Railroads: Dougherty Extension Railroad

The Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company’s mill had run out of timber. Since 1879, the company had been processing timber harvested from the headwaters of Zayante Creek 5.4 miles north of Felton. The opening of the South Pacific Coast Railroad through the same valley in May 1880 greatly accelerated the speed that the company could export its products to the Bay Area and beyond. Shortly after the railroad was completed, the company added a two-mile-long spur that began as a switchback and descended from the railroad grade to today’s East Zayante Road and then continued north to the mill at the confluence of Mountain Charlie Gulch and Zayante Creek. For six more years, the mill churned out millions of board feet of lumber and other timber products, then everything fell apart.

Mill worker families outside the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company mill at Dougherty's, circa 1890. [Courtesy WorthPoint – Colorized using MyHeritage]

In the afternoon of Sunday, August 8, 1886, the Zayante Creek mill burned to the ground. Although it led to an estimated loss of around $25,000 in value, the company quickly rebounded. Before the flames were even extinguished, mill superintendent James Dougherty had negotiated the sale of the nearby Saunders mill to serve as a replacement for the remaining season. But much of the standing timber around the mill burned in the inferno and the company decided against reopening for the 1887 season. While crews cut splitstuff and began to dismantle the mill, James and his brother, company president William P. Dougherty, began planning the company’s next move.

Boulder Creek yard with flume, circa 1887. [Courtesy San Lorenzo Valley Museum – Colorized using MyHeritage]

Throughout the 1880s, the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company had purchased thousands of acres of land along the San Lorenzo River north of Boulder Creek, as well as along feeder streams of Pescadero Creek. In 1885, the South Pacific Coast Railroad had finished the Felton & Pescadero Railroad to Boulder Creek, with plans to extend further north to Pescadero. South Pacific Coast ultimately abandoned that vision when it consolidated the line into the South Pacific Coast Railway in 1887 and leased the new railroad to the Southern Pacific Railroad, which rebranded the former line from Felton to Boulder Creek as the Felton Branch. The Dougherty brothers saw this as an opening. They decided that, in lieu of an official extension of the branch, they would build their own line north. Initially it would just go to the company’s proposed mill, but it would be extended further north as needed, perhaps one day cutting through the mountains to Pescadero Creek and beyond. In fact, the South Pacific Coast Railway insisted that the line be of a similar quality to ensure the fluid transfer of rolling stock from one line to the other. Also at this time, a fragment of the old San Lorenzo Flume & Transportation Company’s V-flume continued to run north from Boulder Creek. The lumber companies that still used it saw the Doughertys’ railroad as an upgrade and eagerly encouraged its extension to their properties.

Dougherty Extension tracks near Wildwood, circa 1911. Photo by Willard E. Worden. [Courtesy San Francisco Public Library – Colorized using MyHeritage]

Construction of the railroad began in the late winter of 1887. Like the Felton Branch, it was narrow-gauge and extended from a track on the eastern side of the Boulder Creek freight yard. The track proceeded north across the “Turkey Foot”—the confluence of Boulder Creek, the San Lorenzo River, and Bear Creek—and remained on the east side of the San Lorenzo River for the next two miles. Just beyond today’s Riverdale Boulevard, the route curved sharply to the west and crossed the County Road. This section required around eighty men, most Chinese, to drill and blast the chalk rock and stumps for the grade. Explosions were heard as far away as Santa Cruz. Another twenty men worked elsewhere, surveying, grading, and laying track. Bridges were built across several gulches and streams, the most notable of which was Two Bar Creek. The river crossing at around the two-mile point, a short, wooden Pratt truss bridge, became the subject of several romantic photographs in later years. The railroad reached Cunningham & Company’s newly-built mill in late March, prompting the start of the lumber season for the mill. The facility was located at today’s Lorenzo Lane, just south of Pleasant Way in San Lorenzo Park. After crossing the river twice more, the railroad reached the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company’s mill 1.6 miles to the north, at a site appropriately named “Dougherty’s,” in the vicinity of today’s Either Way and Teilh Drive. The railroad was operational to this point by the end of April and crews spent much of May transferring machinery from the Zayante mill and assembling it at the new site. Several spurs and sidings were installed around the mill, including a track that ran around the west side of the facility. It was on this track that the company placed the engine house for the company’s locomotive, the former Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad’s Felton, nicknamed the “Dinkey.”

Dougherty Extension train crossing the San Lorenzo River bridge at the former Cunningham & Company mill site, circa 1911. Photo by Willard E. Worden. [Courtesy San Francisco Public Library – Colorized using MyHeritage]

The railroad line extended beyond Dougherty’s from the very first year. Initially, about five miles of track was installed, probably ending around today’s McGaffigan Mill Road, which is thought to have been the site of a shingle mill and transloading station for the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company. This location remained the end-of-track for several years. However, as the surrounding forest was denuded of its old-growth redwoods, the track expanded north. The first extension in 1897 brought it north two miles, across the Saratoga Toll Road at a clearing that would later become Waterman Switch. The shingle mill and transloading center likely moved with it to this site. From here, the track was extended by about a half mile twice in 1898 and 1899. By the latter year, the railroad had reached its end-of-track on a bend in the San Lorenzo River in the shadow of Castle Rock Ridge. Here, the shingle mill was moved and operated for several more years through contractors. After two years of logging in this area, crews cut the track back to Waterman Switch, where a cable logging road was installed up the hillside and over the ridge to Waterman Creek, one of the origin streams of Pescadero Creek, where the company harvested timber through the late summer of 1902.

