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Los Gatos Creek near Eva, c. 1907. Photo by Frank Herman Mattern. [Greg De Santis] |
It is unclear how Casey & Co. used the stop but, after the Southern Pacific leased the South Pacific Coast in 1887, W.T. Fitzgerald, general passenger and freight agent for the narrow-gauge sub-division, purchased the portion of Casey's land near Los Gatos Creek for use as a picnic stop for the railroad. In 1889, Casey's was renamed "Forest Grove." The new stop was first used, possibly as a test, in April 1888 by a Presbyterian group visiting from Brooklyn. Over the subsequent decade, the stop became the railroad's primary annual corporate picnic site and hosted thousands of visitors. Presumably a structure of some sort was built at the site that was known as Forest House, most likely a small hostelry, although there appears to be no actual mention of this building in newspapers or railroad advertisements from the period. Eventually, a half-mile-long passing siding was built at the stop to support waiting passenger cars. The opening of the purpose-built Sunset Park picnic area outside of Wright in 1896 signalled the end of Forest Grove as the official Southern Pacific picnic stop in the area.
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Los Gatos Creek near Eva, c. 1907. Photo by Frank Herman Mattern. [Greg De Santis] |
The San Francisco Earthquake ended Eva's brief stint as a mountain resort. A landslide buried the lake before the start of the summer season and tourist trains did not use the line again until 1909. Just when the tide was changing, a fire leveled the Eva Vista Hotel in 1912. Its twenty-five-year history as a picnic stop came to an inglorious end.
Meanwhile, Casey & Company had sold the lower part of their property but retained mining rights to the upper parts of Hooker Gulch throughout this entire period. Copper was discovered in 1900 and Casey finally began drilling in 1917, five years after Eva had ceased to function as a location for tourism. Despite attempts to mine the hills for copper, gold, and silver, no venture ever succeeded. In 1929, Dr. H. C. Adair began prospecting in the area and found that much of the minerals were mixed heavily with pyrite, making extraction costly and unprofitable. Adair searched for more profitable veins in the late 1930s, discovering a profitable gold vein which he successfully extracted in 1938. But the income was not enough to continue mining the gulch.
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A short commuter train passing the former site of Eva, July 9, 1939. [Wilbur C. Whittaker] |
Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
37.153˚N, 121.960˚W
The location of Eva is now owned by the San Jose Water Company in a severely-overgrown portion of the right-of-way. Access to the site is not restricted, though technically trespassing, but attempting to go to the site is not recommended due to the heavy presence of poison oak in the area.
Citations & Credits:
- Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, 1888.
- Santa Cruz Sentinel, 1888-1903.
- Whaley, Derek. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA, 2015.
YOU CAN HELP!
If you have information about Forest Grove or Eva,
leave a comment below or email author@santacruztrains.com.
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Wonder if we could ever find the Hooker Creek Mine: it's probably buried under 20 feet of dirt and mud by now....
ReplyDeletePoison oak can be avoided easily if you know what it looks like! Lol
ReplyDeleteMROSD is in early talks with SJWC to buy the land in this area. We can only hope. http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/28/new-redwood-park-in-santa-cruz-mountains-could-come-from-beall-law/
ReplyDeleteEva is still shown as a flag stop for all passenger trains in the March 21, 1937 Employees Timetable with a siding of a 20 car capacity. Since the Employee and Public Timetables did not always match, it would be interesting to see what was the status of this station through 1940. The Milepost (#60) shown to the right in Wilbur Whittaker's photo can be seen currently on the left wall of the model train layout at the Santa Clara Caltrain station. I found it face down in 1970 on the embankment on the right and donated it to the Los Gatos Historical Museum who eventually sent it on to Santa Clara. They incorrectly describe it there as a "companion board" in other words, there were two boards with the # 60 on it facing in both directions. But in fact, the # 60 was on both sides of the same board and the paint had worn out on one side after years of being exposed to the elements. "60" refers to the distance in miles from San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmothers name was Eva bulmore, father was super in charge of new almaden quick silver mines. I can always think they named it after her.
ReplyDeleteHey Derek. There is a pic of the Eva Vista hotel on ebay right now that you may want to capture.https://www.ebay.com/itm/1910-Evavista-Resort-Santa-Cruz-Mountains-CA-Postcard-4V/163600917724?hash=item26175fe4dc:g:830AAOSwcSJcgF6c
ReplyDelete