Bridges: North Coast Fills

The greatest engineering feat in Santa Cruz County’s history still survives to this day, though most people think little of it if they notice it at all. From October 1905 to June 1907, the quarrelsome Southern Pacific Railroad and Ocean Shore Railway put aside their differences to quickly and efficiently build an 11-mile-long line through the West Side of Santa Cruz to Davenport. To ensure the straightest and most level route possible, the companies approved the construction of at least thirteen trestles, which were afterwards filled with millions of cubic feet of rubble to support three standard-gauge tracks at the crest. These colossal structures remain today as testaments to the durability of early 20th century engineering and to the bold ambitions that motivated Progressive Era capitalists.

Shattuck & Desmond work crews in the process of filling the tall, slightly slumped trestle over Majors Creek, 1906. [Covello & Covello – Colorized using DeOldify]

Although the Southern Pacific’s Coast Line Railway was the first to incorporate in April 1905, it was the Ocean Shore Railway, incorporated a month later, that made the first move toward realizing its goal of connecting San Francisco and Santa Cruz via a coastal route. Grading for the Ocean Shore Railway began along the shoreline at Waddell Creek on June 1, 1905, an action that was intended to steal the march from the Coast Line Railway. The gambit forced Southern Pacific to show its cards. The company give up surveying beyond Agua Puerca Creek and it was revealed in August that Southern Pacific had acquired the exclusive contract to deliver the machinery of the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company to the site of the planned quarry and refinery on San Vicente Creek by January 1, 1906. In addition, the railroad would become the sole rail freight carrier for the plant. But to secure these contracts, Southern Pacific needed to build a railroad to Davenport.

Thus, the race was on. Both railroads obtained most of their rights-of-way to the cement plant site by August 1905, but neither managed to secure an uninterrupted route. Instead, the rights-of-way crisscrossed each other constantly from Wilder’s Ranch to San Vicente Creek. They also crossed the county road at least six times, meaning there would be several grade crossings. None of this was appealing to the railroads or residents. In late June, T. J. Wilson of the Coast Line Railway and L. E. Rankin of the Ocean Shore Railway, both in charge of the rights-of-way of their respective railroads, met in Santa Cruz to discuss the issues with their routes. Meanwhile, Pratchner & Company began grading the Ocean Shore through the West Side of Santa Cruz.

The Wilder's Gulch fill, from "Plans of Oceanshore RR Co.," 1912.

Earlier, at the end of June, the Ocean Shore was granted permission to bridge Wilder Gulch and Sandy Flat, though it agreed not to fill these two trestles since the Wilder family wished to retain its view of and access to the Pacific Ocean. Once construction began a few weeks later, though, the railroad decided to install a fill Wilder Gulch anyway. In fact, this is the only substantial gulch on the line that did not host a trestle first. After consulting his lawyer, D. D. Wilder went to protest the fill at the company’s office in San Francisco. Despite this, the Ocean Shore continued construction, completing the fill in late November. Probably as part of a settlement with the family, the company committed to constructing a permanent trestle over Sandy Flat, as had been originally agreed.

The start of construction on the Coast Line Railway on the bluff above the Santa Cruz Union Depot yard, late 1905. [Courtesy ebay – colorized using MyHeritage]

Continued feuding and sabotage between the two railroads and unrelated problems elsewhere delayed the start of construction of the Coast Line Railway. While Southern Pacific had blocked the Ocean Shore Railway’s access to the Santa Cruz Beach for its proposed wharf, Ocean Shore in turn had blocked the Coast Line’s ability to cross through the Coast Dairies Company’s property, which was necessary for it to reach the plant site. No further progress could be made by either company and Southern Pacific would soon be forced to renege on its contract with the cement company. After several meetings, the two rivals came to an arrangement where rights-of-way would be exchanged, access at either end would be granted, the Ocean Shore would deliver the machinery for Southern Pacific as a contractor, and the two railroads would run parallel between Lombardi Gulch and the plant site, with Ocean Shore paying two-thirds of the cost since it intended to build two tracks.

The Lombardi Gulch fill, from "Plans of Oceanshore RR Co.," 1912.

The San Francisco Construction Company was hired to build the joint railroads from the Santa Cruz city limit at Moore Creek to the cement plant, as well as the Ocean Shore’s extension to Scott Creek. It subcontracted Pratchner & Chadwick to construct drainage tunnels and grade the right-of-way, while Shattuck & Desmond of Los Angeles were hired to build the trestle bridges and fill them. Hunter Bros. of Oakland were recruited to construct the Ocean Shore’s extension to Scott Creek. With speed the new priority, the plan shifted to constructing a single line of rail in order to fulfil the cement plant contract as close to the deadline as possible. It was understood that this line would afterwards become the first of the Ocean Shore Railway’s two tracks. Shattuck & Desmond also held the contract for the Coast Line Railway within the city limits, and it got to work in October to connect the line from the Santa Cruz Union Depot yard to the first meeting point of the two railroads just before the fill over Wilder Gulch, where equipment would be transferred between the two railroads once the line was completed to the plant site.

A double-headed Southern Pacific excursion train crossing the company's trestle over Sandy Gulch, ca 1947. [Courtesy Jim Vail – colorized using MyHeritage]

With all agreements made and contracts signed, construction resumed at a breakneck pace. Work began on the Ocean Shore’s 465-foot-long Sandy Flat trestle in mid-October. The wood for all the trestles came from Oregon via ships that deposited pilings and lumber on Parsons and Laguna Beaches. Steam donkeys installed atop the adjacent cliffs hauled the wood to the railroad grade, where other donkey engines moved it to the work site. This allowed bridges to be constructed quickly, though poorly since they were designed to be used only briefly. Unique among the trestles on the Ocean Shore line, the Sandy Flat trestle was designed to support a double track, since the railroad was contractually prohibited from filling the flat. Despite the design, the bridge likely never hosted a second set of rails since the Ocean Shore failed to install its second track. The Sandy Flat trestle was completed before the end of October, by which point construction crews had already shifted to a 300-foot-long trestle over Lombardi Gulch, the first joint bridge with the Coast Line Railway.

Ocean Shore Railway auditor Ted F. Wurm on right with family members standing on a trestle, presumably over Laguna Creek due to the parallel Coast Road to the right, 1906. [Marvin T. Maynard – Colorized using DeOldify]

Two joint trestles over Little Baldwin Creek and Baldwin Creek at Parson’s Beach—measuring 300 feet and 660 feet respectively—came next and were finished in mid-November. By early December, work was already nearing completion on the trestle over Majors Creek. Indeed, on December 9, the Ocean Shore’s construction train could travel nearly 7.5 miles up the coast to work on the deep cut through the Enright and Scaroni properties. Before work on the 1,100-foot-long Laguna Creek trestle was completed in late December, some bridge builders had already moved north to Yellow Bank. However, grading beyond Yellow Bank proved difficult, and the Coast Line Railway was still stuck in the West Side of Santa Cruz. This meant that neither railroad would be able to ship the first cars of machinery to the cement plant site by the first day of the new year. Fortunately for Southern Pacific and its contract, the cement company was also running behind schedule and had only sent six cars to Santa Cruz. The only realistic option was for all three parties to continue working toward their mutual goals and allow the deadline to pass.

