Stations: Mack

The site of Mack on a 1913 US Geological Survey map.

Along the southern edge of Rancho Bolsa del Potrero y Morocojo (or La Sagrada Familia) once sat the simply-named Mack Station of the Pajaro Valley Railroad. This location is named after Charles McIntyre, a New Yorker who travelled to California near the end of the Gold Rush in 1850. McIntyre spent only a year mining before moving on to more profitable ventures, first running a hotel in Sacramento until 1852 and then moving to Santa Cruz County to farm until 1865. In that year, McIntyre began renting land near Castroville on a portion of the John Rogers Cooper's farm. He was there when Claus Spreckels began installing his railroad along the northern side of the Salinas River in 1890. McIntyre likely had no choice in the matter of the railroad since he was only a tenant farmer, but Spreckels still allowed him a stop on the line, naming it "Mack", a derogatory name akin to "Mick" for people of Scottish ancestry, although McIntyre himself was American-born. The stop undoubtedly meant that McIntyre grew sugar beets on at least a portion of his property for shipment out to the Spreckels refinery.

Like many of the stops along the Pajaro Valley Railroad line, Mack does not appear to have survived long for more than a decade or so. US Geological Survey maps from 1912-1913 show at this location a short road branching off from Molera Road which ends at the Pajaro River. There is a single structure at the end of this road which probably represents a building associated with the stop—possibly the McIntyre family's house. The map does not show any siding or spur at the site. When the station was ultimately abandoned is unknown, but the tracks remained in place until 1930 when the Southern Pacific Railroad removed them along the length of the line.

McIntyre lived until January 28, 1910. His wife, Maria Josefa Buelna, a Californio from Pueblo Branciforte, survived her husband by twelve years. Together, they had fifteen children, six boys and nine girls, many of whom survived to adulthood and produced myriad children of their own whose descendants still live in Monterey County today. His death may have marked the end of farming on the Cooper lot for the family, although he may have abandoned farming efforts there at any time after 1890, when the tracks were first installed.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
36.748˚N, 121.774˚W

The site of Mack is located on the south side of Molera Road just north of State Route 1 and Artichoke Lane. The location is still marked by an agricultural access road that ends at a large barn immediately beside the now-dry riverbed. Nothing of the original right-of-way or station survives at the site.

Citations & Credits:

• Ingersoll, Luther A. (ed.). Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California: Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent Citizens of To-day. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1893.

Stations: Struve

1913-1914 US Geological Survey map showing Struve.

Like many of the sugar beet-farming families along the Pajaro Valley Consolidated Railroad, the Struves were actually residents of Santa Cruz County but operated a beet plot in Monterey County. Hans Christian Struve, a natives of Denmark came to California via a long voyage from Denmark to China and then to San Francisco, after which he spent years in the mines of the gold country. Following a few more years harvesting lumber near Redwood City, Hans settled in San José briefly and then moved to Pajaro, where he first encountered the bountiful valley. He returned to Denmark in 1865 to marry Cecilia Marie Storm, and the two of them then returned to California and settled on the the Roche Ranch near Watsonville. Four surviving children were quickly born to them, including Peter, Henry, Edward, and Christina.

The Struves quickly became prominent members of Watsonville society, running a general store in town for a number of years and testing various new farming methods on their property. Their property was a mixed farm, ranch, and dairy. Peter, being the eldest, began working with his father from an early age and in the late 1880s purchased a small farm of his own in the Salinas Valley on a small portion of Rancho Rincón de las Salinas—a virtual island in the middle of the Salinas River near its outlet into the Monterey Bay. This 2,220-acre rancho dated to 1833 and was granted to Cristina Delgado. On this property, Peter began growing sugar beets, probably at the instigation of Claus Spreckels. When the Pajaro Valley Railroad passed through the area in 1890, a special spur was extended out to the island which required a short bridge to cross the narrow river channel. US Geological Survey maps from 1913 and 1914 show that this spur exited to the north, giving credence to the idea that it was built prior to the construction of the Spreckels beet refinery outside Salinas. The stop, simply named Struve, was located roughly 13.1 miles from Watsonville Depot and 14.1 from Spreckels. In addition to the spur, the stop also included a wye, probably due to the location of the stop being roughly half-way down the line.

