Pescadero Memories

Story & photos by John Vonderlin

Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

Hi June,

Some time ago I posted a story*** about what I consider the most viewed Sea Arch on the San Mateo coast.

I maintained that this arch was the one on the promontory that forms the southern bank of Pescadero Creek where it flows into the ocean. There was some mention by someone that the arch was actually “a hand dug tunnel.” Curious, I went to look for myself, checked it out, took a lot of photographs and opined that it wasn’t regular enough to be manmade.

Besides why would somebody go to the trouble of digging a seemingly pointless tunnel?

Well, last week I was showing my neighbor the California Coastal Records Project (CCRP) website. I was demonstrating the Time Comparison feature when he commented that he and his high school buddies used to party at the beach pictured on the screen. They knew it as “Hole in the Wall Beach.”

That Hole in the Wall is none other then the sea arch opening? tunnel? at Pescadero Beach. Only my neighbor informed me that he was sure it was a tunnel because in the Seventies the sides were much more regular, demonstrating its manmade origin.

While I’m not one to question the hazy, thirty five- year- old memories of a drunken youth, I was still having trouble wrapping my mind around the idea of somebody going to the trouble of digging a tunnel in that spot.

A few days ago while reading the transcript of a  “Pescadero Oral History Project” interview with Ron Duarte, the owner of historic Duarte’s in Pescadero,  I got my answer. Sort of.

“A bunch of old timers made that tunnel,” said Ron. “ It is not natural. Everybody thinks it is natural but it is not. They thought that was going to keep the mouth of the creek open. Maybe it did and maybe it didn’t. But, most of the time I don’t think it did much good. That was man-made, that tunnel.”

In another interview, also on the Pescadero Oral History CD, Marty McCormick was asked the same question.

Interviewer: Do you remember the tunnel at the mouth of the creek?

Marty McCormick: Out by the beach. Oh, yeah. It is still there. We used to crawl through there. There were some years where it was totally filled in with rock and then there were other years when you could go through there without having to do a belly crawl. I have pictures of my kids inside when they were pretty young—twenty-five, thirty years ago.

They’ve convinced me.  It’s a tunnel. The battering surf has naturalized the opening over the decades.  And while, to me, it seems obvious that a tunnel is as likely to sand up as the creek mouth itself, somebody, a long time ago, thought excavating one was a good enough idea to invest a lot of hard work. At least they’ve left us a durable monument to the futility of trying to make Mother Nature do our bidding.

I guess it’s also Sea Arches Minus 1, Beach Tunnels Plus One and Oldtimers 1, Young Whippersnapper 0. Enjoy. John

***

This was the main posting I did about what I thought was a Sea Arch at Pescadero Beach. I’m going to revisit it and see if there is any sign still left of its manmade origin. Enjoy. John

Re: Pescadero’s Pride & Joy

If I were lost on the South Coast, I would want to be with John Vonderlin!

The Missing Tunnel

By John Vonderlin

Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

Hi June,

Some time ago I posted about my search for a mysterious tunnel just up the hill from the north parking lot at Pescadero Beach. Several oldtimers talked of visiting it in their youth and related its possible function. Despite clear directions I had been unable to find it.

Then by examining the 1972 pictures on California Coastal Records Project (CCR), I was able to see a path to an area that corresponding to the alleged location. Walking around the area, I found a now barely visible, slanted, ledge-like feature up the slope to a slight anomaly in the hillside that I assumed had been a graded dirt road leading to where the mystery tunnel had been.

When one of your readers, Bobbi Pimentel, read that posting, she contacted me, and in an email, validated my theory and provided other interesting information.

Bobbi, a member of one of Pescadero’s oldest families, remembered visiting the tunnel as a child with her father after WWII.

She helped me solve the mystery of the tunnel. Now maybe someone will come forward with a photo of it before it was filled, and/or provide firsthand information on the other two cliffside tunnels just north of there. Then my curiosity about the tunnels will be fully satisfied.

Here’s an excerpt from my email to Mrs. Pimentel and her reply. The only thing better then mysteries is solving them. Thanks to both of you for helping me in finding the answers to this one. Enjoy. John

John Vonderlin (JV): Were you in the tunnel just up the hill from what is now the parking lot of north Pescadero Beach? Was it where I thought? Do remember how deep it was? The longest serving ranger in the area (about 25 years) knew nothing of it. He was familiar with the next one north. That’s the one I climbed in, the one in a cliff face above the ocean. The other cliff face observation tunnel I’ve written about, the one the Pranksters were in, just north of Pomponio, was well visited until the 1970s when it was plugged and filled for safety reasons apparently.

