San Vicente Transfer Yard

The San Vicente Lumber Company was quite possibly the largest redwood logging operation in Santa Cruz's history. Tapping approximately 615,000,000 board feet of lumber along Little Creek, Big Creek, Mill Creek, Chandler Creek, Berry Creek, Winter Creek, Scott Creek, and San Vicente Creek, it is somewhat surprising that it took the company only 15 years to completely decimate the redwood sources here.

The company was founded on May 8th, 1908, and it perhaps singlehandedly ensured the survival of the Southern Division of the Ocean Shore Railway for the next twelve years, though the railroad did go bankrupt during that time. The company was privately financed but had substantial backing. It's planning mill was a huge sprawling facility built on Moore Creek at a site called Rapetti on Ocean Shore charts. To get to the heart of the redwoods, the company convinced the Ocean Shore to extend its track from Scott Junction due north on the east bank of Scott Creek about a mile north of the planned Folger subdivision. The Ocean Shore agreed but the San Vicente Co. had to help pay for the extension and was required to extend the line another 1,000 feet to the village of Swanton. But the lumber company got a deal, with reduced freight rates out of North County and near-exclusive service during much of the year.

The heart of the railroad operation on the northern end was at the San Vicente Transfer Yard located 14.5 miles north of the Santa Cruz Depot on Bay Street and, more importantly, 12.5 miles north of Rapetti. At the top end of the Transfer Yard, the lumber mill had Little Creek Switch, also often known as San Vicente Junction. This was positioned at 15.3 miles north of Santa Cruz, meaning that the Transfer Yard was roughly 0.8 miles long and was composed of a long double siding. It was from here that privately-owned lumber trains hauled redwood logs and split stuff down from the mountains. The Ocean Shore wisely decided that all tracks between the southern end of the Transfer Yard and the northern San Vicente Junction would be joint use by both companies.

Members of the Mattei family posing on an Ocean Shore engine at the Transfer Yard. The first split in the tracks is visible in the background while a second rail-stop is visible at right marking the end of the second spur.
(Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History – Mattei Collection)

For twelve years, the Transfer Yard served its purpose well. Rick Hamman includes an interview with an old Ocean Shore brakeman in his book, California Central Coast Railways, in which the man explains the entire relationship between the two firms. Regarding the Transfer Yard, he notes that the San Vicente Lumber Company would leave loaded flatcars on the siding and mixed Ocean Shore trains would come and pick these up and deliver them to Rapetti and the mill there. On the return trip, empty flatcars would be returned to the siding for the process to repeat itself. He notes that the Transfer Yard was parallel to Scott Creek between Archibald Creek and Winter Creek and included two sidings: one for loaded cars and one for empties. It should be added that Little Creek was only 85-feet north of San Vicente Junction, thus the only question remaining regarding locations is where precisely the right-of-way sat.

As a brief aside, there are eight creeks that the San Vicente Lumber Company directly worked off of (as well as numerous streams). Archibald Creek, the most southern of the eight, was named after James Archibald, a Scottish farmer who briefly owned Rancho Agua Puerca y las Trancas in the 1860s. He also lived along Archibald Creek in Rancho San Vicente. The junction of Chandler Creek with Little Creek was the site of the lowest of the San Vicente Company logging camps and it functioned as their main assembly area for many years. It was named after Lewis Chandler, another farmer who owned a small portion of Rancho San Vicente. Berry Creek was a feeder of Big Creek and it was named after Andrew Warren Berry, an early Massachusetts homesteader. San Vicente Creek has already been discussed in previous articles and is named after Saint Vincent, taking that name either due to the Portolá Party or because the spouse of an early Mexican grantee was named Vicenta (the feminine form of the name). Big Creek and Little Creek are both descriptive names. Winter Creek may have originally been named Enos Gulch, after Matthew Enos, a Portuguese lumberman who settled in the area in the 1880s. The name "Winter Creek" is likely descriptive of that fact that the creek only flows after the winter rains. Mill Creek, largely harvested by another company, the Loma Prieta Lumber Company, was a descriptive name based on the mill. Lastly, the history of Scott Creek was explained in the Scott & Scott Junction article. These eight creeks formed the heart of the San Vicente logging operation and also supplied all of the water for its steam-operated machinery.