An Ocean Shore Railway construction train atop a bridge near Davenport, 1906. [Western Railroader – Colorized using DeOldify]

In January 1906, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that crews were busy boring tunnels through the sandstone bluffs, a necessary step before the trestles could be filled. The Yellow Bank trestle was completed in mid-January allowing crews to move to the last two substantial trestles, over Liddell and San Vicente Creeks. Progress was slowed by heavy rains that hampered construction efforts across the line and caused the trestles at Baldwin and Laguna Creeks to settle. Both were repaired within a week and trackage was extended to the south bank of Liddell Creek by the first week of February. The Liddell trestle was completed in mid-February, even as heavy rains once more incapacitated the now-partially-filled trestles at Baldwin and Laguna Creeks. These rains also delayed completion of the San Vicente Creek trestle, though the track was extended to its southern edge by mid-March. This final trestle was completed the first week of April.

The Baldwin Creek fills at Parson's Beach, from "Plans of Oceanshore RR Co.," 1912.

As the Ocean Shore Railway was wrapping up construction of the first 11 miles of the route, the Coast Line Railway was finally making progress out of Santa Cruz. Construction of the trestle over Moore’s Creek delayed the company for at least a month, while further effort was required to widen and reinforce the fill at Wilder Gulch to allow the two lines to connect. Both the connection of the lines and the completion of the track to San Vicente were completed in the second week of April. This allowed Southern Pacific to finally haul the cement company’s machinery from a long siding on the Moore Ranch to the plant site beginning around April 15, 1906. Seventy carloads of machinery had accumulated on the siding and at the freight yard by this point. However, several factors slowed the delivery of machinery to the plant site, most notably the relatively low strength of the trestles and the fact that there were no sidings or spurs yet at the plant site. This meant that short trains of only a few cars had to continuously shuttle machinery and empty flatcars between Santa Cruz and the plant site, a tiresome and time-consuming process that further delayed construction of the plant.

The Yellow Bank fills and Coast Road realignment, from "Plans of Oceanshore RR Co.," 1912.

Simultaneously, Shattuck & Desmond’s crews shifted focus from bridge-building to bridge-filling. The Ocean Shore Railway had always planned to fill its trestles along the coast—it had little choice since it planned to run two parallel tracks with electrical equipment, which was a lot to ask from a trestle. Thus, all the trestles were relatively hastily built since they were never expected to support heavy or regular rail traffic. After its agreement with Southern Pacific, Ocean Shore expanded its plan to run three parallel tracks, with the Ocean Shore’s two tracks on the ocean side and the Coast Line’s track on the inland side. The width of the fills at the top were expected to be between 36 and 47 feet. Three to four steam shovels were eventually used to accomplish the monumental task.

The long fill over San Vicente Creek, from "Plans of Oceanshore RR Co.," 1912.

The first trestle to be filled was across Baldwin Creek, beginning in early February 1906. At Major’s Creek, an agreement was reached with the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors to incorporate the county road into the fill. Doing so eliminated a dangerous curve on the road and bypassed a grade crossing and short overhead railroad bridge. Similar agreements were made at Enright, where the county road was moved inland to avoid grade crossings, and at Yellow Bank, where the highway was redirected away from the fill. In late March, Shattuck & Desmond relocated its camp to Laguna Creek in order to fill the Laguna Creek and Yellow Bank trestles. Only around a third of the trestles had been filled at the time of the San Francisco Earthquake on April 18, which halted further progress for three and a half months. The Coast Line Railway had lain its rails to the south end of the Lombardi Creek trestle, but could go no further.

An Ocean Shore Railway train on a high fill hauling equipment, presumably for the cement plant, circa 1906. [Western Railroader – Colorized using DeOldify]

As work resumed in August, the Coast Line Railway was finally able to begin grading beyond the Wilder property. Its first task was to widen cuts to make space for a second set of rails. This required heavy use of dynamite in some places, which spread debris across the right-of-way and forced the suspension of all passenger and some freight service on the Ocean Shore line. The blasted rubble was transferred to waiting ballast cars, which took the aggregate to the nearest trestle to serve as fill. Making cuts, transferring rubble, importing additional aggregate from nearby quarries and the ruins of San Francisco, and dumping them to create towering fills took a lot of time and energy, leading to further delays. The largest fill across San Vicente Creek just south of the cement plant was 1,400 feet long and was estimated to contain approximately 1,250,000 cubic feet of material, primarily rock and shale.

An Ocean Shore construction train dumping rocks below the bridge over San Vicente Creek, circa May 1907. [Uncertain provenance – Colorized using DeOldify]

The Coast Line resumed laying rails in November 1906 and installed them whenever a fill or cut was ready, leading to piecemeal sections of track across the line that were gradually connected together. The completion of the San Vicente Creek fill in mid-June 1907, followed shortly afterwards by the installation of the Coast Line rails across it, marked the successful end to the joint construction project between the Ocean Shore Railway and Southern Pacific Railroad. Shattuck & Desmond, working for the Ocean Shore Railway on its longer route, constructed several additional fills to the north across Agua Puerca and Molino Creeks and smaller gulches in May and June 1907 before concluding the Ocean Shore’s first phase of construction in Santa Cruz County.

The single surviving Southern Pacific Railroad tracks crossing the San Vicente Creek fill, with the adjacent Ocean Shore line a sandy pathway beside it, circa 1930. Davenport Wharf and a warehouse can be seen in the distance. [Courtesy WorthPoint – colorized using MyHeritage]

The legacy of the joint Ocean Shore–Coast Line construction project to Davenport and beyond is still felt in many places along the North Coast today. For decades, the Southern Pacific Railroad’s wooden trestle over Sandy Flat, built independently sometime in 1906, welcomed picknickers, trainspotters, and photographers before it was finally filled, probably in the 1960s or 1970s. The joint fill at Majors Creek is now shared by Highway 1, while three short Ocean Shore fills north of Davenport have been repurposed for the highway.

The San Vicente Creek drainage tunnel below the former joint Ocean Shore–Coast Line Railway trackage, June 16, 2007, by Jef Poskanzer. [Courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Beneath every single fill, the original tunnels still drain creeks and lagoons, rarely requiring maintenance despite being over a century old. Though mostly out of use since the closure of the cement plant in 2010, the Southern Pacific Railroad’s former right-of-way, now owned by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, officially remains an active line with tentative plans for reactivation in the near future. Much of the adjacent Ocean Shore Railway right-of-way remains intact and is used by local farmers as a makeshift road, though parts will be repurposed for the planned Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail Network.

Citations & Credits:

• Ocean Shore Railroad, "Plans of Oceanshore RR Co.," 1912, based on survey circa 1906.
• Southern Pacific Railroad, maps and plans, California State Archives.
• Various newspaper articles from the Santa Cruz Morning, Evening, and Weekly Sentinel; The Pajaronian; and the Santa Cruz Surf.

Companies: Coast Drum and Box Company

In the decade after the closure of the San Vicente Lumber Company plant at the northwestern boundary of the City of Santa Cruz, several small agricultural-oriented businesses sprang up along the Davenport Branch on the West Side between Natural Bridges Drive and Almar Avenue. One of the earliest was the Coast Drum and Box Company.

The Coast Drum and Box Company factory on Mission Street on fire, September 4, 1953. [Santa Cruz Sentinel-News – colorized using MyHeritage]

From early in its history, the business had a close relationship with the Half Moon Bay Drum and Box Company, which was incorporated in February 1923 in San Francisco as a packaging material maker catering to vegetable growers operating along the San Mateo County coastline. The business was initially run by Louis G. Pardini, A. Bartolozzi, R. Tomei, and C. Raffanti. Not much is known of the firm in the 1920s, but its main facility was located on Battery Street until March 1930, when a catastrophic fire leveled the three-story building. The firm rebuilt in Daly City, where it operated a large factory until May 1939, when it too burned down. Though the company continued to exist, it shifted its focus to the south.