Santa Clara Mill & Lumber Company facility at Dougherty's, circa 1890. [Courtesy Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History – Colorized using MyHeritage]

The legal status of the extension railroad has never been definitively determined. Unlike all other privately-operated railroads in Santa Cruz County, the Doughertys’ line catered to several independent firms in the manner of a common carrier. The closest equivalent was the Pajaro Valley Railroad, which was incorporated and legally distinct from the Western Beet Sugar Company that backed it. In the early years, local newspapers conflated the Doughertys’ line with the Felton Branch, called it an extension of that branch, or made it a branch or railroad in its own right. The Santa Cruz Surf in 1888, shortly after the line opened, called it “Dougherty’s Branch;” the next year, reporting on repairs to the line, the Surf said “Repairs on Dougherty’s railroad extension are nearly completed and the ‘branch’ will be ready for running trains this week.” Clearly the reporter knew that the railroad was not a true branch of the South Pacific Coast Railway, but the next year, the newspaper simply called it the “Dougherty’s branch railroad,” abandoning the distinction. The Santa Cruz Sentinel preferred an entirely different naming convention, calling it the “Northern Extension R.R.” in 1895 and “the Dougherty or North Extension railway” in 1910. And in 1903, when it was discovered that Southern Pacific surveyors were examining the line and its potential extension to Pescadero, it received yet another name: “Boulder Creek & Pescadero Railroad.” This idea that became so popular that the company’s locomotive had it written on the tender. The most common name that emerged, though, was the “Dougherty Extension Railroad,” first appearing in both the Sentinel and the Surf in 1890. This is the term that was used in the sale of the railroad’s right-of-way to the California Timber Company in May 1903, and it has been used since in property transactions relating to surviving sections of the right-of-way.

The Dinkey with Boulder Creek & Pescadero Railroad livery parked near Bear Creek Road, circa 1915. [Courtesy San Lorenzo Valley Museum – Colorized using MyHeritage]

All but one of the Dougherty Extension Railroad’s third-party customers had their stations along the southernmost three miles. The first was Ephraim Bradbury Morrell’s mill on Two Bar Creek about one mile north of Boulder Creek. The mill had been established in 1884 and Morrell was on the brink of shutting it down when the Doughertys entered the scene. Following Morrell’s death in 1903, his property was taken over by Homer Rider and Willard and Orrin McAbee. The partners operated as the McAbee Brothers Timber Company and finished harvesting Two Bar Creek in late 1905, shifting to China Grade and away from the Extension Railroad afterwards. The next was the aforementioned Cunningham & Company’s mill, established in early 1888. James Farnham Cunningham owned the general store in Boulder Creek and had been a resident of Felton since the 1870s, becoming invested in various industries. He ran his mill through the 1891 season and then sold it and the property to the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company. Although his mill was dismantled, its spurs and sidings remained and were likely reused by the F. A. Hihn Company in 1907 when it opened a lumber mill several miles up King’s Creek. That facility operated until the end of 1910.

The F. A. Hihn Company mill on Kings Creek, circa 1907. [Courtesy Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History – Colorized using MyHeritage]

The railroad’s only third-party operator located north of Dougherty’s was the S. H. Chase Lumber Company’s mill on Feeder Creek. Stephen Hall Chase had been running mills in California since 1859. His company purchased this little section of forest from J. P. Peery in 1890 and ran a two-mile-long railroad spur across the San Lorenzo River and up the steep canyon to the new mill. The mill ran until about 1899 and afterwards Chase relocated to Laguna Creek near Davenport. According to historian Rick Hamman, where the spur broke off from the mainline was called “Sinnott Switch,” though this name does not appear in contemporary sources. The family of James B. and Mary Sinnott had moved to a property five miles north of Boulder Creek in July 1884. However, their property was not located on the railroad line. Instead, the switch may have been named after the conductor of the “Dinkey,” Nick Sinnott.

Boulder Creek workers standing in the freight yard, with the tracks to the Dougherty Extension Railroad at right, circa 1895. [Courtesy San Lorenzo Valley Museum – Colorized using MyHeritage]

Following the deaths of William and James Dougherty and the end of the company’s logging operations in the San Lorenzo Valley in 1902, the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company merged its Pescadero properties with those of the Big Basin Lumber Company and the Boulder Creek Lumber Company, both owned by Henry L. Middleton, to form the California Timber Company in April 1903. The new firm owned around 13,000 acres of timberland on Pescadero Creek and it immediately set to work finding an economical way of accessing that timber. The company built a new wagon road from Waterman Switch up the western hillside to the mill site on Waterman Creek. This road today follows the route from where State Route 9 separates from the Saratoga Toll Road and climbs to Waterman Gap. This road was a poor solution, though, and everybody in Boulder Creek was talking about extending the Dougherty Extension Railroad over Waterman Gap to the Pescadero forest and beyond. Indeed, the California Timber Company was not the only firm interested in an extension; in January 1903, Southern Pacific sent out surveyors to map both the existing railroad and a potential extension to Pescadero. And people in general wanted a railroad that could access the newly-opened California Redwood Park (Big Basin).

