Friday, January 24, 2025

Curiosities: Coastal Shipping

Santa Cruz County did not always have rail services. Before 1876, travel to the remote northern cove of the Monterey Bay was difficult, with roads sometimes impassible and seas too rough to travel. Ultimately, it was ocean-going vessels and coastal steamers that dominated the early Santa Cruz freight industry, resulting in a series of wharves erected at the ends of Bay Street, Pacific Avenue, and Main Street. But what were the companies that used these structures and when and why did they stop visiting the Santa Cruz waterfront?

The SS Roanoke beside the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf on opening day, December 5, 1914. [University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

Santa Cruz had been a seaport long before it became a US state. The Spanish mission used the Santa Cruz Main Beach to receive supplies from Mexico and the produce from the mission and the spring on Beach Hill refuelled ships' supplies. By the early 1840s, people like Isaac Graham used oxen and horse teams to haul lumber to the beach, where it was loaded onto boats and transferred to ships anchored offshore. It was a tedious process and led to only small profits. In 1846, Graham and his business partners built their own ship on the beach, the first of many to be named Santa Cruz. It was followed soon after with a second Santa Cruz and the Zach Taylor. These small ships, though, would hardly be able to compete with the larger vessels that would soon run along the Central Coast.

"Bird's Eye View of Santa Cruz," by Charles B. Gifford, showing steamships and tall ships off Davis & Cowell's wharf and Gharky's wharf, ca 1872. [Bancroft Library – colorized using MyHeritage]

As the lumber and leather industries were gradually supplemented by commercial agricultural products, quicklime, blasting powder, and other types of freight, the need for a reliable means of transferring freight to ships increased. Cowell's wharf, originally built at the end of Bay Street as a simple chute in 1849 by Elihu Anthony and Edward S. Penfield to load ships with potatoes, evolved into Santa Cruz's first industrial wharf. This was followed in 1857 by David Gharky's wharf at the end of Main Street. The Railroad Wharf at the end of Pacific Avenue joined the pair in 1876, connected to Gharky's wharf with a viaduct from 1877 to 1882. Finally, in December 1914, the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf was completed. Other landings and wharves existed at times in the county, too, at Waddell's Beach, Davenport Landing, William's Landing, Soquel Wharf, Aptos Wharf, and Watsonville Landing.

The SS Ancon at the Railroad Wharf, ca 1877. Photo by Romanzo E. Wood. [Chico State University – colorized using MyHeritage]

By the mid-1870s, Santa Cruz was the busiest seaport on the California coast outside of the San Francisco Bay. The three wharves did a bonanza business shipping the redwood timber and quicklime that was rapidly building the nearby metropolis. Explosive powder from the California Powder Works were shipped to the Gold Country for mining, to timber tracts to destroy stumps and other obstacles, to railroads to grade their routes, and to the New Almaden quicksilver mines to bore new tunnels. People were also visiting Santa Cruz, primarily to enjoy the bathing beach beside the outlet of the San Lorenzo River, which was conveniently located directly beside and between the wharves. The Leibbrandts and Liddell families worked hard to attract visitors during the summer months, ever expanding their bathing pavilions and adding amenities. In the mountains, resorts were also opening up at the Welch's Big Trees Grove, Hotel de Redwood, Olive's Sulphur Springs, and elsewhere.

A steamship, possibly the Fannie Gilmore, loading barrels of quicklime at the bottom of Cowell's wharf, ca 1890. [Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History – colorized using MyHeritage]

In the earliest years, a variety of companies sent ships along the California coastline to call at its ports, most notably the California Steam Navigation Company, which in 1867 became the California, Oregon, and Mexico Steamship Company and in 1869 the North Pacific Transportation Company. These companies mostly ran schooners specially outfitted for coastal shipping, often featuring both steam-powered paddle-wheels and wind-powered rigging. Davis & Jordan purchased a steamship of their own in 1857, yet another Santa Cruz, and used it to transport quicklime to San Francisco. The cost of operating the ship and the loss of business to Gharky's wharf after 1857, though, led them to downgrade to the smaller Fannie Gilmore. By this point, Santa Cruz was undeniably a seaport even if the ships calling were from a broad array of commercial shipping firms.

Cowell's wharf with a steamship docked and the Railroad Wharf in the distance, ca 1900 [UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

It was not until 1875 that a major coastal shipping concern began operating out of the port on a regular schedule. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company had been founded in 1848 to handle the delivery of US mail along the Pacific Coast. Its mainline ran from the Panama Isthmus to San Francisco, and it did a bonanza business shortly after its founding as the California Gold Rush took off. It only took a passing interest in intermediate ports for the first 25 years of operation, but by the mid-1870s it was looking to expand and Santa Cruz was a logical destination. Its ships called into port regularly, causing Gharky's wharf to be renamed the Steamship Wharf in local parlance. The company's dominance did not last long, though.

A steamship heading docking at the Railroad Wharf, ca 1900. [UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

In early 1876, around the time that the Railroad Wharf was completed, Goodall, Nelson and Perkins began running its own steamships along the Central Coast, mostly using older ships acquired in 1875 from the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. They initially called at the Railroad Wharf since their business was primarily transporting the lumber brought in from the San Lorenzo Valley flume. However, they also had a well-regarded passenger service with modern ships that outpaced those of their rival. Ratcheting up the competition, on October 17, 1876, the company reorganized itself as the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, a name meant to put fear in the hearts of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's board of directors. The firm established a local office at the end of Pacific Avenue near the base of the Railroad Wharf and across from the Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad's main office.