The Half Moon Bay Drum and Box Company and Colma Vegetable Packing Association plants on fire in Daly City, May 28, 1939. [San Francisco Examiner – colorized using MyHeritage]

Meanwhile, in Santa Cruz County, the agricultural industry, especially along the North Coast, was growing rapidly. Artichoke and Brussels sprout, along with peas, had taken off as an industry in 1915. By the 1920s, it required its own packaging plants and related industries. Thus, sometime in the late 1920s, a group of farmers formed the Coast Drum and Box Company in Davenport beside the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The purpose of the business was to make drums, crates, boxes, and hampers for local growers, a task that employed seven men during the harvesting season. In August 1932, the group completed construction on a much-enlarged plant on property they had purchased property from Gilbert Caiocca. This was located on the east side of Davenport across from the main village and was erected by Palmer & Balsiger of Santa Cruz for $1,700. Archie Marracci of San Francisco served as manager of the plant during this time.

Things became more corporate in January 1934 when R. Willis of San Francisco took over the company. While daily operations did not change, new blood from the Bay Area was brought in that shifted the focus of the business. In 1935, Ed Marracci became owner of the company. Yet elsewhere, the Half Moon Bay Drum and Box Company was making inroads. Louis Pardini was named an officer of the Coast Drum and Box Company by September 1935. In May 1937, he took over, turning the company into a subsidiary of his own firm. Pardini appointed himself president while Albert A. Axelrod became secretary. Feeling that there was too much competition on the North Coast with the nearby Davenport Drum and Box Company, Pardini made the decision to move the company’s operations south.

Aerial photograph of the Coast Drum and Box Company factory, showing the railroad spur with boxcars and the new additions to the original plant, 1940. Photograph by Fairchild Aerial Surveys, Inc. [Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

Pardini immediately set to work finding a site for a new drum and box factory within the Santa Cruz city limits, ultimately settling on a site near Swift Street on Mission Street beside the railroad tracks. He hired Wilson & Castagnola, a local firm, to build a new plant for $15,762.50. The new drum-making facility and packing plant was jointly run by the company and farmers of the Santa Cruz Artichoke Growers’ Association, who had been advocating for a new plant closer to their fields. As a result, the facility catered to customers from West Side Santa Cruz to Laguna Creek—the boundary of the Coast Dairies property. In early September 1937, the Santa Cruz City Council authorized the installation of a spur across Swift Street to cater to the packing house. The facility was formally opened on September 19, 1937, and Thomas McCambridge, manager of the packing house in Seabright, was given management of this new plant as well.

The Coast Drum and Box Company did well on the West Side. Within just two years, it petitioned the City Council to build a $10,000 annex that more than doubled the size of the existing facility. The new buildings provided space for a dedicated box factory and a paraffin house where Brussels sprouts could be sealed. Due to the destruction of Pardini’s facility in Daly City in May 1939, the Half Moon Bay Drum and Box Company merged its operations with the Coast Drum and Box Company in Santa Cruz. This led to the year 1939 becoming the Santa Cruz-based company’s biggest year yet, with all of the artichoke and sprout harvest from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz packed and shipped from the Mission Street plant. The company employed around 80 workers that fall, making it seasonally one of the largest employers in the county. Each day, four to five boxcars left from the company’s siding on the Davenport Branch. The cars were loaded with hampers and containers made out of strips of basswood, each of which contained a bushel of vegetables.

The company was it its peak in the 1940s, with few events of note happening other than small fires breaking out occasionally at the plant. A minor addition to the complex was the erection of a machinery shed detached from the other buildings, which cost $5,000 when it was built in 1944. A small addition to the main building, costing $1,500, was made in November 1945. The company broke away from the Half Moon Bay company that same month, with Axelrod elected president and Gladys C. Okerstrom and R. J. Hecht joining as officers. Pardini stayed on as general manager until his death in 1951. A larger, albeit unremarkable addition to the complex came in April 1947, this one costing the firm $9,000. When Maywood Manufacturing Company relocated to Santa Cruz in December 1949, it leased space from Coast Drum and Box until it was forced out in mid-1951 to make room for corporate offices relocated from San Francisco.

More fires and lawsuits over workplace injuries and other incidents dominated the news throughout the 1950s. Emil C. Nissen of the American Box and Drum Corporation succeeded Axelrod as president of the company, effectively turning the business into a subsidiary of another firm. Daniel A. Whitehead, his son-in-law, became vice president and took over as general manager following Pardini’s death. By August 1953, the partners had managed to buy the shares of the Capurro, Chiappari, Falco, Marracci, and Church families, giving them an 80% controlling interest, with Margaret Bard the only notable holdout. Shortly afterwards, a catastrophic fire erupted in a warehouse at the factory causing $25,000 in damages, primarily to nailing machines, two cranes, a small lumber mill, and the warehouse itself. Fortunately, the plant was insured and the warehouse was quickly rebuilt.

A log being prepared for processing at the lumber mill inside the Santa Cruz Veneer Products factory on Mission Street, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on June 17, 1956. [Colorized using MyHeritage]

In December 1954, the company changed its name to the Santa Cruz Veneer Products Company. By this point, Nissen seems to have left the business and Whitehead was in full control. Nissen passed away in May 1967. In 1959, Whitehead made another expansion to the buildings, a $3,000 addition to the main complex to increase its lumber-making capacity to 45,000 board feet per day. This resulted in high quantities of basket bottoms, with excess timber being used for lumber, which was sold commercially. Despite the shift in focus getting the reluctant approval by the city planning commission, the lumber products failed to find a market. Whitehead listed the machinery for auction in 1961.

Aerial photograph of the Santa Cruz Veneers Products facility at its maximum extent, 1965. Photograph by Clyde Sunderland. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

Santa Cruz Veneer Products Company ceased to operate sometime in late 1966 following repeated complaints by neighbors over trash smoke and a slump in the labor market . Whitehead trialed running the business exclusively as a veneer manufacturer but this proved unprofitable. He went on to found Dan Whitehead Travel Agency, which he ran with his wife until his death in June 1981. In June 1967, the Santa Cruz Veneer Products property was listed for rent, with the railroad spur included as an incentive. The expansive yard in front of the building was soon leased for storing mobile homes, trailers, campers, and boats. With no patronage, the railroad spur was cut back around 1970 to the edge of the property, only catering to the adjacent Mondo Brothers warehouse. In June 1976, the City Planning Department rezoned the complex from industrial to commercial use, but few seemed interested in using the buildings on a long-term basis. Finally, in September 1983, Mission Industrial Lands, Inc, acquired the property and began its slow transition into a creative arts venue. In 1994, it was rebranded Mission Industrial Studios and began hosting art studios and workshops. Several arts and crafts businesses now use the space for woodworking, sewing, metalworking, sculpting, glass working, and art conservation.

Citations & Credits:

• Los Angeles Times, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Recorder, San Mateo Times, Santa Cruz Evening News, Santa Cruz Sentinel, and Santa Cruz Sentinel–News, various dates 1923–1994.

Stations: Yellow Bank

Nine miles north of Santa Cruz, the coastal terrace narrows to such a point that the mountains of the Coast Range nearly fall into the Pacific Ocean. Here there is little room for agricultural fields, yet bold dairy farmers and ranchers saw no obstacle to practicing their trades.