Workers clearing timber for the Waterman Creek mill of the California Timber Company, circa November 25, 1905. [Courtesy Derek R. Whaley – Colorized using MyHeritage]

Much changed over the next two years. The Ocean Shore Railway incorporated on May 16, 1905, and many locals speculated that the company planned to take over the Dougherty Extension Railroad and extend it to Pescadero. A month earlier, on April 12, Southern Pacific incorporated its own subsidiary, the Coast Line Railway, which included in its articles the plan to construct a 20-mile-long branch line from Pescadero to Boulder Creek, presumably creating a loop with the line also connecting Davenport and Pescadero. Southern Pacific survey teams spent March and April resurveying their 1903 report and found that the former Chase mill’s spur up Feeder Creek followed by a tunnel through the ridge to Big Basin and on to Pescadero Creek would result in the most even grade and the most cost-effective route. The California Timber Company acted, too, with plans to standard gauge the entire line announced in April, presumably in preparation for a Southern Pacific acquisition. Southern Pacific, though, was focusing its primary efforts on building a line from Santa Cruz to Davenport, where the company held the contract to deliver the machinery for the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company in 1906. The April 18, 1906, earthquake ensured that all of these plans fell to pieces.

The Dinkey and its crew north of Boulder Creek, circa 1890. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – Colorized using MyHeritage]

The earthquake did increase demand for timber products in San Francisco. Most of the mills on the Dougherty Extension Railroad had closed prior to 1906, but the California Timber Company and F. A. Hihn Company tried to compensate in volume. Activity along the line had reached a new high. Workers roamed the San Lorenzo Valley in search of wood that could be cut into splitstuff, such as fence posts, railroad ties, grape stakes, shingles, and shakes. So many of these had piled up along the extension line that the California Timber Company’s foreman estimated it would take more than 120 days of continuous shipping to remove all of it. Electrical lighting was installed at major landings along the line to enable crews to work day and night. The Sentinel article summarizing this progress named landings at Whitener’s and Keefe’s, two places hitherto unmentioned as stops in sources. The former referred to John D. Whitener, a local property investor who was noted in 1912 as the owner of a mill in Boulder Creek. The latter was named after Garrett Keefe, a mill worker with a property near Dougherty’s. His daughter, Mamie S. Keefe, served as the teacher at Dougherty’s School in 1906. Neither location is mentioned as a landing after July 1907.

The Dinkey and South Pacific Coast locomotive no. 23 at Boulder Creek, circa 1900 [Courtesy Phil Reader – Colorized using MyHeritage]

The Coast Line Railway never made it past Davenport and the Ocean Shore Railroad never reached Pescadero. The Mountain Echo reported a rumor in August 1907 that Southern Pacific still planned to construct a line to Pescadero, with a second extension to Congress Springs near Saratoga, both of which would require long and expensive tunnels. It also speculated that the line would be standard-gauged to at least King’s Creek. None of this came to pass. By 1910, the prospect of the Dougherty Extension Railroad being taken over by either firm seemed unlikely. Henry Middleton and his allies reluctantly began harvesting new timber tracts on Pescadero and Butano Creeks in June under the name Western Shore Lumber Company. They held out hope that Southern Pacific would see the potential profit and extend the Dougherty line. Again in February 1912, a rumor circulated that Southern Pacific planned to build a new line to Congress Springs via King’s Creek, with all of the right-of-way allegedly already acquired. Such a line could have reduced the distance between San Francisco and Santa Cruz by up to 10 miles and put all of the major population centers in the San Lorenzo Valley on a mainline. Even as late as February 1916, the Santa Cruz Evening News speculated that a new lumber combine planned to buy all the available timber tracts on Pescadero Creek, standard gauge the Dougherty Extension Railroad, and extend it to the headwaters of Pescadero Creek. Shifting global demands caused by World War I likely shelved these plans.

Motor car on the tracks at Wildwood, circa 1914. [Courtesy Derek R. Whaley – Colorized using MyHeritage]

An entirely different venture emerged along the line in April 1909. The American Real Estate Company, a San Francisco firm, was contracted by W. H. Booth to subdivide and sell his property located directly north of the Cunningham & Company’s former mill. The company hoped to build a seasonal village there named Wildwood, populated by Bay Area elite. And what better way to convey people two miles north of Boulder Creek than with a scenic railroad? Henry Middleton allowed the company to borrow the Dinkey and its crew to shuttle potential property owners to the site. A flatcar was refitted with bench seats, painted, and decorated to advertise the subdivision. And because this section of track had been constructed to the standards of the Southern Pacific, it was a smooth ride the whole way. Promotional excursions began running on May 19, 1909, and continued through the next five summers. In 1914, the Dinkey was replaced by a gas-powered motorcar that could hold eight passengers and the driver. Its speed and operational cost made it much cheaper to operate than the 40-year-old locomotive. Properties sold by the dozens, but with the increase in automobile travel and the cost of maintaining the railroad line, the owners decided not to continue its use after the 1914 season.