It is unclear when the Salinas Valley farm stopped producing beets but Peter himself moved back to his family home in Watsonville in 1900 when his father retired (Hans died in 1908). Peter himself continued to operate the farm until 1920, when he too retired. Peter leased all his property that year and moved to a small home in downtown Watsonville, where he died in 1925. It seems likely that the Salinas Valley farm, although the spur remained in place until at least 1914, probably ceased its beet operations no later than 1920 and probably many years earlier. The track was removed no later than 1930, when the Southern Pacific Railroad removed all the track of the Pajaro Valley Consolidated Railroad line.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
36.752˚N, 121.778˚W

The titular ring in Rancho Rincon de las Salinas is mostly dried up now and can be crossed on simple footbridges. The site of Struve Station, once located off Molera Road near its junction with State Route 1, is long gone with no trace of the stop remaining. The right-of-way has been plowed over for agricultural fields, while the farm itself, although still in use, shows no evidence of any century-old relics.

Citations & Credits:

• History of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, California : cradle of California's history and romance : dating from the planting of the cross of Christendom upon the shores of Monterey Bay by Fr. Junipero Serra, and those intrepid adventurers who accompanied him, down to the present day. Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1925.

Stations: Ranch

Daguerreotype of John Rogers Cooper, 1851.
[Bancroft Library]

The lower Salinas Valley served as a rich source of sugar beets for Claus Spreckels' sugar refineries both in Watsonville and outside Salinas. One of the most productive farms was Rancho Bolsa del Potrero y Moro Cojo (or Rancho La Sagrada Familia), an early Mexican land grant that was owned by the Cooper family. The original owner of the ranch was Joaquín de la Torre, a Spanish soldier and the alcalde (mayor) of Monterey. In 1829, De la Torre sold the rancho to John Rogers Cooper, a British-born Massachusetts sailor, for $2,000. John had moved to Monterey in 1823 and was baptised on April 14, 1827 under the name Juan Bautista Rogerio, becoming a Mexican citizen three years later. He soon married Maria Geronima de la Encarnacion, the sister of General Mariano Vallejo. Using his land as a base, Cooper amassed both more land and political influence, eventually obtaining the 9,000-acre Rancho El Sur from his nephew, future governor Juan Bautista Alvarado, and nearly 18,000-acre Rancho El Molina in Sonoma. Cooper also opened a general store in Monterey, today's Cooper-Molera Adobe, and became the city's harbormaster in 1851. He eventually moved to San Francisco in 1865, ultimately dying there in 1872.

Ranch Siding on the Pajaro Valley Consolidated Railroad, 1912.
[US Geological Survey]

Cooper's only son, John Bautista Henry Cooper, continued to operate Rancho Bolsa del Potrero y Moro Cojo after his father's death. He was raised at a missionary school in Honolulu before returning after his father's death to take over the vast family properties. He continued to augment them over subsequent decades, becoming at the same time the chairman of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. His time in both the Salinas Valley and Hawai'i likely brought him into contact with Claus Spreckels, who began constructing the Pajaro Valley Railroad between Watsonville and Cooper's ranch in 1890. The fact that the original right-of-way ended at Cooper's Moro Cojo ranch strongly suggests that it was producing, or planned to produce, sugar beets for the Watsonville refinery.

Eventually, the Coopers came to own three railroad stops along the Pajaro Valley Consolidated line. The northernmost of them, simply named Ranch, was located roughly 12.5 miles from Watsonville Depot and 14.7 miles from Spreckels. It had a relatively long siding that ran along the western side of the mainline. Structures outlined on the US Geological Survey map from 1912 suggest that a beat-loading device straddled both sets of tracks on its southern end. Another structure, possible a barn or warehouse, sat near the northern end of the siding. These certainly were still in place in 1914, and likely existed until the end of the railroad in 1930.

