the sand spits that almost connects them. I’ve read about this so many times it is kind of cool to finally see a repreentation of it. The intro photo of the General Plan shows what it looks like now, a huge change. But, the island itself has hardly changed at all.    [Images above: Sand Spit / Modern shot]      Lastly, I’ve attached a view of Santa Cruz harbor and environs, the other half of the map. In the magnified views it is possible to see a thriving community was already established, unlike in the empty Ano Nuevo area. Enjoy. John