Campers and real estate speculators at Wildwood, circa 1913. [Courtesy Derek R. Whaley – Colorized using MyHeritage]

The end of promotional excursions loosely coincided with the end of logging operations on Pescadero Creek. The California Timber Company’s property was hit with a massive wildfire in September 1913 and much of its unharvested timber burned. This likely led the firm to abandon its mill and end operations in the area, though it may have been planning to close at the end of the season anyway. Earlier that year, in March, the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company sold its properties, including the Dougherty Extension Railroad, to the newly-formed Santa Cruz Mountain Land Company, run by San Mateo and San Francisco investors. The new owners allowed the logging and Wildwood trains to run through the 1913 and 1914 seasons, but all activity appears to have ceased afterwards. The track sat idle for around three years. On April 4, 1917, the rails were allegedly sold to H. Stroll for $700, with the condition that the land company had to remove them. It did not and Stroll sued in November 1918 for failure to fulfill the contract. The amount of the suit suggests that Stroll removed the rails himself at a cost of $5,000, from which he deducted the amount he paid for them. The suit continued into 1919 with the defendant claiming a demurrer. The result was that the Dougherty Extension Railroad was dismantled and its rails scrapped.

A section of surviving right-of-way near the junction Saratoga Toll Road and State Route 9, 2013. Photo by Derek Whaley. [Courtesy Derek R. Whaley]

A surprising amount of the Dougherty Extension Railroad’s right-of-way survives intact today. For the first two miles, the right-of-way mostly sits comfortably between State Route 9 and the river, where one may catch glimpses of it at times, although there are many homes now built atop the former right-of-way. At Wildwood, the route continues along River Road, eventually crossing through Camp Campbell and Camp Harmon. From Teilh Drive, it once again sits between Highway 9 and the river until reaching Fern Drive. The route crosses the river at roughly the same spot as the Fern Drive bridge, and the right-of-way continues north along the west bank from this point onward. Just before the start of the Saratoga Toll Road, traces of the right-of-way can be seen on either side of the road, with some original ties remaining in place. To the south from here, the right-of-way passes through a shallow cut and continues for roughly 0.5 miles within Castle Rock State Park before reaching private property. To the north, the route continues along the eastern side of the former toll road and has become overgrown and difficult to navigate, with an abundance of poison oak. The right-of-way suddenly vanishes just beyond a bend in the San Lorenzo River about 0.4 miles south of the confluence of Tin Can Creek.

Citations & Credits:

• Coast Line Railway Company. “Articles of Incorporation." April 12, 1905. California State Archives.
• Hamman. Rick. California Central Coast Railways, second edition. Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2002.
• History of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, California: Cradle of California’s History and Romance, Vol. II. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing, 1925.
• “Official Map of the County of Santa Cruz.” San Francisco, CA: Punnett Brothers, 1906.
• Redwood City Democrat. April 6, 1905. Page 3:7.
• Sanborn–Perris Map Company. “Boulder Creek, Santa Cruz Co., Cal.” June 1897.
• Santa Cruz Daily Sentinel, Evening Sentinel, and Morning Sentinel. 1886–1913.
• Santa Cruz Evening News. 1907–1916.
• Santa Cruz Surf. 1888–1903.

Maps: Dougherty Extension Railroad

The main trunk line of the Dougherty Extension Railroad, built by the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company between 1888 and 1897, measured over 8.5 miles long—longer than the Southern Pacific Railroad-owned branch line that it extended. But unlike that branch line, this rugged lumber railway was not constructed at one time but rather extended at least twice from its original terminus at Doughertys, four miles north of Boulder Creek, to its ultimate end near the headwaters of the San Lorenzo River. Through that journey, the track crossed the river up to ten times, as well as several other substantial streams. Its narrow-gauge of 36 inches allowed it to take sharper turns and climb steeper grades than the usual railroad, but the Dougherty Extension Railway rarely needed to. The gentle curve and slow climb of the upper San Lorenzo Valley offered obstacles, but none were especially difficult to surmount. No tunnels were required as with the route through the Santa Cruz Mountains nor were high and intricate bridges needed, as with the Loma Prieta Branch.

Two men sitting on a cut and debarked log near the F. A. Hihn Company mill on Kings Creek, c. 1910s.
[San Lorenzo Valley Museum]

The railroad line departed Boulder Creek near modern-day Junction Park, crossing Boulder Creek, the San Lorenzo River, and Bear Creek via a trio of bridges. From here, the railroad tracks kept to the east side of the river, bypassing old downtown Boulder Creek. Near where the river passes under State Route 9 today, the railroad also crossed the county road, continuing north between the road and the river for roughly 1.5 miles. This was likely where a short spur for the Harmon Mill was located, although its precise location is uncertain. The right-of-way along this stretch can sometimes be glimpsed, although homes have now been built atop the former railroad route in this section.