Today, the entire Transfer Yard and the site of San Vicente Junction sits under fields. The track leading up from the junction followed Little Creek on its east side for a little while, but extensive switchbacks and trestlework make the final route of the logging railroad unclear. Most of the property today is either privately owned or used by California State University, San Luis Obispo, as a part of their Swanton Pacific Camp that operates for students seasonally.

Citations:

• Donald Clark, Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary (Scotts Valley, CA: Kestrel Press, 2008).
• Rick Hamman, California Central Coast Railways (Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2002).

Folger

The Ocean Shore Railroad was an ambitious project when it began in May 1905. It drew interest from many different crowds, and James Athearn Folger II, the owner of J.A. Folger's Coffee Company, was one such party. As vice president of the Ocean Shore Railway Company in the late 1900s, Folger also had the privilege of having a proposed community named after him.

The original layout of Folger according to a Santa Cruz County assessor's map from 1935.
The proposed street names were all after trees: Redwood at the top, Cypress at the bottom.
The railroad right-of-way was no longer present in 1935 but, oddly, this parcel map survived
the axe of the assessor's office for reasons unknown. The "Coast Road" is Swanton Road.

Located 13.9 miles north of the Ocean Shore depot on Bay Street in Santa Cruz along the Swanton spur, Folger was never destined to exist. The plan for the town was negotiated in 1908 by the Shore Line Investment Company, a companion corporation to the Ocean Shore focused on property development. The property was originally taken from a small portion of Rancho San Vicente. As first envisioned, it was to be just another community along the main line to San Francisco, placed at a convenient wye in the track making it accessible even while not being inundated with regular train traffic. 324 lots were listed for sale in 1908, all of then 25' by 100' in dimensions. But the town never was built and only a few scattered homes ever were built there. The center of the town was near the confluence of Little Creek into Scott Creek. The homes mostly serviced the lumber workers that operated the mill further up the valley. In an ironic twist, it did see its fair share of railroad traffic since the realignment to Swanton meant it was directly on the main line. But the area where Folger was planned remained heavily agricultural and continues to be so today.

Perhaps a more important purpose for this little used platform station was its function as the northern end of the heavily used "Scott-Folger Wye". The wye—a triangular section of track that allows engines and trains to turn around—linked Folger with Scott Junction 0.5 miles south of it. It was used extensively between 1908, when the San Vicente Lumber Company began operations along Little Creek and Scott Creek, and 1923, when that company finished operations in the area and pulled up the track. The wye was also extended into a full spur that year, with regular traffic extended to Swanton 2.1 miles north of Folger. Swanton, thereafter, would serve as the northern terminus for the Ocean Shore, and Folger quickly fell to the wayside as a community.

The site was utilized as a picnic stop for university students in the ensuing years. The University of California (Berkeley) in 1908 was the first to visit when they had a picnic and engineering surveyor's camp for students. In later years, other schools used the site for research with the California State University at San Luis Obispo (CalPoly) currently owning the property and operating it as the Swanton Pacific Ranch. The original site of Folger is along Swanton Road just after it it descends down into Scott Creek's valley. Swanton Road was originally the county road and the properties were plotted between the road and the creek on the west side. A small collection of buildings associated with the ranch are located there, but the remainder is agricultural fields. It is uncertain where exactly the old Ocean Shore right-of-way through the area was since the fields have regularly planted atop it, though the route likely stuck close to the creek where the grade was most level.

Citations:

• Donald Clark, Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary (Scotts Valley, CA: Kestrel Press, 2008).
• Rick Hamman, California Central Coast Railways (Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2002).
• Al Smith, "The History of Swanton", transcribed July 1990, California State University, San Luis Obispo: Swanton Pacific Ranch, <http://spranch.calpoly.edu/mission.ldml> (Accessed 20 Aug. 2014).

Scott & Scott Junction

Right-of-way near Scott Creek according to an Ocean Shore Railroad
survey map from 1912. (UC Santa Cruz)

The troubles that assailed the Ocean Shore Railroad after the 1906 Earthquake were not immediate. The company survived, albeit with serious problems on the Northern Division. On the Southern Division, construction continued as planned until the tracks approached the formidable Scott Creek, which sits quite a bit lower than the right-of-way. Then the financial panic of the late 1900s set in and everything fell apart. Construction continued just past a site aptly named "Scott" to a point promisingly named "Scott Junction". Unfortunately, the name became a curse as Scott Junction became the unofficial end-of-track for the Southern Division. A spur line—in effect, the main line—branched off to the northeast until it terminated near the small community of Swanton.