Rancho Arroyo de la Laguna had been pastureland since Mexican times. At some point in the early 1860s, William Elder & Company, a San Francisco dairy business, acquired most of the rancho from James and Squire Williams and soon operated a small dairy alongside Yellow Bank Creek. T. H. Hatch & Company took over the business in May 1866 and continued to run the North Coast dairy among its other operations. Hatch employed several overseers through the years, with William Chalmers in charge of the dairy throughout the 1870s and W. R. Shaw superintendent around 1880. Two Swiss dairy farmers, Jeremiah S. Respini and James Fillipini, likely had worked at Yellow Bank Dairy for several years when, in April 1882, they purchased Shaw’s interest in the company. Over the next decade, Respini gradually acquired the rest of the property.

Men milking cows probably at Yellow Bank Dairy on the Coast Road south of Davenport, ca 1910. [Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

Yellow Bank is a unique name in Santa Cruz County, obviously descriptive in nature but with an uncertain origin. The earliest recorded mention of the name appears in the Santa Cruz Sentinel in September 1873, where it is claimed that the name comes from the sulfurous nature of the creek that turns the banks a bright yellow. A year later, a different Sentinel article asserted that “it is derived from the fact that the earth in the vicinity is of a deep golden cast from the iron pyrites, and that the buildings [of the dairy] are painted yellow.” Modern sources attribute the name to rust iron bands of sedimentary injection deposits in the mudstone cliffs or more generally the yellowish hue of oxidized iron in the cliffs. In addition to the dark yellowish bands, the cliffs and hillsides also show blackish-blue bands indicative of oil-rich sand injections, the largest such outcropping in the world. The State Minerologist asserted in 1900 that some of these bands had been “blown up by heat” creating the yellow color, hence the source of the name. The presence of these bands prompted an ultimately unsuccessful oil speculation frenzy on the property in 1901.

As with all of the dairies along the North Coast, Respini and his predecessors focused on producing cheese and butter, two products that could endure the long journey to market. The property was notable for its two tall milking barns that were built by F. A. Miller in 1874. Construction of these reportedly required Miller to build a small sawmill on nearby Liddell Creek and a planing mill near the construction site. These barns were 160 by 36 feet each in size and were designed to feed and house around 200 dairy cows. A creamery nearby was modern in design, with plumbing installed to help maintain sanitation and a ten-horse engine used to separate the cream from the milk. By 1900, the facility included extensive hay fields and storage facilities, a blacksmith and tool shop, a horse barn, a bunkhouse for up to twenty men, a flower garden, and a ten-room ranch house for the superintendent and his family. Because the dairy was situated directly beside the Coast Road, it also had telephone service. Around 1891, Respini had partnered with his neighbors F. A. Moretti and the Moretti Brothers to manage their properties jointly. Together, they had at any given time 170 milking cows, with 600 more cows grazing in one of fifteen separate fields across a 4,400-acre property.

Earl Stone wearing a boy's brigade uniform while driving a cart for the Seaside Creamery outside the Seaside Creamery store on Pacific Avenue, 1904. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

In April 1901, Respini formally combined his property with those of the Morettis to form a new business, the Coast Dairy and Land Company. This quickly grew to encompass five dairies south of Davenport Landing with a total population of 800 cattle. The dairy products were sold primarily in San Francisco but also throughout the Monterey Bay and Bay Area. In Santa Cruz, the company took over the Hugo Hihn flatiron building at Pacific Avenue and Front Street and turned it into the Seaside Creamery, where butter was churned fresh every day after an early morning delivery of cream and milk. The store also served ice cream and sold buttermilk and varieties of cheese. For fifteen years, the company thrived under Respini’s and Moretti’s leadership. Indeed, most of the modern town of Davenport as well as the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company’s plant were built atop Coast Dairies land. In 1912, the company sold a section to Santa Cruz to provide water for the city (it still provides approximately 20% of its drinking water). Throughout this time, the dairying complex at Yellow Bank served as the heart of the operation, with around a dozen buildings associated with the business along the Coast Road.

The arrival of the Ocean Shore Railway in early 1906 changed everything for Coast Dairies. For the first time, the company’s extensive farms would be on a mainline route to San Francisco. The railroad, however, first had to overcome a major obstacle in its path: Respini Creek and its tidal lagoon. As it did with several other inlets, the railroad constructed a traditional trestle across the lagoon and then, as part of its arrangement with the adjacent Coast Line Railroad, the trestle was filled in and widened to support three sets of rails. A drainage tunnel was built through the adjacent hillside to allow the lagoon to drain. Construction on the bridge over Yellow Bank Beach ran from late December 1905 to early February 1906, and it was in the process of being filled around the time that the Francisco Earthquake struck on April 18. A result of the construction was the rerouting of the Coast Road. The road had previously followed along the top of the cliff before darting inland around the head of the lagoon in a horseshoe bend known as the Yellow Bank Curve, a dangerously sharp turn in the time of the automobile. The railroads’ construction forced the entire road to shift to the east of the tracks, lessening—though not eliminating—the deadly curve.

Ocean Shore Railroad, “Plans of the Oceanshore RR Co.” 1912, showing the location of Yellow Bank, the fill over Respini Creek, the Coast Line (Southern Pacific) tracks, and the old and new route of the county (Coast) road. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz]

The earliest timetables for the Ocean Shore Railway do not mention Yellow Bank as a station, though all employee timetables for the first several years have been lost. The Santa Cruz Evening News first names it as a flag stop in December 1907 alongside four others between Santa Cruz and Davenport. However, unlike most of the other flag stops, Yellow Bank did not feature a passenger shelter or siding, though there was likely a freight platform beside the mainline. This meant that dairy and agricultural products had to be loaded directly onto passing trains. In addition to freight traffic for the dairy, the station also likely catered to beachgoers wishing to dip their toes in the waters at Yellow Bank Beach. This beach no longer goes by that name—beachgoers in the 1950s discovered that a rock at the beach resembled a dark wildcat. Thus, the locale was rechristened Panther Beach. Since the beach sat directly below the tracks, it became one of the more popular picnic and surf swimming spots along the line.

An artichoke field on the Coast Road near Yellow Bank, ca 1930. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

By the time the First World War broke out in 1914, Respini had already died and the other Swissmen of Coast Dairies were in trouble. Switzerland forbade its citizens from fighting in a war and the United States was considering conscription. As a result, in 1915, Luigi Moretti, his brother-in-law G. Marotti, and his nephew S. Respini returned to Switzerland. They never permanently returned, though the Moretti family remained the primary owners of Coast Dairies. Daily management of the dairy fell to Leonard T. Winterhalder and Frank Bowell, whose families managed the property until 1924. At the same time, the property was changing. In March 1914, the Coast Road was shifted east of the main dairy complex, reducing the severity and grade of the Yellow Bank Curve, though not entirely eliminating the danger. In 1919, part of the Coast Dairies property was repurposed for planting artichokes and other vegetables, a trial that would change the fortunes of the company in the long term.

Aerial photograph of Yellow Bank dairy shortly after the demolition of the Ocean Shore Railroad line, 1928. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz]

In October 1920, the Ocean Shore Railroad ceased operations. It seems likely that the San Vicente Lumber Company, which continued to operate the line for another three years, offered its services to the Coast Dairy and Land Company during this time. Southern Pacific, in contrast, had never established a stop at Yellow Bank and there is no evidence that it ever catered to the dairy there until after San Vicente ended its operation in 1923. In November 1924, Yellow Bank appears for the first time in a Southern Pacific employee timetable as a flag-stop. This suggests that the dairy at least entertained the idea of shipping via Southern Pacific after Ocean Shore Railroad had been abandoned. Yet likely higher freight fees and less frequent service made this option unappealing. In response, the dairy company shifted to shipping out goods via truck and Southern Pacific abandoned its station sometime in the mid-1930s. Despite these setbacks, the company continued to thrive throughout the 1920s, possibly buoyed by bootlegging and black-market smuggling along the remote North Coast. At the same time, the company continued to expand its shift to agriculture by leasing a large section of the property to the Grossi family for artichoke growing.