Bobbi Pimentel (BP): Yes, the cave that I remember most is the one above the parking lot…It has brush and weeds growing so thickly around it that for several years, it looked unaccessible. Since I was so young when Dad took me to these places, I really can’t judge length, but a guesstimate would be 40′…the brush on the ocean side kept the tunnel out of view. It was rumored that Japanese subs were traveling the coast. There were guns and ammunition stored there as well as dynamite. (My Dad worked on the road department during the war, worked for the Federal Government (as a maintenance man) and did some other work for them…he used explosives on a regular basis. He went into farming for a few years and in the early ’50’s worked for the County of San Mateo where he was using explosives again…

Uncovering the secrets of the South Coast tunnels.

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

Hi June,

A member of the Ocean Shore Railroad Yahoo Group I belong to posted a message this morning mentioning that Wikipedia had an article on the railroad. The person was surprised that there were railroad tunnels still existing in the southern portion. So was I, as I couldn’t remember reading about them before. I did some online research and didn’t find much except when I websearched

“Davenport Tunnels” and a photo sharing page by Jef, at acme.com came up. There were a number of photos of the Liddell Creek tunnel and the San Vicente Creek Tunnel he had taken. There was also a link there by clicking on “hundred year old tunnels” that takes you to another website that explains things very well and has some great pictures of the ramparts built for the railroad. As it turned out, when I found time to read the whole Wikipedia article there is an “External Link” to this same website. It is in the External Links list and is entitled “Secret History: Information about the railroad ramparts and the creek tunnels.”

I’ve added it to my list of places to visit and photograph. It’s just a quick trip from the Acid Beach area, so maybe I’ll be wading through the tunnels soon.

By the way the main website, “Secret History” by Sandy Lydon, the History Dude, has a collection of other subjects about the Santa Cruz area that are equally fascinating. Enjoy. John

Mystery Tunnel

Story & Photos by John Vonderlin

Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

Hi June,

Angelo’s email confirmation that there used to be a tunnel, possibly associated with the Ocean Shore Railroad, just north of the most northerly Pescadero Beach parking lot was reason enough for me to try again to find the tunnel, or at least locate where it had been.

Various people have described the tunnel as an initial “bore tunnel” for the O.S.R.R. as well as an explosives storage site for construction of Highway 1, which, I believe, was built on the O.S.R.R. right-of-way in this area.

During the past few weeks, I’ve stomped all over the area, and found no sign of it, but I was LOOKING FOR A TUNNEL. This time I was basically looking for SIGNS OF WHERE A TUNNEL HAD BEEN. Lowered expectations can often lead to success. And, I believe I’ve found where it was.

I suspect, just as with the Prankster’s tunnel, and the nearby W.W. II observation tunnel, that the authorities have eliminated what they considered to be a public nuisance. Having explored many mine tunnels, shafts, etc. in the Mojave Desert, I can understand why they’ve done so, but it’s sad that history was also obliterated along with the danger.

Here’s a picture of the hillside just north of the parking lot.

I’ve marked where I believe the tunnel was. I believe this is so because it’s the only anomaly on a generally smooth hill and there seems to be the remnant of a road that runs up the hill and passes just below it disappearing slightly further on.

Here’s a close-up shot of where I believe the opening was.

On the California Coastal Records Project (CCRP). website, if you look at 7218061, you’ll see what the area where the tunnel was looked like in 1972. Unfortunately, the angle and clarity of the image doesn’t allow me to see exactly what was there besides a couple of paths.

Lastly, I’ve attached a photo shot from slightly above and slightly to the west of the tunnel.

I assume the footprint of Highway 1 is pretty much the O.S.S.R. right-of-way. In author Jack Wagner’s excellent book, “The Last Whistle,” he inserted a chart showing the size of the completed and proposed trestles for the railroad. The Pescadero trestle, never built, was to be only 36 feet high, but 375 feet long. That would neatly carry it from the bedrock near where the present bridge is anchored on the south end, over the Pescadero Creek riparian corridor, to the slightly higher and more solid ground of the low ridge that separates the Pescadero Marsh from the dunes.

Looking at the 1972 CCRP pictures,(#7218063 to 7218065) you can see this ridge has changed very little over the last 35 years, while a considerable amount of sand on the beach has disappeared. Given these facts, I suspect it’s likely that the tunnel stored explosives for construction of the railroad and/or the highway. Perhaps, somebody out there has a picture or knows for sure. Enjoy. John Vonderlin.
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