Scott Creek and Scotts Valley are both named after Hiram Daniel Scott, a man from Maine who settled in Santa Cruz in 1846 and returned in 1852 after trying his luck in the gold mines and living in Stockton. In 1850, Scott purchase Joseph Ladd Major's Rancho San Agustín and Scott and his family moved into the property in 1852 to start a cattle business. His home in Scotts Valley still exists and is known as the "Scott House". In 1852, Scott also purchased a small portion of Rancho Agua Puerca y las Trancas on the North Coast, though it seems he never did much with this land. The lasting legacy of this tract of land was the creek that was named after him and the two Ocean Shore Railroad stops that lasted for less than two decades. Scott died in 1886 on a mining expedition in Arizona. When the Scott family relinquished the land is unknown.

Hiram Daniel Scott [Scotts Valley Historical Society]

The Ocean Shore Railroad had great plans for the Scott Creek area north of modern-day Davenport. A proposed subdivision called Scottville was laid out in the area, though never built. The large beach at the mouth of the creek was picturesque due to its large sand drifts. The official stop for the proposed community was at Scott, located 12.8 miles north of the Oceans Shore Depot in Santa Cruz. The site offered a long 15-car siding which probably catered to local dairy and logging businesses during its short life. It does not appear on the survey maps of the route from 1912 due to a mistaken cropping of the map between Davenport and Scott Creek.

Scott Junction, on the other hand, was more of a fictional stop and a depressing one at that. It's location is not certain and there is little evidence that any switch was located at the site. From all records available to this historian, the tracks just continued through Scott Junction without the option of a formal end-of-track on the non-existent main line. The junction was located 13.4 miles north of Santa Cruz, a surprising 0.6 miles north of the fictional Scott community. There is no evidence of a siding, spur, or platform at Scott Junction, though photographs of the station sign are extant. From the junction, the tracks continued north on the east side of Scott Creek.

Scott and Scott Junction saw little service except for use as periodic freight stops and the occasional excursion stops. They were certainly closed as formal stops by 1920 when the Ocean Shore Railroad shut its doors, though both may well have closed earlier than that date. In all likelihood, Scott Junction was more of a reminder to passing trains that the railroad once aspired toward something greater. The tracks were removed in 1923 and centralized community ever developed near the mouth of Scott Creek. California State Route 1 follows mostly the same route as the Ocean Shore Railroad between Davenport and Scott Creek. The Swanton Berry Farm is in the general vicinity of Scott station today while the site of Scott Junction is near the place where Highway 1 crosses Molino Creek—the abandoned right-of-way is visible on satellite maps just west of the highway here. All of the property on the west bank of the right-of-way today is part of Scott Beach County Park, a popular surfing locale though swimming is not recommended.

Citations:

• Donald Clark, Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary (Scotts Valley, CA: Kestrel Press, 2007).

Davenport Landing & Bluegum

Davenport Landing and Blue Gum according to an
Ocean Shore Railroad survey map from 1912. (UC Santa Cruz)

The settlement that Captain John P. Davenport founded on the North Coast of Santa Cruz County was not Davenport, but rather a smaller community known as Davenport Landing. Settled in 1867 by Davenport, a Rhode Island mariner and local whaler, he and John King built a short 400-foot pier at the mouth of Agua Puerca Creek near El Jarro Point on the border of Rancho Laguna and Rancho Agua Puerca y Las Trancas.

Aqua Puerca Creek served as the southern boundary of Rancho Agua Puerca, the most northern rancho in Santa Cruz County. First named Rancho El Jarro in 1839 when it was granted to Hilario Buelna, it was never settled and was reclaimed by Ramón Rodriguez and Francisco Alviso in 1843 under the latter name. The history of this rancho is little documented, but it undoubtedly served as a dairy ranch as did most properties along the North Coast. While the property was patented in 1867, it seems that a portion was almost immediately sold to Captain Davenport for his fishing and whaling business.