Crews working to demolish the two large barns at Yellow Bank Dairy, February 1955. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

The Great Depression led to more pronounced changes for Coast Dairies. Stricter health code laws passed in the 1920s and 1930s made it much more difficult to produce dairy products on the difficult-to-access North Coast. Federal regulations mandated that dairy cattle be tested for tuberculosis, while state laws increased the frequency and standards of sanitary inspections. These made it increasingly difficult to turn a profit. Meanwhile, the company was still owned by the original Swiss families who remained in Switzerland, making leadership distant and abstract. In December 1934, stockholders in the company revolted and ejected Luigi Moretti from leadership, though he retained ownership of the firm. Management was taken over by John R. Wilson of the Anglo–California National Bank of San Francisco, with Fred Pfyffer appointed secretary and general manager.

Portrait of Fred Pfyffer, published in the Santa Cruz Evening News, May 31, 1935.

Pfyffer had first arrived in Davenport in 1928 and was soon employed by Coast Dairies. In June 1931, he incorporated Davenport Artichoke Growers’ and Shippers’ Association and began collectivizing most of the artichoke and brussels sprout operators leasing land from Coast Dairies to assist them in packing and shipping their vegetables across the United States. At the same time, he oversaw the conversion of most of Coast Dairies’ land from dairying to agriculture and beef cattle raising. The last corporate dairying operation ended in 1940, which also marked Pfyffer’s removal to a new facility in Santa Cruz on Mission Street, where he built a larger plant beside the Southern Pacific tracks. The last vestige of the old dairy ended in February 1955 when the two old barns at Yellow Bank were demolished leaving only concrete foundation blocks.

Advertisement for Davenport Artichoke Growers and Shippers Association, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel September 17, 1939.

Coast Dairies was dissolved in 1996 and its property was purchased by Bryan Sweeney of the Nevada and Pacific Coast Land Company. However, Sweeney did not realize the difficulties he would face in trying to turn a profit from this property. His plan to subdivide the land into 139 parcels went public in 1997, and soon several conservation organizations joined together to purchase the entire property. The transaction was concluded in October 1998 and the 400 acres west of State Route 1 were transferred to the state in 2006 to create Coast Dairies State Park, a unique seaside park that runs uninterrupted from Red White and Blue Beach to Davenport Beach. The Bureau of Land Management acquired the remainder of the property in 2014, most of which has since become the Cotoni–Coast Dairies unit of the California Coastal National Monument.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
36.9928, -122.1685
8.9 miles north of Santa Cruz from both the Ocean Shore and Santa Cruz Union depots

The site of Yellow Bank Dairy is to the east of State Route 1 at Panther Beach. A long parking area is directly to the south on the west side of the highway. The dairy property itself is leased by the Federal Bureau of Land Management—no trespassing is allowed. Likewise, the surviving Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line grade is owned by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission and trespassing is not allowed. However, Panther Beach itself is publicly accessible as part of Coast Dairies State Park. The site of the former railroad station at the southern end of the fill across Yellow Bank Creek, which may explain the raised parking area there.

Citations & Credits:

• Barboza, Tony Barboza. “Stretch of Northern California coast to be permanently protected.” Los Angeles Times. April 14, 2012.
• Bender, Henry E., Jr. “Ocean Shore Railroad”. 2017.
• Comelli, Ivano Franco. La Nostra Costa (Our Coast): A Family’s Journey to and From the North Coast of Santa Cruz, California (1923–1983). Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006.
• Environmental Science Associates, for The Trust for Public Land, "Coast Dairies Long-Term Resource Protection and Use Plan: Existing Conditions Report for the Coast Dairies Property." 2001.
• Griggs, Gary. "Our Ocean Backyard: Yellow Bank Beach," Santa Cruz Sentinel. September 11, 2018.
• Majors, Thomas Earl. “The Majors Family and Santa Cruz County Dairying: An Interview Conducted by Elizabeth Spedding Calciano”. Santa Cruz, CA: University of California, 1965.
• Neely, Christopher. “Parking battle leaves Santa Cruz County’s lone national monument gated from the public.” Lookout Santa Cruz. May 30, 2023.
• Ocean Shore Railroad Company. “Plans of the Oceanshore RR Co.” 1912.
• Orlando, Alverda, Sally Iverson, and Ed Dickie. Images of America: Davenport. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2020.
• Piccione, Gavin. "Panther Beach, an Extraordinary Geologic Feature in Santa Cruz." Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. April 3, 2025.
• Santa Cruz Sentinel, Santa Cruz Evening News, and Santa Cruz Surf, various articles, 1866–1960.
• Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Coast Division Employee Timetable No. 121 (November 1, 1924).
• Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Coast Division Employee Timetable No. 143 (February 16, 1936).

Freight Stops: Walti-Schilling Slaughterhouse

Just north of the Santa Cruz city limits along the Davenport Branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad between Moore Creek and Shaffer Road once sat an impressive slaughterhouse owned by Walti, Schilling & Company. The company had been founded in 1897 by Frederick Rudolph Walti of Zürich, Switzerland and his father-in-law, Henry Schilling of Oregon. Walti had worked for years running the Santa Cruz Brewing Company before partnering with Joseph Bourcq in 1895 to open the El Dorado Market, a butcher shop, on Pacific Avenue. Walti eventually bought out his partner and then asked Schilling to come on as a new partner. The two incorporated Walti, Schilling & Company on December 22, 1904. A decade later, on July 7, 1914, Schilling died, followed three years later by his daughter and Walti's wife, Frieda. Feeling his age, Walti passed management of the company to his son, Fred Jr., in 1922 and entered semi-retirement. The young Fred Walti had ideas for the company he now found himself in charge of, and the first of these was a substantial expansion.

Workers on the killing floor of the Walti, Schilling & Company processing plant at Orby, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel-News 1953. 

Since the 1890s, Walti, Schilling & Company had owned a slaughterhouse and stockyard on 7th Avenue beside Woods Lagoon and the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks. By 1922, this facility had become run down and could no longer keep up with demand. To rectify this, Fred purchased a large 70 acre property near Orby Station on the Davenport Branch from Stella Tolle for $16,000 in November 1922. At this new site, Walti-Schilling intended to build a cold storage plant and modern slaughterhouse on twelve of the acres. It also planned to lease the remaining acreage to two artichoke growers, G Marcucci and P. Guidotti. The initial estimates to build the facility were around $45,000. To help cover this cost, Fred reached out to the United States military in a bid to win its meat contract for all Central Coast military facilities.

New El Dorado Meat Market advertisement, published in the Santa Cruz Evening News May 13, 1919.

The firm relocated to the new facility in September 1923, abandoning its previous slaughterhouse at Twin Lakes. The Evening News described the facility in 1924, explaining that the main building is a two-story concrete structure with eighteen foot ceilings. Wood was only used on doors and window frames to make sanitizing the facility easier. Hot water taps were also available throughout the facility for cleaning. Meat was conveyed throughout the facility on overhead tracks and uncut meat was stored in a room kept at ~37˚F. Employee housing was provided along today's Shaffer Road in the form of cottages which included sewage, tap water, baths, and lighting. 

Advertisement for Walti-Schilling meats, published in the Evening News August 9, 1924.