Painting of the SS Senator, 1848, by James Bard. [Mariners' Museum and Park, Newport News, VA]

While the two firms fought over routes to the Pacific Northwest, they mostly cooperated in shipping freight from Santa Cruz. In 1877, to increase efficiency and the safety of shipping blasting powder, the Railroad Wharf and Gharky's wharf were connected by a viaduct with railroad tracks. This meant that steamships of either company, or other firms, could dock at either wharf and receive the same level of service. The opening of the Santa Cruz Railroad in 1876 seems to have had little impact on shipping since it was still cheaper to ship most freight out of Santa Cruz via steamship than rail. Passenger service, though, may have begun to decline from this time as passengers generally preferred the gentle ride of a railroad compared to the rolling and longer voyage of a coastal steamship.

Lumber being loaded onto a tall ship docked at the Railroad Wharf, ca 1900. [UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

The beginning of the end came early. In May 1880, the South Pacific Coast Railroad opened between Santa Cruz and Alameda. This route made shipping by rail substantially cheaper and provided even more incentives for passengers to take the train. For a short time, many industries used both methods of transport, especially after the Southern Pacific Railroad took over the South Pacific Coast in 1887, immediately increasing prices. However, the end was inevitable. In 1880, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company abandoned all attempts to compete with the Pacific Coast Steamship Company and shifted its focus to Central America and trans-Pacific shipping. This left the latter company with a virtual monopoly over freight and passenger services out of Santa Cruz. Its only competitor was Davis & Cowell, who used their own ships and reluctantly began using the railroad as well.

Barrels being hoisted onto the SS Margaret at either the Railroad Wharf or the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, date undetermined. [UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

Southern Pacific finally stabilized its rates around 1890s, successfully undercutting shipping rates while still charging more than was probably necessary for its services. The California Powder Works would continue to ship powder out from the Railroad Wharf until around 1900, but most other firms shifted to one of the rail lines out of the county. The widespread expansion of rail networks across the Central Coast in the 1880s and 1890s led to the collapse of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company in the Panic of 1893. The company was revived under new owners in 1897 but its focus shifted further and further north, especially during the Klondike Gold. Within a decade, almost all regular coastal passenger service was ended with the company focusing instead on long-distance travel between key Pacific ports, among which Santa Cruz was no longer counted.

The Railroad Wharf with a steamship docked beside it and the pleasure ship Balboa anchored in the Monterey Bay, ca 1907. Photo by James E. Boynton. [Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History – colorized using MyHeritage]

The decline of commercial steamship service was felt quickly in Santa Cruz after the expansion of the railroads. In 1882, the Steamship Wharf was demolished, as was its connection to the Railroad Wharf. There was simply not enough traffic to justify three commercial wharves at the waterfront. Cowell's wharf thrived for another 25 years, but when a winter storm damaged it in 1907, the Henry Cowell Lime & Cement Company changed its policy and began using the railroad more heavily. Once the line through the mountains was reopened in 1909, it completely abandoned its old wharf and the commercial shipping service it had run for over 50 years. The Railroad Wharf, meanwhile, had been largely taken over by Italian fishing families by 1910, though it was briefly cleared of shacks around the time that the Municipal Wharf was erected beside it in 1914. However, with the new wharf available for steamship service, the Railroad Wharf became a fishing hub with a cannery and other facilities installed.

The SS Roanoke docked at the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf on opening day, December 5, 1914. [UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

The Municipal Wharf, meanwhile, had been designed with steamships in mind. It was long enough to reach deepwater, and the curve at the end was to allow ships to dock in accordance with the prevailing tide. On opening day, December 5, 1914, the SS Roanoke docked as part of the celebration, having just passed through the newly-opened Panama Canal. To the people of Santa Cruz, who had paid for the wharf after Southern Pacific declined to make needed improvements to the Railroad Wharf, it seemed like a return to the coastal shipping days of old. But it was only a dream. After nearly two decades of trial and error, the city failed to attract a regular flow of steamships. The Great Depression put the final nail in the coffin when Southern Pacific successfully removed its tracks from the wharf in 1931, signalling a defeat for the city. By this point, several Italian fishing families had relocated to the Municipal Wharf from the Railroad Wharf, which had been demolished in 1922. The wharf gradually evolved from a commercial shipping destination to an Italian fishing station to a tourist destination. So ended Santa Cruz's dream to regain its status as a Central Coast seaport.

The SS William H. Murphy docked at the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf with boxcars of cargo and a smaller steamship docked beside the warehouse, ca 1916. [UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

Ships of the Lines:

The most prominent companies ran several ships along the Central Coast, but Ernest Otto, a late Santa Cruz Sentinel writer who wrote extensively about his memories of the 1870s and 1880, recalls the names of several of the ships that called at Santa Cruz. These included:

  • Senator – Launched in 1848 from the shipyard of William H. Brown, New York City. A 219-foot-long two-masted steam-powered paddlewheel schooner with a capacity of 190 passengers and 300 tons of cargo. Operated 1848–1849 by James C. Cunningham; 1849–1851 by Charles Minturn; 1851–1854 by People's Line; 1854–1867 by the California Steam Navigation Company; 1867–1872 by the California, Oregon, and Mexico Steamship Company / North Pacific Transportation Company; 1872–1875 by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company; 1875–1882 by Goodall, Nelson & Perkins / the Pacific Coast Steamship Company; 1884–1906 by the Kamo Coal Company (New Zealand) / Northern Steamship Company as a stationary barge; and 1906–1912 by the Devonport Steam Ferry Company. Scrapped in New Zealand, ca 1912.
  • Pacific – Launched in 1850 from the shipyard of William. H. Brown, New York City. A 223-foot-long three-masted steam-powered paddlewheel schooner with a capacity of 546 passengers. Operated 1850–1851 by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company; 1851–1858 by Cornelius Vanderbilt; 1858–1859 by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company; 1859–1867 by the California Steam Navigation Company; 1867–1872 by the California, Oregon and Mexico Steamship Company / North Pacific Transportation Company; 1872–1875 by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company; and 1875 by Goodall, Nelson & Perkins. Wrecked in Washington, November 4, 1875.
  • Los Angeles – Launched 1863 from the shipyards of J. T. Fardy & Bros, Baltimore. A 130-foot-long two-masted Pawtuxet-class steam cutter with an unknown passenger capacity. Operated 1863–1873 by the United States Revenue Cutter Service as the Wayanda; and 1873–1894 by Goodall, Nelson & Perkins / Pacific Coast Steamship Company as the Los Angeles. Wrecked off Point Sur, April 22, 1894.
  • Ancon – Launched in 1867 from Hunter's Point, San Francisco, for use as a ferry in Panama for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. A 226-foot-long two-masted schooner with a capacity of 268 passengers. Operated 1867–1872 by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company; and 1875–1889 by Goodall, Nelson & Perkins / Pacific Coast Steamship Company. Wrecked in Alaska, August 28, 1889.
  • Gipsy – Launched in 1868 from the shipyard of Middlemas & Boole, San Francisco. 102-foot-long two-masted steam-powered schooner. Operated 1868–1905 by Goodall, Nelson & Perkins / Pacific Coast Steamship Company. Wrecked at Monterey, September 27, 1905.
  • City of Chester – Launched 1873 from the shipyard of John Roach & Sons, Chester, Pennsylvania. A 202-foot-long two-masted steamship with a capacity of 214 passengers. Operated by 1876–ca 1879 by the Oregon Steamship Company / Oregon Steam Navigation Company; and ca 1879–1888 by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. Wrecked in San Francisco Bay, August 22, 1888.
  • State of California – Launched in 1878 from the shipyard of William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia. A 306-foot-long two-masted steamship. Operated 1878–1913 by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. Wrecked in Alaska, August 17, 1913.
  • Pomona – Launched 1888 from the shipyards of the Union Iron Works, San Francisco. A 225-foot-long two-masted steamship with a capacity of 200 passengers and 300 tons of cargo. Operated 1888–1897 by the Oregon Improvement Company; 1897–1908 by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. Wrecked near Eureka, March 17, 1908.
Other ships that called periodically at Santa Cruz of which less information is known include the AdrianaMontereyEureka, San VicenteSalinas, and William H. Murphy.

Citations & Credits:

Friday, December 27, 2024

Stations: Watsonville Junction

Along the northern edge of Rancho Bolsa de San Cayetano, the gently meandering Pajaro River flows ever closer to the sea, leaving on both sides a vast, silted floodplain that provided the foundations for the twin towns of Pajaro and Watsonville, the former located to the south of the river in Monterey County, the latter to the north in Santa Cruz County. The river was named after a bird, perhaps an eagle, killed by Awaswas-speaking Native Americans and stuffed with straw, later to be found by soldiers of Gaspar de Portolá’s expedition on October 8, 1769. Bolsa de San Cayetano, in contrast, was not established until 1824, when it was given by the Mexican government to Ignacio Vicente Ferrer Vallejo, father of the famous Californio patriot Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. Upon Ignacio’s death in 1831, the rancho passed to his eldest son, José de Jesús Vallejo, but José expressed little interest in the ranch after 1842. At least one child of Ignacio remained on the property at the time of the United States’ annexation of California in 1848.

Lucy Bell Rich holding Elwood Rich at Watsonville Junction, 1913. Photo by Edith Rich. [Courtesy Carol Bethany – colorized using MyHeritage]

Pajaro as a settlement grew within the rancho in fits and starts. In the first twenty years after statehood, it was little more than the junction of the roads to Santa Cruz, San Juan, and Monterey, with the only notable commercial building being a boarding house. Other commercial structures may have arisen on private properties, yet no settlement arose during this time—all notable commercial business occurred in nearby Watsonville, which began development from 1852. The Pajaro Valley at the time was used primarily for cattle grazing, tanning, making tallow, and growing grain crops, especially wheat and oats. In 1851, J. Bryant Hill became the first settler to attempt to run a commercial farm. Hundreds of settlers followed him, squatting on rancho land that was poorly policed by its owners. Decades of lawsuits followed, but the ranch owners lost in the end. Throughout this time, farmers in north Monterey County drew closer to their brethren in Santa Cruz County, leading to the creation of a shared Pajaro Valley School District in 1853, as well as other joint ventures.

The arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1871 briefly destabilized this relationship. Southern Pacific had expressed interest in running its new coastal route directly through Watsonville, but residents of the town failed to provide enough fiscal inducements to Southern Pacific to cause them to deviate from their intended route. As a result, the line ran south of the Pajaro River, stopping just before the main road to Monterey and Salinas opposite the narrow bridge over the river to Watsonville. Through traffic to Pajaro Station began on November 27, 1871, and the location remained the end-of-track for the branch for the next year until it was extended to Salinas. Despite consternation among the Watsonville populace, the community quickly embraced the nearby railroad and began shipping from the station.

The Watsonville Junction passenger depot beside the Wells Fargo warehouse, circa 1900. [Courtesy Pajaro Valley Historical Association – colorized using MyHeritage]

Pajaro grew gradually over its first decade. For the first five years, the stagecoach to Santa Cruz chose Pajaro as its southern terminus. It is likely that a turntable was installed at the station to turn locomotives back toward San José, and a few freight spurs may have been added early to cater to local lumber and agricultural firms. Other businesses, especially small hotels, boarding houses, and warehouses, likely arose around the freight yard as Southern Pacific began expanding its facilities. Nevertheless, the community remained small and focused entirely on the railroad. This did not change when the narrow-gauge Santa Cruz Railroad reached Pajaro in May 1876. The tracks shared yard space with Southern Pacific but the rails did not interact, so likely ran adjacent to each other to allow transloading, perhaps with platforms installed between them. Though there is no evidence of the Santa Cruz Railroad having a turntable in the yard, it did have a turntable in Santa Cruz, which would not be required unless another turntable was at the other end of the line. Stage service was replaced with rail service to Santa Cruz, but the facilities likely remained to house visitors in Pajaro. In fact, the arrival of the Santa Cruz Railroad probably had little impact on Pajaro and may have even diverted some traffic away from the yard to Watsonville.