Dougherty Extension Railroad line north of Boulder Creek, 1897-1917. Not all streams and roads marked. Mills not located directly beside right-of-way only notated by its spur. [Derek R. Whaley]

About 1.4 miles north of town, at the bottom of Two Bar Road, a spur for the Morrell Mill was located, probably ending near the current Lee & Associates Rescue Equipment building. Another 0.5 miles north, another spur probably broke off near Spring Creek Road for the F. A. Hihn Mill on Kings Creek. The spur likely paralleled State Route 9 for a short distance before ending somewhere in the vicinity of the Boulder Creek Roadside Cafe and Garrahan Park. Loads of lumber brought down Kings Creek Road from the mill on Logan Creek would have been transferred to waiting flatcars here.

Piles of cut timber sitting in the lumber yard at Boulder Creek, c. 1910. [San Lorenzo Valley Museum]

Just 0.1 miles north of the switch was the location of the Cunningham & Company mill, one of the first patrons of the Dougherty Extension Railroad. The mill dammed the river just to the north, near Pleasant Way, and the railroad tracks passed directly through the property, crossing the San Lorenzo River to the north, after which it headed down River Drive. After the mill closed, the area north of the river developed into Wildwood around 1909.

River Road marks the former right-of-way throughout most of this section until the road ends on the boundary with Camp Campbell. The track remained on the west side of the river here, passing through Camp Campbell and Camp Harmon. Remnants of the right-of-way survive in this section but trespassing is not encouraged. The track ran for nearly two miles without interruption north of the Cunningham mill before finally encountering the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company property.

Property survey showing the original Dougherty Extension Railroad (black and white line) with its end-of-track at the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company Mill at Doughertys, 1889. [Library of Congress]

The mill at Doughertys was a substantial facility when it finally went into full operation in the 1890s. A track remained on the west bank of the river, wrapping around the property, while another track crossed the river to access the mill. Two spurs broke off here to reach the face of the mill and the lumber stacks that stood there. Another short spur on the west bank of the river provided the company's locomotive, the Dinky (formerly the Felton) access to its engine shed. To the north, the main track crossed the river again and merged with the west bank trackage. A tiny maintenance spur sat to the east of the tracks, as well. Together, the reunited track crossed the river for a third time, this time to the east bank, where it remained for 0.8 miles.

Roughly 0.3 miles north of Doughertys, a spur broke off the main line and headed up Feeder Creek to the west, crossing the river in the process. This was probably the most substantial spur off the Dougherty Extension Railroad at 1.5 miles long, and it terminated at the Chase Company mill up the creek. Around 1905, this right-of-way, abandoned in the mid-1890s, was considered as a potential route to reach the Pescadero Creek watershed, a long-time goal of Southern Pacific in the San Lorenzo Valley. The earthquake in April 1906 ended any hopes for a railroad line between Boulder Creek and Pescadero.

Back on the main line, the track crossed back to the west bank near modern-day Fern Drive, which also marks the right-of-way. Indeed, the right-of-way between State Route 9 and the river north of Doughertys is relatively undeveloped and can be found with little difficulty below the road to the west. Rotting crossties can sometimes be found in this area, often under overgrowth. The area north of Fern Drive on the west bank of the river is more difficult to access but the right-of-way in this area is better preserved. Another 0.7 miles beyond the end of Fern Road, the railroad reached McGaffigan Switch, where the company superintendent lived. The right-of-way in this area follows Scenic Way a short distance before passing through several properties.

The one-mile stretch to the north of McGaffigan Switch is also the most substantial surviving portion of right-of-way. While private properties sit atop the first 0.4 miles of this stretch, limiting access without trespassing, the final 0.6 miles are all part of Castle Rock State Park and can be accessed by heading south from the Saratoga Toll Road. There are several sections of intact crossties, and even a few bits of rail visible to those paying attention. One piece can even be seen hanging over the river from a pull-out off State Route 9. Trains ceased using this section of track around 1913, when the Waterman Creek mill shut down.

Waterman Switch, the switching yard for lumber coming down from Waterman Gap, was located just a short distance down the Saratoga Toll Road. A marquee sign marks the site, although cars are no longer allowed in the parking lot here. The Saratoga Toll Road parallels the railroad right-of-way for a while, but the right-of-way becomes increasingly difficult to discern from this point. Trains only operated in this area from 1897 to 1901 and most of the bridges in this section were very crude and not intended to withstand more than a few years of use. Nonetheless, the end-of-track was still 1.7 miles north of Waterman Switch, near where the San Lorenzo River forks east of Beekhuis Road. The best way of discerning the railroad's path through this area is through shallow cuts and surviving bridge abutments. Small sections of crossties can also be found periodically.