The company contracted the county's first meat inspector, F. H. Totman, who checked the quality of every animal that passed through the slaughterhouse. At the time, this was a voluntary option, but one an increasing number of customers preferred and that many other counties required. By March 1924, Walti-Schilling was importing most of its cattle from Denver and Omaha, although meat continued to come in from other western states as well. Meat was processed in many different ways throughout the facility, with some salted, some turned to sausages and cured meats, some smoked, and some converted to fertilizer, soap, or other products. In 1925, a bone mill was added to the factory to produce bone meal for poultry.

Aerial photograph showing the Walti-Schilling plant at Orby with the Davenport Branch and its spur, 1953. [University of California, Santa Cruz]

Fred Walti paid the Southern Pacific Railroad to install a 47-car spur track along the Davenport Branch for $3,000. A random week's summary published in the Evening News in 1924 reported that two carloads of cattle, two of lambs, one of hogs, one of crude oil, one of hay, and one of barrels were received on this spur. The majority of meat was shipped out via truck. In 1929, Southern Pacific officially removed Orby as a passenger stop and transferred control of its to Walti-Schilling company, although in 1949 three other businesses were added onto the list of local customers. Orby was removed from station lists in 1954 as part of a slow reduction in the railroad's list of registered stations.

Walti-Schilling beef cows at the stock yard, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel April 24, 1949.

The slaughterhouse at Orby underwent three major overhauls throughout its lifetime. The first happened in 1930. It increased processing times to either 8 cattle per hour, 30 lambs per hour, 20 calves per hour, or 30 hogs per hour, with space within the freezer for 225 hanging beef cattle carcasses. Just a year later, on the morning of December 1, 1931, an electrical appliance ignited a fire in the tallow warehouse beside the slaughterhouse. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the flames and $50,000 in damages were accrued. The warehouse was completely destroyed, as well as several expensive pieces of machinery that were being stored there. Fortunately for the company, the main slaughterhouse sustained only minimal damage. Repairs began at once with the warehouse rebuilt over the following months.

Eugene and Leona (née Hansen) Ranconi on their 50th anniversary, published in the Sentinel March 3, 1970.

A minor expansion followed in 1934 and then, in May 1936, a fire at the downtown El Dorado Market led Fred to abandon the retail wing of Walti-Schilling, shutting down a business that had operated for forty-two years under the Walti-Schilling name. Fred Walti, Sr., meanwhile, died on December 7, 1940, leaving the company entirely in the hands of the next generation. Fred Jr. accomplished his father's dream of winning the Central Coast meat contract during World War II, becoming a primary supplier of meat products to all the Army and Navy bases throughout the greater Bay Area. The company retained these contracts after the war, as well. Fred and his sister Clara Pearson, as well as their children, sold their shares in the company to Ed and Allan Peterson in January 1949, leaving direct management of the facility to their business partner Eugene Ranconi, who had joined Walti-Schilling in 1917. This put an end to Walti family influence within the firm.

Butcher crews hanging up beef carcasses on the overhead conveyor, published in the Sentinel-News 1953.

Now in charge, Ranconi and the Petersons substantially renovated and expanded the Orby facilities in 1952. The project cost $375,000 and the renovations were overseen by James M. Smith and Kermit J. McGranahan. The primary new features of the remodel were a more efficient killing floor, expanded cooler space, and electronic conveyors and sanitary equipment. Statistically, the new facility could now slaughter in an hour either 20 cattle, 40 calves, 60 hogs, or 100 lambs. The freezer could hold 250 beef or 500 lamb carcasses. Walti-Schilling also paid for a permanent meat inspector, Dr. Frank S. Palmer, to be stationed at the slaughterhouse. This had become necessary to secure government contracts, and about 75% of meat consumed at Fort Ord in Monterey was processed at the Orby plant in the years following the war. It is likely that the spur was also decommissioned, although not demolished, since it appears disused in aerial photographs of this time. An earlier statement in 1949 suggested that most of the company's freight came in and left via truck by that date.

Dino Ceschi, Larry Wolfsen, and Ray Pogiatto in the Walti-Schilling plant freezer, published in the Sentinel December 23, 1962.

The Petersons sold their interest in the company to Lawrence G. and Henry B. Wolfsen in mid-1960, although Ranconi remained vice president and general manager. Wolfsen Feed Lots, Inc., owned extensive cattle interests in Los Banos and Dos Palos and its majority share in Walti-Schilling marked the first time that the company had been owned by an outside interest. Early the next year, Wolfsen oversaw a $100,000 minor upgrade to the cooler and freezer rooms, to increase the storage capacity of the facility. Wolfsen died suddenly in San Francisco on December 2, 1962, leaving management of the company to his son, Larry, and brother, Henry.

The Walti-Schilling processing plant undergoing remodelling, published in the Sentinel 1965.

Five years after purchasing the company, the Wolfsens and Ranconi oversaw a third and final remodel of the facility in 1965 when they invested $500,000 to expand the production, packaging, and processing buildings, which were upgraded but not replaced in 1952. Most of the remaining original structures were demolished at the time to make room for the new buildings. The increased capacity allowed up to 1,600 beef cows to be processed per week, making the slaughterhouse among the top three in Northern California. 

Advertisement of Walti, Schilling & Company, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel September 12, 1971.

Despite the expensive remodel only a decade earlier, the Walti-Schilling plant shut down on July 1, 1977. Ranconi died in December 1973, leaving sole control of the firm to the Wolfsens. At the time, Larry Wolfsen stated that the business “has been barraged with cost increases from all sides. Rising costs to cattlemen has shortened the supply of cattle to slaughterhouses.” He added that the situation was “aggravated by recent labor disputes.” Around 120 workers were laid off but most went to work for butchers in the Santa Clara Valley. Wolfsen Feed Lots, Inc., did not immediately dissolve, however. It remained involved in the farm and livestock industries, primarily in Los Banos, for two more years. On June 16, 1978, the directors elected to dissolve the firm, which was implemented January 15, 1979.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:

~36.9577N, 122.0647W

1201 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz

The site of the Walti-Schilling slaughterhouse is now occupied by Future Motion and the Pacific Shores apartment complex off Shaffer Road, accessible via Mission Street or California State Route 1 northwest of Santa Cruz. Reytek Inc. took over the facility in 1982 and converted the former slaughterhouse into an office building, which it remains today. The site of the spur is more easily accessed from Shaffer Road via Delaware Avenue, although note that the tracks are owned by Santa Cruz County and trespassing is not encouraged. Other than an unusually wide right-of-way along the north side of the tracks, where the spur once sat, no evidence remains of this spur.

Citations & Credits:

• Southern Pacific Railroad. Officers, Agencies & Station Book, 1929-1954.
• Various articles from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Evening News, and Sentinel-News.

Curiosities: The Ocean Shore Railway's 26-Mile Gap

The Ocean Shore Railway—a project over thirty years in the making—began with a bang and then died a slow and painful death as natural disasters, financial crises, bankruptcy, and mismanagement doomed the most optimistic railroad in the history of the Central Coast of California. On top of all the drama and failure, though, the most remarkably fact about the Ocean Shore Railway is how close it came to succeeding in a task that had dogged so many companies before it. The Ocean Shore's story is truly that of the Little Engine That Could, pushing on despite everything to finish its visionary route from San Francisco to Santa Cruz along the windswept margins of San Mateo County's foggy coastline.