Watsonville Junction passenger and freight depots, April 28, 1940. Photo by W. C. Whittaker. [Courtesy Jim Vail – colorized using MyHeritage]

From the very beginning, daily passenger trains ran from Pajaro to San Francisco over the Southern Pacific line. These also exported increasing numbers of agricultural products, lumber, beer, refined sugar from sugar beets, and lumber, while importing mercantile goods, foodstuffs, mail, and imports from the East Coast and elsewhere. To support the rise in traffic, the railroad built its first local passenger depot, a 27-foot by 81-foot single-story wood frame structure. Across the yard, a 200-foot by 40-foot warehouse was erected to store grain while it awaited transport. Other facilities included a stockyard for holding excess rolling stock and a freight office.

The Watsonville Junction freight yard, circa 1920. [Courtesy Pajaro Valley Historical Association – colorized using MyHeritage]

Competition with the South Pacific Coast Railroad, which completed its route through the Santa Cruz Mountains in May 1880, substantially decreased revenue along the Santa Cruz Railroad, leading to its bankruptcy in 1881. Southern Pacific, seeing the potential of the failed venture, purchased the narrow-gauge railroad and upgraded its track to standard-gauge in 1883. At Pajaro, this meant that the tracks to Santa Cruz were fully integrated with the existing tracks in the yard, and the narrow-gauge turntable was removed and likely replaced with a standard-gauge turntable, unless one had already been installed by the Southern Pacific Railroad earlier. With this conversion complete, Pajaro became the junction point of Southern Pacific’s Pajaro & Santa Cruz Railroad, later the Santa Cruz Branch, and the route to Soledad that would eventually become the Coast Division mainline.

Sanborn Fire Insurance map of the Pajaro Station yard, 1888. [Courtesy Library of Congress]

The completion of the Loma Prieta Railroad in the hills above Aptos in 1884 led to the next major expansion of the Pajaro Station yard: the addition of a 2,000,000 board feet capacity yard to store the lumber harvested by the Loma Prieta Lumber Company. This sprawling lumber yard sat just beside the tracks to Santa Cruz in the center of the Pajaro freight yard. The company’s planing mill was situated on the southeast side of the yard, while the railroad’s roundhouse sat to the east of the lumber stacks. At this time, the roundhouse was still very small—only capable of holding two switch engines. The passenger depot and grain warehouse had also been joined by a 32-foot by 179-foot wood frame freight depot and a second grain and potato warehouse, both grain warehouses being leased to somebody named Jackson. These structures were arranged along Railroad Avenue on the north side of the tracks. Three parallel tracks ran along this section, although it is unclear where they merged east of the station. By 1892, one of the grain warehouses was leased to Besse & Sill but grain and lumber remained the primary products shipped out of the station.

The Watsonville Junction roundhouse, circa 1965. [Courtesy Derek Whaley – colorized using MyHeritage]

The turn of the century saw more substantial improvements made at Pajaro. Trackage in the area increased substantially in the yard, including a new spur to the Unglish Brothers fruit drier on Railroad Avenue, two additional tracks across from the depots and warehouses, and the removal of the Loma Prieta Lumber Company’s yard. Meanwhile, both grain warehouses were leased by H. E. West. In 1902, express parcel service came to the station. Total trackage at Pajaro was first recorded in 1905 as 16,743 feet, which also reflected the addition of the wye that year. This wye meant that trains from Santa Cruz could now go directly to the south without using the turntable or exchanging cars. The next year, the total trackage was increased to 19,375 feet. The April 18, 1906, earthquake, however, caused significant damage to the roundhouse when the yard’s water tower collapsed atop it. The yard shut down for two days while crews cleared the tracks of debris. Over the next year, a new roundhouse and water tower were built, as well as a new freight depot, which was moved to the site of the Unglish Brothers’ drier. A new track was installed to access this depot, running along the south side of Railroad Avenue. At the same time, the passenger depot was moved across the yard to the inside curve of the southern leg of the wye.

A Southern Pacific locomotive beside the water tower at Watsonville Junction, circa 1950. [Courtesy Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History – colorized using MyHeritage]

Although the narrow-gauge route through the Santa Cruz Mountains was the favored method of bringing tourists to Santa Cruz, not everyone went that way, especially travelers who also planned to stop at the Del Monte Hotel in Monterey. Thus, Pajaro was a major transfer point. Yet the name led to endless confusion among those not familiar with the Spanish pronunciation of Pajaro—Pa-ha-row—especially East Coasters. As a result, on July 22, 1913, Southern Pacific rechristened the station Watsonville Junction. Though locals may have been indifferent or a little irritated about the change, those in Watsonville and elsewhere in Santa Cruz County were jubilant since it meant customers would know where to switch trains. Many thought the entire town would also be renamed, but Pajaro retained its former town name even as the station became more closely linked with the city across the river.

Inside the Watsonville Junction roundhouse, circa 1930. [Courtesy Pajaro Valley Historical Association – colorized using My Heritage]

As the decades progressed, the yard at Watsonville Junction continued to evolve. In 1913, along with the name change, a 20-foot by 37-foot two-story wood frame yardmaster’s office was built on the south side of the yard, where it could oversee the operations there. By 1917, the yard had achieved its maximum extent. To the east, a stockyard of at least six tracks led into the main yard. To the south, two tracks broke off from the yard and split into four before merging into a single track as it enters Elkhorn Slough. To the north, six sidings merged into one just before crossing Salinas Road (G12) on the way to Watsonville. And to the west, six tracks broke off on the south side only to quickly combine back together, with two tracks crossing Salinas Road and merging soon afterwards to form the third corner of the wye. Within the wye itself, a second tighter wye track wrapped around an enlarged turntable and eleven-stall roundhouse and connected with a leg of a southbound track. Some of the structures at the yard at this time included a railroad stock warehouse and oiling station situated beside a maintenance spur on the northern side of the yard to the east of the roundhouse. Meanwhile, the depot itself was situated on the southern side of the wye, where a small parking lot provided easy access to cars and buses.