John Bautista Henry Cooper, c. 1890s.
[California and Californians]

The younger Cooper balanced his life between Monterey County and affairs in San Francisco for most of his life. His primary residence was an isolated large ranch on the Big Sur Coast, where he spent much of his later life. After Cooper died on June 21, 1899, his wife, Martha Brawley, continued to manage the family estates. She finally liquidated the family property in 1928, but retained an interest in 8,800 acres in Moro Cojo to grow lettuce and artichokes. This suggests that the farm was no longer using the railroad to grow sugar beets by this date. Her son, John Bautista Rogers, lived on the farm as well, helping his mother manage it. Most of the former rancho remains an agricultural plot today which is owned and operated by the Cooper Land Company, presided over by John Roger Cooper's descendants, the Goodwin family.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
36.762˚N, 121.788˚W

The site of Ranch is publicly accessible via Molera Road south of Moss Landing. Molera Road is, in fact, the Pajaro Valley Consolidated Railroad right-of-way from Monterey Dunes Way southward. The station was located at the narrowest point between the road and Old Salinas River. There is a loading area to the east of the road and a pull-out to the west. No evidence of the stop itself remains and all traces of the right-of-way have been long since paved or covered by agricultural fields.

Citations & Credits:

• 'Cooper Family', Patton Family Website. 2013.
• 'Land History', Cooper Land Company. 
• 'John Baptist Henry Cooper', California and Californians, Vol. IV. Lewis Publishing Company, 1932.

Stations: Warnock

The history of the Warnock family of Salinas is a little-known story. The family immigrated to the United States from Scotland in 1868 and eventually moved to the Salinas Valley, certainly before 1879. Once there, they became farmers along the Old Salinas River midway between Moss Landing and Castroville on one of the county roads. At some point, probably around the late 1880s, the Warnocks were undoubtedly swayed by Claus Spreckels to begin planting sugar beets and allow his Pajaro Valley Railroad to pass through their lands toward Salinas and the Spreckels refinery. The Warnocks owned land on both sides of the river all the way to the beach, so there was plenty of fertile soil on which to plant beets.

Nothing is actually known about the stop and Fabing and Hamman do not mention it in their book, except on a map. It was located approximately 11.5 miles from Watsonville Depot and 15.7 miles from Spreckels on the Pajaro Valley Railroad line. Satellite information for the stop suggests that there may have been a southward-exiting siding or spur on the east side of the mainline, although the stop may have been located slightly further to the south, in which case any evidence for a spur or siding is erased by subsequent farming activity. There is no evidence of a stop on the 1912 US Geological Survey map, which suggests the location was abandoned and any excess track removed by that date. Like Thompson, Warnock appears to have been a relatively early and short-lived station.

By the late 1890s, Robert Warnock was the patriarch of the family, presumably the son of the first generation of immigrants. He married Mabel Moore in 1910. She was a California native born around 1877 to Miles M. Moore and Annie. Miles, born 1836, was from Indiana, while Annie from California, though her parents were Kentuckians. Both Robert and Miles died in the 1920s, the latter at nearly 90 years old, the former around 60. It seems unlikely that Robert and Mabel had any children. Annie lived with Mabel into the 1930s while Mabel herself was still alive in 1949. In December 1931, Mabel sold a large portion of her property to the State of California in for the creation of Salinas River State Beach, alongside lands donated by her neighbor, William T. Sandholdt. She still retained possession of the original farm, however, until at least 1949. Further information on the Warnock family is not presently available.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
36.777˚N, 121.790˚W

The site of Warnock sits along the north side of Old Salinas River, just northwest of Molera Road near where it crosses Tembladero Slough. The site is marked by the end of the right-of-way that is visible from Thompson Station. A private farmer service road sits atop the route and all evidence of the station itself has long since disappeared.

Citations & Credits:

• Santa Cruz Evening News, 1931.
• State of California–Department of Public Works: Division of Water Resources. Salinas Basin Investigation–Basic Data. Bulletin 52A. 1949.
• US Census Records, 1870-1930.