An Ocean Shore Railway construction train atop a bridge near Davenport, 1907. [Western Railroader – Colorized using DeOldify]

Of course, the Ocean Shore Railway had not intended to fail. Indeed, right up until its declaration of bankruptcy in 1911, the company was working feverishly to achieve its primary goal. The Ocean Shore Railway Company had been incorporated in May 1905 to build two parallel eighty-mile-long standard-gauge electric railroad tracks down the coastline from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, where it would have linked up with other subsidiary networks and ultimately meet the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad at the Nevada state line. A branch line was planned for the hills above Pescadero with a possible extension to Big Basin and Boulder Creek. Other branches, most temporary for logging purposes, would likely have followed. Several town development projects were planned along the coast, most notably at Montara and El Granada north of Half Moon Bay.

An Ocean Shore construction train pouring fill below the bridge over San Vicente Creek south of Davenport, 1907. [Uncertain provenance – Colorized using DeOldify]

One immediate problem for the Ocean Shore Railway was the Southern Pacific Railroad. The Octopus controlled most land transportation on the West Coast and was not going to let an upstart railroad get in its way. Indeed, Southern Pacific preempted the Ocean Shore's incorporation by a month when it established its own Coast Line Railroad in April 1905 with almost identical goals as its rival, sans double tracks and electrification. Yet the Ocean Shore knew that Southern Pacific only really wanted the lucrative cement plant contract in Davenport, while the Ocean Shore hoped that the timber in the Pescadero and Butano basins would more than justify the loss of the plant's patronage. Nonetheless, Southern Pacific was certainly duplicitous in some of its dealings with the Ocean Shore Railway.

Ocean Shore Railway's depot in Santa Cruz overlooking the Southern Pacific yard, 1907. [Louis L. Stein, Jr. – Colorized using DeOldify]

In Santa Cruz, Southern Pacific leased land from the Cowell Lime Company at the beach and built a short spur for loading lime, conveniently blocking the Ocean Shore's access to land it had purchased to erect a deep-water pier. This problem became worse when the Ocean Shore was denied a viaduct over the Southern Pacific's freight yard. This viaduct was essential for accessing the company's proposed central depot in downtown Santa Cruz. Together, these two actions effectively stranded the Ocean Shore in West Santa Cruz with no outlet south, thereby imperilling its plans for a route across the county and beyond.

Meanwhile, the two railroads actually hired the same contractor to build both of its tracks north. Since the Ocean Shore had more ready cash and planned to build a double track, one of its tracks was built first. This benefited the Ocean Shore immensely in 1906. The earthquake delayed construction of a second track (Southern Pacific's) by a year, meaning that the Ocean Shore was able to profit off the cement plant's initial output during that time. However, once Southern Pacific did reach Davenport in 1907, it conveniently installed its wye in such a way to deny the Ocean Shore any further access to the cement plant. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, the completion of the Bay Shore Cut-off and the Mayfield Cut-off reduced travel time between Santa Cruz and San Francisco. This drastically reduced the competitiveness of the Ocean Shore regarding passenger traffic between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, although the potential view along the picturesque coastal trackage was unquestioned.

Work crews in the process of filling the tall trestle bridge over Panther Beach beside the Yellowbank Dairy, with the Coast Road visible through the bridge, 1906. [Covello and Covello – Colorized using DeOldify]

Construction of the Ocean Shore in Santa Cruz County began in mid-1905 and continued apace through to the earthquake on April 18, 1906. Although constructed using the same contractors as the Coast Line Railway, the Coast Line was running behind schedule so the Ocean Shore's initial single track was built to Davenport first. In February 1906, the Ocean Shore leased the Union Traction Company in order to extend its network further south to Watsonville—the anticipated next step in its scheme to build the line to Nevada. Beyond Davenport, grading crews made it to Scott Creek where they built a wye beside a small resort area the company hoped to develop called Folger, named after the coffee magnate. Freight traffic to Davenport began in late January 1906 and, following short delays from the earthquake, regular passenger service to Davenport began on June 15. Meanwhile, the track to Scott Creek was completed by October, several months behind schedule, but still not too far above upper estimates.

The long, partially filled trestle bridge across San Vicente Creek and Davenport Beach, 1906. [Gary Griggs – Colorized using DeOldify]

Along the route south of San Francisco, progress was moving more slowly. Track layers had only reached Mussel Rock outside Daly City by the time of the earthquake, but grading had been completed for many miles further south, with much of the equipment located on Devil's Slide, which was the most precarious part of the route. This proved disastrous when the earthquake struck, since much of that machinery was either buried or tossed into the sea. While railroad crews in San Francisco used its rolling stock to help remove debris following the quake and fires, the construction crews further to the south had weeks of work ahead of them recovering machinery, restoring rights-of-way, and reinforcing hillsides against further slides.  It was several months before actual progress resumed on the Northern Division, but work did slowly resume. Regular passenger service only began in October 1907 to Tobin (Pedro Valley).

The Ocean Shore Railway's Pedro Point Tunnel north of Devil's Slide following abandonment of the line, 1928. [Uncertain provenance – Colorized using DeOldify]

Unfortunately for the Ocean Shore Railway, many of its wealthier financiers pulled out of the company in the months following the earthquake. A few were ruined by the earthquake, but others just decided to be more cautious with their money. The resort at Folger was probably one of the casualties of this restructure even though construction on the Southern Division continued without more than a hitch. The railroad found more investors and scraped together enough funds to continue building through the rest of 1906 and into early 1907. Construction to Half Moon Bay resumed after the Devil's Slide mess was cleared. Meanwhile, a new contract was made with Shattuck and Desmond to continue building the line from Scott Creek to Pescadero. In June 1908, the subsidiary Scott Creek Railway was incorporated to extend a track up Scott Creek and Little Creek to the timber tracts of the San Vicente Lumber Company. This proved to be the Southern Division's most profitable and reliable customer throughout the 1910s.

Advertisement for the San Juan Pacific Railway, 1907. [Unknown provenance]

Optimism was always the Ocean Shore Railway's greatest strength and weakness. The earthquake led to the Ocean Shore abandoning its purchase agreement of the Union Traction Company, although it retained an option to purchase it at a later date. On December 28, 1906, the railroad incorporated its first subsidiary, the Monterey, Fresno & Eastern Railway, and soon afterwards this company leased the Watsonville Transportation Company in the hopes that it could extend the small interurban line to Hollister and Fresno. In February 1907, alongside the lease of the interurban, Ocean Shore incorporated another subsidiary, the Ocean Shore & Eastern Railway, which was intended to build a railroad line from Santa Cruz to Watsonville, likely using the Union Traction line, although it did not resume its deferred payments at this time. In April 1907, the San Joaquin Valley Western Railroad was founded to connect Watsonville to Fresno, and in May the San Juan Pacific Railway was incorporated to link Chittenden to San Juan Bautista and its new cement plant, with plans to eventually extend its line further south through the Gabilan Range. All but the last of these projects came to nothing.

Ocean Shore Railway train on a high fill across a beach near Davenport, ca 1908 [Western Railroader – Colorized using DeOldify]

The nail in the coffin of the Ocean Shore Railway proved to be neither Southern Pacific interference nor the 1906 earthquake. Instead, it was the Knickerbocker Crisis which led to the Panic of 1907. A stagnant economy following the earthquake had led to a recession and by October 1907, the New York Stock Exchange was half the value it had been the previous year. The actual panic occurred when several banks, most notably the Knickerbocker Trust Company, failed to seize control of the United Copper Company. The collapse of Knickerbocker led to a run on money and the withdrawal by many from high-risk investments. Although the crisis was short-lived, it led to many of the remaining and new investors in the Ocean Shore Railway to pull out. Funds were solicited locally in early 1908, allowing construction to continue, but the railroad was running entirely on rapidly-increasing debt.