Groundbreaking for the new Watsonville Junction depot, 1947. [Courtesy Watsonville Public Library – colorized using MyHeritage]

The 1920s and 1930s saw a realignment of features at Watsonville Junction. In 1927, a train order registry was located there, forcing all trains to stop and register at the station before moving on. At the eastern end of the yard, a new stockyard was built beside the old freight and grain warehouses, which totaled seven in 1931. These mostly catered to specific freight patrons since five spurs terminated beside the warehouses. It was also in this time that the Salinas Road industrial lead first opened with its first two customers. Despite the Great Depression, Watsonville Junction was very active in these years—the stockyard was never empty of cars waiting to join passing trains.

For a moment in the 1946, a station under the name Pajaro appeared once again, this time 1.8 miles to the east of Watsonville Junction at the end of Hayes Road. This location marked the easternmost extent of the freight yard, where the tracks combined into the double-track except for a single spur that terminated directly west of Hayes Road. There is a sprawling farm just to the south of the tracks that may correspond to an agricultural firm that used the station in 1946, but none of the available Southern Pacific records note a specific freight customer here. What is more likely is that the station was set up as a centralized traffic control (CTC) waypoint, much like Corporal near Sargent, but was merged into Watsonville Junction because it was already within the yard limits. Today, the CTC kiosk bisects the disused spur that runs along the north side of the mainline, but the station name Pajaro vanished in the next employee timetable.

The new Watsonville Junction passenger depot, circa 1970. Photo by Margaret Koch. [Courtesy Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History – colorized using MyHeritage]

On October 31, 1949, a new passenger depot opened beside the old depot. This was a 28-foot by 128-foot frame stucco building with a Carmel stone veneer, a new and unique design reflecting post-war architectural aesthetics. The previous structure was decommissioned the same day but repurposed as the yard office on August 26, 1952, with alteration to the structure made in 1953 and 1967. It seems to have been demolished in late 1978 after the new depot was expanded to add a freight agency and yard office. On June 30, 1966, a new yardmaster’s office building, a 24-foot by 24-foot prefabricated metal square, was erected. This seems to have coincided with the demolition of the water tower, roundhouse, and turntable, which had been deemed unnecessary following the conversion of all locomotives from steam to diesel power in the preceding decade. Passenger service had been on a steady decline since 1938 when all regular service along the Santa Cruz Branch ceased. The last periodic service to run to Watsonville Junction ended entirely on April 30, 1971, when Amtrak took over passenger services.

Southern Pacific locomotive no. 5623 at Watsonville Junction, 1958. [Courtesy Derek Whaley – colorized using MyHeritage]

Although all passenger service had ceased, freight service continues through Watsonville Junction and the location remains an active switch for the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line, albeit only for freight services at this time. Several freight customers in Pajaro and Watsonville use private spurs for loading cars and the Union Pacific Railroad uses yard trackage to assemble trains of perishable and non-perishable goods for transport out. The second passenger depot remained in place as an office for Southern Pacific Transportation Company staff until the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, when it was severely damaged. Though some restoration work was attempted, the building was eventually condemned and demolished on January 18, 2012. At the time, the plan was to complete environmental planning for the extension of the Bay Area transportation rail system and then erect a third depot, but this has not happened as of January 2025. A few passenger trains do pass through Watsonville Junction daily but these do not stop there. Presently, Union Pacific uses a temporary, modular building for its local offices.

Google aerial photograph of the Watsonville Junction yard, 2024.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
36.894091, -121.745736
100.4 miles from San Francisco
20.3 miles from Santa Cruz

Watsonville Junction remains an active rail yard for the Union Pacific Railroad. Several passenger trains still pass through the yard each week, though none presently stop there. Freight trains pass through regular while hoppers from the Graniterock quarry at Logan are often assembled in the yard, awaiting transport to southern destinations. Foundations remain for about half a dozen buildings, but almost none of the original structures remain on site. An abandoned freight platform still sits beside Salinas Road with a spur track terminating at it. All the other trackage is intact and moderately in use, including a still significant wye that, on its western side, crosses over the site of the former turntable. Two industrial leads run alongside SunRidge Farms / Falcon Trading Company and behind a number of food distributors. In the middle of the wye, four sidings eventually merge together to the east to join the mainline. Another spur runs alongside Railroad Avenue beside an 8-lane assembly area that is located further to the east, beside the two mainline tracks. Remnants of other sidings and spurs remain, some disused, others entirely disconnected, and long-term evidence of the railroad throughout the area is not difficult to discern in aerial photographs or on the ground.

Citations & Credits:

  • Henry E. Bender Jr., “SP San Jose to Watsonville Junction.” December 2017.
  • Margaret Clovis. Images of America: Monterey County’s North Coast and Coastal Valleys. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2006.
  • Erwin G. Gudde. California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names. Fourth edition. Berkeley, CA: UC Press, 1998.
  • Edward S. Harrison. History of Santa Cruz County, California. San Francisco: Pacific Press Publishing Co., 1892.
  • Mildred Brooke Hoover, Hero Eugene Rensch, and Ethel Grace Rensch. Historic Spots in California. Third edition. Revised by William N. Abeloe. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1966.
  • Betty Lewis, various articles for the Register-Pajaronian.
  • Southern Pacific Railroad. Various employee timetables and station books. 1883–1996.
  • S. H. Willey. Santa Cruz County, California: Illustrations Descriptive of its Scenery… San Francisco: Wallace W. Elliott & Co., 1879.

Friday, November 29, 2024

Stations: Nuga

Out on the fringe of Watsonville Slough, 0.5 miles from the nearest road, the Santa Cruz Railroad Company established its least known and most remote stop, a place that the Southern Pacific Railroad eventually named Nuga. Yet the history of this little waypoint between Ellicott and Watsonville far off the beaten path is much more complicated than it should be.