Davenport's settlement may have acted as a whaling station for a few years, though the records are inconclusive on that matter. The town itself grew up over the following two decades, peaking with two hotels, two general stores, a blacksmith shop, and a butcher shop around 1875. Only four homes were in town, but the village did support a small harbor beside El Jarro Point. Besides the possible whaling and definite fishing operations, the town shipped out lumber from the mountains, grain and dairy products from the coast lands, and wine from local vineyards. A post office was established in 1874, simply named Davenport. Its closure in 1889 signaled the decline of Davenport Landing. That decline had already begun prior to then, however: the pier was abandoned in 1880 due to decreased business, and the Davenport family moved back to Santa Cruz in the early 1880s. Davenport himself died in 1892.

By the time the Ocean Shore Railroad passed through the village in 1905, most of it had fallen into disrepair or outright abandonment. The opening of the cement plant just south of town in 1905 sparked a new frenzy of settlement, but most of it was established south of the plant above San Vicente Creek rather than Agua Puerca. The post office was reestablished in 1906 but in the new town rather than the old dilapidated village. Some light rural sprawl did spread toward the Landing in the late 1900s, but it never joined with the old settlement.

Captain Davenport, c. 1852 [SC Library]

The Coast Line railroad terminated just south of the village at a site named Bluegum by the Ocean Shore. This northernly terminal, located 11.9 miles north of the Ocean Shore's Santa Cruz Depot, allowed the Ocean Shore to occasionally service the cement plant via 660-foot siding and 428-foot spur, but use of this siding seems to have been rather periodic rather than regular. The strange name derived from the prevalence of eucalyptus trees that had been planted in the area to form windbreaks, many of which can still be seen beside State Route 1 today. The Coast Line had a large wye built immediately opposite Bluegum to turn its engines around without the need for a turntable, but otherwise their operations were about a mile south of the site at the plant itself. The Ocean Shore stop included a 10' x 18' open front passenger shed and platform, likely to ferry plant workers back to various points along the line to Santa Cruz.

Just 0.3 miles north, the Davenport Landing stop serviced the small remnant community at the village. It included a small 8' x 12' open front platform and shelter and, like the Bluegum stop, likely ferries local workers back to Santa Cruz and other stops. It may also have serviced any remaining lumber, produce, dairy, or fishing industries remaining in the area. Unfortunately, a fire swept through Davenport Landing in 1915, destroying most of the remaining infrastructure that had supported the small village. Whether the stop remained in service after that year is unknown, but the line closed down in 1920 either way and the tracks were pulled in 1923.

Davenport Landing Beach and its handicap access ramp.
[http://www.wheelingcalscoast.org/]

Today the northern terminus of the Santa Cruz & Monterey Bay Railroad (previously the Coast Line or Southern Pacific) is at the site of Blue Gum. The Ocean Shore tracks have long been gone but the old S.P. tracks dead end into the dirt, having seen periodic service until 2011 when the cement plant finally closed down. The entirety of Cement Plant Road is the old County Road while the Cabrillo Highway (CA State Route 1) is the right-of-way of the Ocean Shore Railroad. Cement Plant Road eventually crosses the highway and becomes Davenport Landing Road—this is the site of the former station, just north of the crossing on the west side of the highway. The road continues westward where it passes through the American Abalone Farms, the former site of the village of Davenport Landing. Here there is also a small beach that is handicap accessible and generally less crowded than other local beaches. Nothing of the old village remains but most of the surrounding area is owned by the County of Santa Cruz, though the village site itself is privately owned.

Citations:

• Donald Clark, Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary (Scotts Valley, CA: Kestrel Press, 2008).
• Alverda Orlando, "Early History of Davenport", Santa Cruz Public Libraries <http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/articles/394/> (Accessed 7 August 2014).

Davenport Town & Cement Plant

Davenport according to an Ocean Shore Railroad survey map from 1912. (UC Santa Cruz)

Despite it's name, the modern town of Davenport was not founded by Captain John P. Davenport. The good captain founded Davenport Landing, a site just north of the current town. The town's origins only date back to 1905, and the very reason for the Coast Line Railroad's existence was the cement plant that was built there in that year. Noting the competition presented by the Ocean Shore Railroad, the Coast Line was founded by the Southern Pacific specifically to reach the site of Davenport, even though they claimed their goal was a route to Pescadero and, eventually, San Francisco. Indeed, the grading work was already in its preliminary stages north of Boulder Creek to connect the town to Pescadero via a long tunnel under Waterman Ridge. This route would then loop back to Davenport. The Ocean Shore's plan was always to reach San Francisco, but Davenport was the most profitably commercial venture along the North Coast.