USGS map showing the maximum length of the Dougherty Extension Railroad, 1902. Note: the mapmaker did not always accurately map the topography of the area and often confused tracks with the road and river. [US Geologic Survey]

Just as it was constructed, so too was the Dougherty Extension Railroad demolished in steps. It is likely the northernmost 1.5 miles of track was removed around 1902 to expand the switching area around Waterman Switch, with additional track possibly removed to the Kings Creek spur. The portion between Wildwood and Waterman Switch remained in use until 1913, when the mill on the ridge shut down. The trackage to Wildwood was retained and maintained at a relatively high standard until 1915 as a passenger line for potential property investors and future residents. But the railroad was replaced with a bus in the summer of 1915, thereby marking the end of all service along the Dougherty line. The track was scrapped in late 1917 for use in World War I and the crossties were left to rot. Over time, the right-of-way was sold off in parcels, but large portions remain undeveloped.

Citations & Credits:

• Hamman, Rick. California Central Coast Railways. Second edition. Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2002.
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA, 2015.

Bridges: Dougherty Extension Railroad

Close-up of the Boulder Creek bridge as its heads north,
from a panoramic photo of Boulder Creek.
[Bruce MacGregor, A Centennial]

Grading and rail-laying crews working for the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company in the spring of 1888 had quite the challenge before them. The company's new mill was to be located four miles north of Boulder Creek along the San Lorenzo River, with a stop for the Cunningham & Company mill two miles north of town. But to get to these two sites, the river and several significant creeks needed to be crossed, in the former's case several times. Beyond the company's mill, one more major creek was encountered before the river began zig-zagging through an ever-narrowing canyon as it reached its headwaters. Here, too, grading crews had to build bridges of increasingly crude quality until the final logging camp was reached eight miles north of the line's junction with the Southern Pacific Railroad yard.

W. S. Rodgers survey map of Boulder Creek, 1905. [UC Santa Cruz Digital Collections]

The line's first obstacle was the triple threat presented by Boulder Creek, the San Lorenzo River, and Bear Creek just north of the yard. Creating the so-called Turkey Foot, these three waterbodies twisted and turned into each other, forcing bridge engineers to cross all of them just to reach the relatively even grade on the opposite side.  Winfield Scott Rodgers' survey map of Boulder Creek shows how these crossed heading north at a northwest angle, cutting through a small housing subdivision and crossing Bear Creek Road (then known as Park Avenue). A snippet of a panoramic photograph  of the town shows the first of these bridges, which appears to be a rather simple design with an open wooden deck upon which two tracks merged just before reaching the midpoint of the bridge. The structure of the bridge beneath the deck is unfortunately not known nor is the composition of the other two bridges, although they were probably similar in style.

The short truss bridge crossing the San Lorenzo River south of Wildwood, c. 1910s.
[Rick Hamman]

The right-of-way continued on the east side of the San Lorenzo River, where it required a bridge of an unknown type over Two Bar Creek 1.2 miles north of the Turkey Foot. The next significant and documented structure is located 0.7 miles north of that, just north of the Cunningham & Company mill, where the Dougherty Extension Railroad crossed to the west bank of the river for the second time. The bridge used here was perhaps the highest-quality of those along the line. It was a redwood framed Pratt truss span that may have been designed to support standard-gauge trains. The bridge was likely a later addition, replacing an earlier unknown structure, and may have been added in the early 1900s, when Southern Pacific was considering purchasing and upgrading the route to build a line to Pescadero. It became an iconic set-piece in Wildwood marketing in the 1910s and appears in several photographs from the time.

At the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company mill, located 1.4 miles to the north of the Cunningham & Company mill, the last photograph bridges can be found. While one track wrapped around the river, avoiding the need for bridges, the main line crossed the river twice in order to access and then proceed beyond the mill. These bridges were much more crudely built, composed largely of cut redwood tree trunks with crossties set atop them. Despite this low-cost design, the bridges were incredibly robust and were able of supporting large lumber trains leaving the mill. Two such bridges sat at the south of the mill, crossing the river roughly parallel to each other.

Dougherty Mill #2 at Riverside Grove, with two trestles barely visible in the photograph. The San Lorenzo River Trestle is at left beside the ox bridge while a second trestle is visible at right heading over a small creek. [Rick Hamman]

Remnant trestle at Riverside Grove, late 1970s. [Rick Hamman]

To the north of the mill, another bridge of similar design crossed the river as it meandered back to its original alignment around a U bend. Rick Hamman photographed the remnant of this bridge in the late 1970s, although it has since disappeared, probably due to flooding in 1982. In this photograph, it is clear that large logs also held the bridge aloft from below, providing it with extra support. A vehicular bridge originally ran beside this structure allowing access to the mill from the north. The mill pond sat directly beneath the bridge, undoubtedly causing problems when pond levels were too high since the river is not especially deep in this area.

Beginning in 1893, the Dougherty Extension Railroad began snaking up the San Lorenzo River, ultimately reaching its headwaters four miles further north around 1898. None of these bridges were photographed but remnants of some of them show that most were of a similar design to those at the company mill. The railroad first crossed over the river a fourth time roughly 500 feet north of the mill, near modern Bean Avenue off Teilh Drive. A spur broke off about 0.6 miles to the north to go up Feeder Creek and the Chase Company Mill. This bridge probably had a rather interesting design since it had to cross a broad and deep ravine created by the confluence of the creek and the river. Just slightly to the north, the main line crossed back to the west side of the river near Fern Drive to access the logging camp at McGaffigan Switch.