Flood-damaged Southern Pacific Railroad tracks northwest of Nuga at the Harkins Slough bridge, 1909. [Neil Vodden, Jack Hanson]

After years of disagreement between the people of Santa Cruz and those of Watsonville, it was finally decided by Frederick A. Hihn and the other directors of the Santa Cruz Railroad Company to bypass Watsonville by nearly two miles with the intention to cross the Pajaro River closer to its outlet into the Monterey Bay. Thus, in late 1875, railroad grading crews cut across the lands of around a dozen farmers and orchardists without warning or compensation, sparking a vicious legal battle. What would become Nuga proved to be at the center of the issue, since it was here that the railroad would ultimately turn inland on a path that would have the line enter the Watsonville town limits in spring 1876.

Map of the Rancho Bolsa del Pajaro showing property boundaries and owners with the Southern Pacific Railroad right-of-way passing through the center, June 1889. [Santa Cruz GIS]

This land was once a part of Ranch Bolsa del Pajaro, the same Mexican land grant upon which much of Watsonville itself was situated. By 1867, the tract between Watsonville Slough and Beach Road was owned by Thomas Martin, who operated a private farm and ranch on the property. When the grading crews of the Santa Cruz Railroad passed through his property in November 1875, he was not pleased. He had not granted the right-of-way to the railroad and the railroad did not ask permission to cut down his fences, plow over his land, and grade the railroad across it. In fairness, Martin himself likely only suffered a little from the slight, since most of the land through which the railroad passed was slough, but he nonetheless joined Charles Ford and Alvin Sanborn’s lawsuit against the railroad, halting railroad construction in the process.

What precisely happened next for Martin is unclear, but county records show that he transferred a thin right of way through his land to the Santa Cruz Railroad Company on November 21, 1876, six months after the railroad itself was completed. Unlike his angry neighbors, though, Martin negotiated a station out of the deal. Martin’s Station catered not only to Martin’s farm but was also a gathering point for farmers and ranchers working near the mouth of the Pajaro River. A short road, long since removed, was built between Beach Road and the station to allow ease of travel.

Map of part of the Ranchos Bolsa del Pajaro and San Andreas belonging to John, Thomas, William, and James Martin, August 27, 1891. [Santa Cruz GIS]

For the railroad, the presence of the nearby Watsonville Slough and a shallow freshwater lagoon on Martin’s land led to the erection of a water tank for passing trains just northwest of Martin’s. Virtually nothing is known about this water tank, but it was used throughout the period that the railroad through Martin’s was narrow gauge. Public timetables printed in the Sentinel from the late 1870s include Water Tank as a passenger stop, possibly for people wishing to bathe in the lagoon or slough. The last mention of Water Tank is in September 1883, during the standard-gauging of the right-of-way to Santa Cruz, and it seems likely that the waypoint was no longer needed once standard-gauge locomotives began running on the track at the end of that year.

The purchase of the Santa Cruz Railroad by Southern Pacific in 1881 led to the renaming of Martin’s to Laguna, a reference to the adjacent Watsonville Slough. This was probably done to avoid confusion with another “Martin’s” found on the Monterey Branch and named after Thomas’s son, William H. Martin. Thomas continued to own his property off Beach Road, although he was sent to an asylum in 1889 for mental health reasons. He was released in 1897 and continued to farm until his death in February 1911. However, ownership of the trapezoidal station site was transferred at some point earlier to the railroad.

Laguna proved over the years to be a troublesome location to the railroad. For one, it was a shockingly dangerous location, with several trains derailing at the site and at least a few passengers and crew killed over the years. This may be due in part to a sinkhole that periodically made its appearance near the station, buckling tracks and misaligning the right-of-way without warning. This happened because the tracks just to the west marked the lowest point on the entire line, at just six feet above sea level as it crossed Watsonville Slough, and as such the tracks flooded regularly, knocking the tracks out of commission until flood waters receded and the right of way was cleared and repaired. In 1910, efforts were made to raise the track and install a rock wall to protect the right-of-way, although it still experienced seasonal flooding afterwards.

Aerial view showing the Southern Pacific Railroad right-of-way and facilities at Nuga (lower center), 1937. [University of California, Santa Cruz]

Nonetheless, Southern Pacific continued to support the station since it served an important purpose for the lower Pajaro Valley. By 1905, the station had a 674-foot-long siding situated on the south side of the tracks. Over the next three years, this nearly tripled in size to 1,528 feet, or 39 carlengths. Such an expansion was likely due to an aggregate quarry that opened on the north side of the tracks between the station and the slough. This was certainly operating by 1909 and supplied ballast to repair railroad bridges and culverts in the Watsonville area. The station hosted a small warehouse with freight-loading platform and telephone service, a smaller unattended passenger shelter with platform, and a packing shed.

Right of way and track map of Nuga on the Santa Cruz Branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad's Coast Division, June 30, 19[17?]. [Santa Cruz GIS]

Curiously, the name Laguna did not stick—in January 1909, the station was renamed Nuga, an inversion of the its previous Laguna that removed the first and last letters. This may have been done to avoid confusion with the Laguna Creek flag-stop on the Coast Line Railroad south of Davenport or Lagos station on the Ocean Shore Railway, also at Laguna Creek. By 1913, the station had been reduced in status, while in 1926 the siding was cut back. In the early 1940s, the siding was removed entirely even though Sidney Harold Gandrup, a local real estate developer and rancher, still used the shed beside the tracks. On October 26, 1954, all the railroad facilities at Nuga burned down when a grass burn-off on the adjacent field spread out of control. This likely saved the station from destruction in the flood of 1955, though this may have further contributed to Southern Pacific formally abandoning the station on May 20, 1957.