William J. Dingee was the entrepreneur who saw the potential of Portland cement production on the western slopes of Ben Lomond Mountain just north of San Vicente Creek. He took control over the small Santa Cruz Lime Company that was located on the bluff overlooking the creek in 1905, and also purchased around 100-acres of land from the Coast Dairies & Land Co. Construction started immediately at the briefly-named town of San Vicente on what would soon be christened the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company. The Ocean Shore Railroad reached the plant just around the time that construction was completed, and for the better part of a year, the Southern Division of that railroad profited off of the cement output that was shipped via Santa Cruz Depot. The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, unfortunately, caused a change in direction for the nascent cement plant. Recognizing the increased need for Portland cement in San Francisco, they negotiated a contract with Southern Pacific, fearing that the damaged and ill-equipped Ocean Shore would be unable to ship the needed loads of cement to San Francisco in sufficient quantities. The Coast Line, thus, was given precedent at the plant and the Ocean Shore loading dock was forced further north at a site to be named Blue Gum.

On the north and south sides of the cement plant, the town of Davenport sprang up. The "old" town was located between San Vicente Creek and the plant. Needing more space for workers, the company purchased additional land from the Coast Dairies of J. Morretti and initially named the flat north of town Morrettiville, but it quickly became simply "new" town. Davenport got its name in 1905, but the post office had been called that since 1889 because of the Landing two miles north of town. It moved in 1906 to the town and remains there today.

Davenport town, c. 1908, by Ole Ravnos. (Alverda Orlando & santacruzwaves.com)

The Ocean Shore Railroad, despite lacking freight access to the plant, maintained a siding and spur at Davenport. It also had a passenger shelter that measures 20' by 10' with the side facing the track open. The four-car spur serviced San Vicente Landing, a loading dock for the Santa Cruz Lime Company which was a subsidiary of the plant. It was located just opposite the town on the west side of the tracks. Service to the station began on June 15th, 1906, and continued right until the closure of the line in October 1920 (afterwards, San Vicente Lumber Company trains passed through without stopping until 1923). The Ocean Shore right-of-way continued northward for another three miles to Swanton, and then beyond on private logging rails.

Davenport Station in 1948. [William Whittaker via Jim Vail]

The Coast Line Railroad, meanwhile, established their line in August 1907 and set up a station directly in town just beside the County Road on the east side of the tracks. The Coast Line, having access to the plant, maintained extensive sidings, many of which still exist today, though they are no longer in use and haven't been since 2011. In 1912, Davenport's cement plant sidings numbered four plus the mainline. At least two spur lines were later extended into the plant itself, servicing loading docks. The Ocean Shore station was located 10.8 miles north of the Ocean Shore Depot in Santa Cruz while the Coast Line station was located 11.5 miles north of the Southern Pacific Depot in Santa Cruz. The Coast Line's end-of-track was just north of the plant and remains that way today.

Tourist train at Davenport Station in the 1940s or 1950s. [Jim Vail]

Hoppers parked alongside cement plant, c. 2005. [quarriesandbeyond.org]

Passenger service along the norther routes was never strong, and it mostly serviced laborers at Davenport and north of Swanton. Coast Line passenger service was hardly existent after 1908, and the Ocean Shore demoted Davenport to a flag-stop around the time it reincorporated in 1911. In the end, Davenport became just another forgotten station on both lines, with the buildings finally being demolished as disuse and disrepair forced their condemnation. The cement plant continued operating until 2010. Rmc-Lonestar took over the plant in 1970 and then CEMEX took over operations in 2005. The future of the site is uncertain and rail traffic has not resumed to the town since the tracks were cleared in 2011.

Citations:

• Donald Clark, Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary (Scotts Valley, CA: Kestrel Press, 2008).
• Rick Hamman, California Central Coast Railroads. Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2002.
• Alverda Orlando, "Davenport Cement Plant – The Early Years 1903-1910", North Coast Faces: Pictorial and Oral History of Davenport and the North Coast of Santa Cruz County. <http://northcoastfaces.org/wp/history/davenport-and-its-cement-plant-the-early-years-1903-1910/> (Accessed 7/31/2014.)