North of this crossing, the line remained on the west bank until just beyond Waterman Switch, roughly 2.0 miles from the Feeder Creek spur. How many times the railroad line crossed the river in its final two miles is unclear and may never be known with certainty. The river winds a lot in this area, and the ever-narrowing valley forced the track to criss-cross it constantly. These bridges would have been of extremely crude quality, in most cases simply logs tossed across the river with tracks placed atop them and packed dirt abutments on either end. The track likely crossed four times before reaching its end. Bridges and culverts to span smaller bodies of water were also likely required across the entire right-of-way from Boulder Creek.

Access Rights:
Nothing survives of any of the bridges except one very degraded structure inside Castle Rock State Park near the San Lorenzo River's headwaters. The bridges north of Wildwood may have been removed as early as 1913, when this section of track ceased to be used. The bridges further to the south were removed in 1917 when the rail was scrapped. Access to most of the bridge sites are via private property, although parts may be seen from various roads in the area. Nonetheless, little to nothing survives of these crude redwood-built structures. Trespassing is not encouraged.

Citations & Credits:

• Hamman, Rick. California Central Coast Railways. Second edition. Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2002.
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA, 2015.

Freight Stops: Waterman Switch

For almost an eternity, nothing had disquieted the dark wilderness at the top of the San Lorenzo Valley. Native Americans rarely if ever ventured so far, while Spanish and Mexican explorers and settlers took easier routes into the valley, far from the San Lorenzo River's headwaters. In this high mountain glen, some of the last of the valley's giants soared, perhaps not as high as their older cousins further to the south at Big Trees or up Big Basin, but these giants reigned undisturbed. That is, until Buckskin moved in.

James "Buckskin" Lawrence was the first and only resident of the area, having settled there in 1868. Buckskin knew the value of his land—the San Lorenzo Valley Flume & Transportation Company had briefly considered his property as the start of the flume until additional surveys convinced the company to establish the flume further to the south. Nonetheless, Buckskin eagerly capitalized on the interest by founding Rocky Ridge in 1875. Despite acquiring a post office in that same year, the settlement never materialized and the post office closed two years later. A school related to the community, founded in 1876, did survive for nearly a decade and supporting all of the children living north of King's Creek, but it too ultimately failed. Buckskin still lived on the property when the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company extended its Dougherty Extension Railroad 1.5 miles north from McGaffigan Switch and directly across the homesteader's parcel.

The lumber company had only moved to its mill north of Boulder Creek in 1888, and despite promises that decades worth of redwood timber were available along either bank of the San Lorenzo River north of the mill, timber crews proved the truth of the matter: the valley was running out of viable old growth redwood trees fast! With the trackage moved to Buckskin's property, the company established a logging camp at the site. At the time, it likely had no name and may have been considered a temporary loading area, exploiting the large meadow that spread out in front of Buckskin's front door.  But for the next seven years, lumber crews continued to operate from the site, which functioned as a loading zone for logs that were hauled down the hills by oxen and donkey teams. Additional logs passed through the area on flatcars that came from the end-of-track 0.5 miles further up the river. At least one spur or siding and possibly more were installed at the camp to allow these flatcars to pass without impeding operations. The site operated until early 1900 when the company determined that all viable timber in the upper San Lorenzo Valley had been cut.

For the next two years, the struggling company considered ways that it could access its timber resources at the headwaters of Pescadero Creek, a short distance from this logging camp but almost entirely uphill and in an adjacent valley. The company had purchased prime timberland along there from the Davis & Cowell lime company in the late 1880s. Davis & Cowell, in turn, had acquired it from Frederick H. Waterman, who had purchased the land in the 1870s, but never actually used it for anything. Now the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company wanted to try and do something with it, but accessing the tract was nearly impossible. They finally decided in 1902 to attempt to use a skid road that worked in tandem with a cable winch to control the descent of logs down from Waterman Gap. A steam donkey was installed at the logging camp at the bottom of the ridge, and it was at this time that the site finally became known as Waterman Switch, since it was where logs arriving from Waterman Creek were transferred to waiting flatcars for processing. The operation proved too costly and the company finally went bust in early 1903, prematurely ending the operations along the ridge.

Lumbermen posing for the camera near the mill on Waterman Creek, 1905. [Derek R. Whaley]

In February 1903, the disparate lumber companies of the San Lorenzo Valley consolidated to form a new collective: the California Timber Company. This new firm had several goals, but their primary function was to more effectively harvest the timber on Waterman Creek. While one crew cut a new road to the mill from Waterman Switch, another worked to transfer the machinery of an old mill from Bear Creek to Waterman Creek. Within a few months, the mill was ready to cut timber into lumber. A large logging camp arose at Waterman Gap alongside the millpond. The mill itself achieved a capacity of 60,000 board feet of lumber per day via its 125 workers. After cutting the timber, lumber was carted down the wagon road to Waterman Switch, where it was loaded onto flatcars and taken to Boulder Creek for transfer to Southern Pacific Railroad trains.