Oil tankers parked on the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line tracks over Harkins Slough just northeast of the Nuga station site, February 2020. [Santa Cruz Sentinel]

In more recent years, the site of Nuga has been reclaimed by the adjacent farm despite still legally belonging to the railroad (now the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission). In 2018, Iowa Pacific Holdings through its Santa Cruz & Monterey Railway subsidiary parked dozens of empty oil tanker cars onto the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line, including at Nuga's site. These prompted protests from Greenway and other groups, eventually resulting in their removal after Progressive Rail took over the contract to operate on the line.

The former location of Nuga on the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line, December 10, 2017. [Derek Whaley]

Public access to the site is no longer possible without trespassing on adjacent property. The location is just to the east of where Watsonville Slough runs under the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line. No evidence of the siding or station remains at Nuga, although the area just to the south of the existing tracks remain undeveloped and wide enough for a siding. Where a farm road that continues to Beach Road meets the tracks marks the former station point. All the area between the tracks and Watsonville Slough remains an undeveloped, rocky field that may represent the short-lived quarry at the station but otherwise shows few signs of development.

Citations & Credits:

  • Bender, Henry E., Jr. "SP72 (SP Santa Cruz Branch)." 2017.
  • Clark, Donald T. Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary. Second edition. Scotts Valley, CA: Kestrel Press, 2008.
  • Southern Pacific Railroad, Coast Division Employee Timetables and Officers and Agencies books. 1889–1940.
  • Various articles. Santa Cruz Sentinel, Santa Cruz Evening Sentinel, Evening Pajaronian, and Register-Pajaronian. 1867–1956.

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Sources: Family History

The family history and genealogy industry is booming, with people now able to even analyse the DNA of their pets. In the United States and other former colonies with large populations descended from Europeans, the idea of tracing one's ancestors back to their immigrant ancestors and beyond is appealing. It helps people establish and build upon cultural connections to other countries and peoples. Researching genealogy and ancestry has its dark side, too, but most people search for their ancestors out of curiosity or to discover long-lost relatives. Because family history is often considered a topic for amateurs or retirees, it is sometimes disregarded as an important part of local history research. But that could not be farther from the truth!

Members of the Leibbrandt Family, circa 1900. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

One thing that every local historian learns early on is that every town has its founding families. Depending what one may be researching, these families may be important to identify early on. When a community is first established, there is usually only a small number of individuals living there. This means that intermarriage between these families is common and frequent. Indeed, it is more unusual to find a founding family that doesn't have genealogical connections to other members of the community, and when this does occur, it is usually because of religious or cultural reasons. Even areas of research that seem too niche or obscure may have unexpected genealogical ties to the wider community that are worth noting.

Genealogy of the family of José Joaquín Castro of Rancho San Andrés, an early Spanish settler whose family married into several other prominent Californio and American families. From Ronald G. Powell, The Tragedy of Martina Castro: Part One of the History of Rancho Soquel Augmentation (Zayante Publishing, 2020).

For Santa Cruz County, there are several early families whose importance to the area's history resonates to this day. Descendants of these families still live in the county, own businesses, run for politics, and lead community groups. Perhaps the most influential family has been the McPhersons, whose progenitor, Duncan McPherson, became co-owner of the Santa Cruz Sentinel in 1864. His descendants continued to run the newspaper until 1990. Meanwhile, a great grandson, Bruce A. McPherson, has served in the California State Assembly and Senate, as well as Secretary of State, and currently sits on the County Board of Supervisors. Members of the family, like most 19th century Santa Cruz families, married into several other prominent families, notably the Hinds and Miller families.

Members of the Bennett family, ca 1905. [UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

Ways of using this type of source:

Researching genealogy is unique in that one searches for specific people, sometimes outside of an obvious context. To begin any family search, one must have at minimum a name (first and last) and a date. It can be a birth or death date, a marriage date, a burial date. The options are quite broad and don't have to be exact. From a name and a date, the entire world can open up. Alternatively, nothing may happen at all. A frustrating truism for any family history researcher is that the people who are best recorded are the famous and the infamous—if a person was just normal, as most people are, it may be difficult to find a lot of information on somebody.

An unnamed family, possibly in the Soquel or Live Oak area, posing in front of their home, circa 1890. [UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

If you have a name, approximate date, and a location, then a good place to start a genealogical search is FindAGrave.com. This database compiles millions of headstones and cemetery records into one place, often with photographs of the headstones, newspaper clippings, and even photos of the deceased. It is ideal for people buried in the United States, United Kingdom, or other English-speaking countries, though it is gradually expanding beyond the Anglophone world. An account is not required, though if you create one, you can save your research. The benefit of starting with FindAGrave is that you can often fill in several blanks all at once, which can provide you with information to dig deeper. As with all genealogical websites, FindAGrave is not perfect and prone to errors, but the photographs, clippings, and gravesite details all help verify the information.

Frederick Duncan McPherson Sr.'s FindAGrave page.

Using the example of Frederick Duncan McPherson Sr.'s record, you can find a date of birth, place of birth, date of death, place of death, burial location, plot number, and several genealogical connections linked together by users based on headstone details and newspaper clippings. With this information in hand, other websites become more useful. FamilySearch.org is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who have a religious interest in family history. Members of the LDS Church also own Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com, and several other genealogical and genealogy-adjacent websites. From a simple search for Frederick Duncan McPherson Sr., his World War I draft registration card is available, as well as a birth record for his namesake son. This search also helpfully includes a link to the FindAGrave record and less helpfully links to the birth record for Frederick's grandson, Bruce, whose father shared the same name as his grandfather. Family members sharing the same name is one of the many difficulties a family history researcher will encounter.

Search results for historical documents relating to Frederick Duncan McPherson on FamilySearch.org.