Idealized postcard of Granada Depot on the Ocean Shore line, 1908. Image produced by Charles H. Kendrick Company. [Cambridge Lutece – Colorized by DeOldify]

Despite everything, optimism remained through 1908. Property along the San Mateo County coast was selling quickly, while farmers, quarriers, and lumber companies were eager to begin shipping via the completed railroad. Construction on the Southern Division was primarily focused on the Scott Creek Railway line rather than the route north, although surveyors were likely busy determining the best means of crossing Scott Creek. In the north, passenger and freight service to Granada opened in June 1908 and Half Moon Bay in October, while tracks were laid across the Tunitas Creek bridge by January 1909. Another bridge was built a mile south over Palmer Gulch (Trestle Beach), but no tracks were ever installed here. Grading, meanwhile, had progressed as far as Pigeon Point. At Pomponio Beach, two short tunnels were in the process of being bored when construction ceased on the line.

Ocean Shore Railway auditor Ted F. Wurm on right with family members standing on the tracks near Davenport, ca 1910. [Marvin T. Maynard – Colorized using DeOldify]

The end result of the Ocean Shore Railway's three and a half years of effort was approximately 54 miles built of an 80-mile-long railroad. The missing section, 26 miles between the southern bank of Tunitas Creek to the southern bank of Scott Creek, was never completed. However, grading south from Tunitas, including a bridge and two tunnels, was partially completed for around 12.5 miles to Pigeon Point, and possibly even further to the south, meaning that only 13.5 miles remained of heavy work on the line. Some of this may have been damaged in the heavy winter storm of 1909 that wrecked large portions of the right-of-way, effectively shutting it down until late April. This storm mixed with creditors finally calling in their debt put an end to the reckless optimism that had been motivating the company previously. The company was $2,321,740 in debt and had nowhere left to turn for help.

The Ocean Shore Railroad beside Islais Creek and Mission Street outside San Francisco, 1915. [OpenSFHistory]

The Ocean Shore Railway went bankrupt on December 6, 1909 and was reincorporated as the Ocean Shore Railroad on October 9, 1911, following nearly two years in receivership. Although the new firm stated its intention to fill the 26-mile gap between Tunitas Creek and Scott Creek, it never had the funds to do so. Estimates in 1911 placed the cost of finishing the line at $1,351,115, over $35,000,000 in 2021 money. Thus, the new company, sans the debts of its predecessor, never bothered to finish the final 26 miles of its route, which was the only way the railroad would survive in the long term. Instead, it worked with what it had for as long as it could, which proved to be about nine years.

An accident at Little Creek switch outside Swanton, 1916. [UCSC Legacy Digital Collections – Colorized using DeOldify]

Possibly as early as 1908, regular horse-drawn stage coach service connected Davenport or Swanton in the south with Tunitas or Half Moon Bay in the north. The details of this early connecting activity are obscure, although it is known that the Ocean Shore Railway funded the service in order to maintain the premise of their coastal railroad. However, it was slow, poorly patronized, and couldn't compete once automobiles began appearing on the coast in the early 1910s. A solution had to be found and the new Ocean Shore Railroad had an idea.

An Ocean Shore Auto Stage Stanley Steamer leaving Tunitas for Santa Cruz, ca 1914. [Uncertain provenance]

Rather than providing rather typical coach service between the railroad's two termini, it purchased a Stanley Motor Carriage Company autobus to bridge the 26-mile gap via a new subsidiary, the Ocean Shore Auto Stage Company, incorporated in March 1914. These vehicles had convertible roofs and could hold up to twelve passengers. They were operated by a thirty horsepower steam engine designed in a novel and space-saving manner, although they were known for burning through water quickly. Due to the initial popularity of the service, a second Stanley Steamer was added to the roster on June 10.

Both Ocean Shore Auto Stage Stanley Steamers in Pescadero, 1914. [Bob Gray]

Service between Tunitas and Swanton began on April 1, 1914 under the direction of James W. Gray, a former Ocean Shore brakeman. The second steamer was operated by Harry L. Staples. Through service from San Francisco to Santa Cruz via rail and steamer cost $4.50 a ticket and took a total of 8:15 hours northbound and 7:50 hours southbound. The Stanley Steamers called in at Waddell Creek, Gazos Creek, Pigeon Point, Pebble Beach, Pescadero, San Gregorio, Tunitas Glen, and Torquay, providing transportation to and from some of the most remote communities on the Central Coast. A separate bus service also transported people from Torquay to the California Redwood Park (Big Basin). During wet winters, when portions of the railroad's right-of-way were washed out or otherwise damaged, the steamers also provided service shuttling passengers around inoperable sections.

The never-used Palmer Gulch bridge, 1920s, already showing a distinct slump in the center. [UCSC Legacy Digital Collections – Colorized using DeOldify]

Most Ocean Shore Railroad services ceased on August 17, 1920. The Southern Division was subsequently leased to the San Vicente Lumber Company while the Northern Division was scrapped. Remnants of the right-of-way survive all along the coast, especially in San Mateo County. Between Tunitas Creek and Scott Creek, some cuts and fills can be found beside Highway 1, but much more was once visible. The bridges over Tunitas Creek and Palmer Gulch remained for many decades until they either collapsed or were demolished. The two incomplete short tunnels at Pomponio Beach existed into the 1970s before they collapsed or were demolished for safety reasons.  Another tunnel south of Pescadero Beach appears on the 1961 USGS quadrangle map but has also now disappeared. 

A Stanley Steamer somewhere along the 27-mile gap with its roof up, ca 1918. [Randolph Brandt]

Meanwhile, the autobuses of the Ocean Shore Auto Stage Company continued to operate across the entire line under emergency provisions. On January 14, 1921, Gray and Staples were granted a permanent franchise to continue running buses between San Francisco and Pescadero, which led to the incorporation of the Coastside Transportation Company later that year. Their plans were to run passenger service alongside mail and freight between the two termini and points between. The Railroad Commission, however, limited the franchise repeatedly, forcing Gray to redirect traffic to Colma and San Mateo, drastically reducing his potential profits. He became frustrated and looked for interested buyers of his franchise.

Coastside Transport Company advertisement from the Santa Cruz Evening News, March 15, 1940.

On July 16, Gray sold the company to Edward Serretto, Louis Alfred Mattei, and Emile Michel. In 1925, the company under William Azevedo petitioned to run freight between San Francisco and Half Moon Bay but was again denied by the Commission. The firm's persistence finally paid off in March 1927 when it received permission to run passenger, freight, and express service across the entirety of the old Ocean Shore route including all settlements along the way. Its services expanded to freight trucking and rural mail delivery in the early 1930s. The firm declared bankruptcy in late 1933 only to reform with the same franchise rights as the Coastside Transport Company in November of that year. The company eventually abandoned passenger services on August 25, 1937, with the Southern Pacific Railroad-backed Pacific Greyhound Company taking over, while Coastside shifted its focus entirely to freight and parcel delivery. Coastside survived for another five years before selling out to Highway Transport Company on August 4, 1942.

Citations & Credits:

• Brandt, Rudolph. "Ocean Shore 'Reaches the Beaches," Western Railroader 15:7 (Issue 151).
• Hamman, Rick. California Central Coast Railways. Second edition. Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2007.
• Nanney, Duncan. Personal correspondence.
• Schmale, John. "Railroad historian John Schmale: 'Stanley Steamers' Filled in the Ocean Shore's 26-Mile 'Gap,'" Half Moon Bay Memories, February 26, 2009.
• Wagner, Jack R. The Last Whistle: Ocean Shore Railroad. Berkeley, CA: Howell–North Books, 1974.
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Coast. Santa Cruz, CA: Zayante Publishing, forthcoming.