Clicking on VIEW ALL below the first four items reveals thousands more records, some of which will relate to Frederick Sr., some to Frederick Jr., and others to completely unrelated Frederick McPhersons. Vetting these is the task of the researcher. Some of the most important sources can be census records, gathered every ten years in the United States. These can show where somebody is living, who they are living with, their relative ages, their street address, and other things that may or may not help in researching local history. FamilySearch offers scans of many important documents, including census records, marriage certificates, death notices, conscription and military files, and much more. Many of these are available anywhere, while some require special access only allowed at FamilySearch Centers, usually LDS churches. In Santa Cruz County, the only FamilySearch Center is the church in Live Oak at 220 Elk Street.

MyHeritage search results for Frederick Duncan McPherson.

As is to be expected, different websites provide slightly different resources. For the United States, Ancestry.com is generally considered the best website. It can often be accessed for free from your public library, or individuals can subscribe to the service for a fee. Ancestry provides millions of resources that can help a researcher dig deep into the genealogies of local families, connecting dots between them in ways they may not otherwise know. Street directories often show where businesses were located, while immigration records can pinpoint precisely when a person first entered the country and from where. Outside the United States, MyHeritage is often touted as a slightly better alternative, with more European-based resources. These can still be helpful for local history researchers, though, as Santa Cruz County actually has many families who immigrated from Europe and found there way to Santa Cruz in one lifetime. Therefore, their pre-US family history may be discoverable! Like Ancestry, MyHeritage requires a subscription fee to use—its free library version is less helpful than its competitor.

Results for searching for Frederick McPherson in Santa Cruz County from 1873 to 1990 on Newspapers.com.

Lastly, family history research would be significantly less valuable without using newspapers. While newspapers as a topic have already been discussed in an earlier Sources blog post, they are very important to family history research, especially if a person is proving difficult to pinpoint. Newspapers can help identify when a person lived in a place, what they did, and who they associated with. If they did anything notable, that should also appear. The best newspaper websites are Newspapers.com (subscription required) and the University of California, Riverside's California Digital Newspaper Collection.

Downsides and problems with this type of source:

The worst aspect of family history research—and one that does not get emphasized enough—is that it includes a lot of wishful thinking. Most of the primary source resources used in family history research were never meant to be used in the way family history researchers use them. Birth, marriage, and death certificates are legal documents the function to establish facts. That they include genealogical information on them is secondary. This is even more the case with census data, military records, and other government documents. Always stay skeptical when doing family history research, regardless of how reliable the source seems. Even cemetery records and obituaries can be wrong or leave out vital details. A good family history researcher will try to find at least two independent sources to prove a relationship, though this is not always possible.

Otto W. and Mary Antelman on the occasion of their 61st wedding anniversary, October 19, 1936. [UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

One extremely dangerous aspect of family history research is relying on the research of others. People are fallible and family history research is hard and time-consuming. Even if a researcher discovers a mistake, they may forget to correct it everywhere or they may simply give up on their research. Almost all genealogical websites including FamilySearch, Ancestry, and MyHeritage, features user-created family trees that the website's algorithm will try to match with yours. This can be very helpful when researching leads, but never trust these other trees unquestioningly. And never merger another user's tree with yours—you never know what mistakes they've made in their research and you may not have the time to verify all of their information. It is always better to compare a user's tree and their sources and add the records manually to your own tree. It may take more time, but it ensures that your tree is of a consistent quality.

United States census record for the McPherson family, 1940.

More broadly, family history is difficult primarily because there are so many resources available and sometimes a source will look better than it is. Common names, such as Miller and Smith, are especially problematic because even a relatively small community may have multiple unrelated families with those surnames living at the same time. Add to that the tendency for English-descended families to favor John, William, Charles, and James as first names, and you may find certain branches of a family almost impossible to research with certainty. On the other hand, unique names can be both a godsend and a curse. Take for example the Leibbrandt family, owners of the most popular of the bathouses on the Santa Cruz Beach in the 1870s-1890s. This is a very unique name, so it is very easy to identify in records. However, it has been spelled inconsistently from the beginning, with even members of the family spelling it differently. It is at times Leibrandt, Liebbrandt, Liebrandt, Leibrant, Leibbrant, Libbrant, Libbrand, and more! Thus, when looking through genealogical records, all of these alternatives need to be searched. This also does not take into account text recognition errors, which may appear in both scanned documents and digitized newspapers.

The Umberger family in Santa Cruz, 1944. [UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

The key takeaway is to be careful and thorough when doing family history. Family history is a vital tool for any local history researcher. It helps establish marital and ancestral relationships between families, especially founding families, and may explain otherwise strange events or unusual business partnerships. It can also reveal the origins of conflicts or feuds, as one branch of a family may have had a falling out with another. At the end of the day, family history is an important part of local history research and should not be discounted. 

Family History resources:

  • FindAGrave.com – A good first stop for anyone who died in the United States or any English-speaking country. Less reliable for non-English countries but still worth a look. The information here is not always 100% reliable, but still often provides a good starting point.
  • FamilySearch.org – The only entirely free family history research website, though an account is required to view anything. It includes a good selection of original documents and also features family trees from members. Some material is only available from designated Family Search Centres, which are often at LDS churches or local libraries (check the website for details).
  • Ancestry.com – A subscription site that can also be accessed for free from many libraries across the Western world. Ancestry offers the best original source information for United States ancestry. Be careful not to get lost in user-created genealogies, though, as these can be very poorly cited.
  • MyHeritage.com – Also a subscription site. Still useful for United States ancestry but also includes a broader selection of international sources, which can be good for tracing ancestors beyond North America. There are multiple subscription tiers, but many of these are just fluff that add little to genealogical research quality.
  • Newspapers.com – Owned by Ancestry.com, this website has the largest collection of global newspaper scans (most from microfilm and microfiche) in the world. It requires a subscription but it is worth it if researching newspapers beyond California. 
  • California Digital Newspaper Collection – Run by the UC Riverside as a free alternative to Newspapers.com for California. It does not include as many California newspapers but it does include some that aren't on Newspapers.com. UC Riverside provides most of the California newspapers for Newspapers.com and, after a set exclusivity period, they become available on the CDNC as well.