The California Timber Company Mill along Waterman Creek, c. 1910. [Santa Cruz Museum & Art & History]

The mill at Waterman Gap continued to operate for a decade, enduring the 1906 Earthquake and establishing a record for most timber cut in the San Lorenzo River in one day at 109,441 board feet. Waterman Creek and the other tributaries of Pescadero Creek owned by the lumber company were finally logged out in 1913, at which point the California Timber Company moved onto other ventures. The tracks to Waterman Switch remained in place for several more years, eventually being scrapped in 1917. In 1924, Santa Cruz County annexed the logging road and eventually upgraded it during the Great Depression to support automotive traffic. It became the northernmost portion of State Route 9 within Santa Cruz County soon after the end of World War II. In 1947, the county briefly considered converting the area around Waterman Switch into a reservoir to supply Santa Cruz with water, but the Newell Creek watershed was ultimately chosen instead leading to the creation of Loch Lomond. The state eventually purchased the area of Waterman Switch in 2004 to create a trail link between Big Basin Redwoods State Park and Castle Rock State Park via the old Saratoga Toll Road, which also passes through the area.

Location of Waterman Switch. [Google Maps]

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
37.2078N, 122.1434W

The site of Waterman Switch is legally accessible to the public. It can be visited along the Saratoga Toll Road near the southern end of Castle Rock State Park. The toll road is marked by a train-shaped mailbox and a gated road. Unfortunately, parking is at a premium in this area and the sharp turn of the old wagon road creates a dangerous area for pedestrians. Once beyond the gate, continue for 1/8-mile down the old toll road. At the site of Waterman Switch is a kiosk that has some out-of-date information printed on it. The Dougherty Extension Railroad right-of-way through this area is still visible, especially when heading south from beside the train-shaped mailbox. Any relics of the Waterman Switch operation itself are no longer visible except for the right-of-way. Along Waterman Creek, it is unknown whether any remnants of the mill remain, though an extant log dam continues to block the stream according to the "Pescadero-Butano Watershed Assessment: Final Report" of March 5, 2004, although this may likely be from later activities along the creek.

Citations & Credits:

• Clark, Donald Thomas. Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographic Dictionary. Second edition. Scotts Valley, CA: Kestrel Press, 2008.
• Hamman, Rick. California Central Coast Railways. Second edition. Santa Cruz: Otter B Books, 2002.
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA, 2015.

Freight Stops: McGaffigan Switch

The Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company would not have found the success it did without the careful supervision of Patrick J. McGaffigan, who served as superintendent the company's operations north of Boulder Creek for a decade. McGaffigan, in addition to his skills as a manager, also became a relative of the Dougherty family through his daughter, Angeline B. McGaffigan, who married William James Dougherty, Jr., in 1897. As superintendent, McGaffigan was constantly on the move with timber crews, overseeing the cutting of specific groves and the loading of timber onto rolling stock for transport for the mill. As the tracks wound up the San Lorenzo Valley past the mill beginning in 1890, McGaffigan found it inconvenient to live so far from the site of the logging activities.

He settled on a site 1.5 miles to the north of the mill that sat on a small hill that overlooked the Dougherty Extension Railroad tracks. Due to the heavy logging in the area, McGaffigan's home could probably look all the way south to the mill and quite a distance to the north, allowing him a good view of the activities over which he superintended. Although there are no surviving photographs of his home, descriptions of it suggest an elaborate and expansive Victorian-style house easily visible to anybody in the area. The fame of the home as a waypoint along the railroad and the likely presence of a short spur below the home gave the location the name McGaffigan Switch.

The site, though, probably served a dual purpose, at least initially. When the track was first extended in 1890, it may have terminated at or near the site of McGaffigan Switch and served as the Dougherty mill's first logging camp. There is certainly enough space for such a camp at the site, which today is a narrow meadow along the west bank of the San Lorenzo River. The next location that could have functioned as a logging camp is Waterman Switch, which was not established for several more years, giving further credence to the idea that a logging camp was here. As with many logging camps, especially along railroad lines, the camp probably hosted a small shingle mill to process timber that was either too small to cut into lumber or had broken during felling. This would provide an explanation for the current name of the road through the area: McGaffigan Mill Road.

Direct logging operations at McGaffigan Switch were fairly short-lived. Logging crews relocated their primary logging camp to Waterman Switch around 1897 and probably moved the shingle mill to the new camp at this time. While it is unclear whether McGaffigan continued as superintendent after 1897, both he and his son, James, remained at the home for several more years.  The fate of the property after they left is unclear, but it seems to have been demolished by the time the San Lorenzo Park subdivision was established in 1932. The railroad tracks were removed no later than 1917, although they went out of use around 1914 when the California Timber Company ceased operations above Waterman Switch. Patrick McGaffigan died in 1917 at his home in San Francisco.

A rusting narrow-gauge rail sitting behind a property along the former right-of-way at McGaffigan Switch, 2013.
[Derek R. Whaley]

The site developed into San Lorenzo Park, a small subdivision laid out by R. J. Dillon in 1932. It consisted of small private cottages, a service station, a general store, and a swimming hole. Unfortunately, Dillon failed to file proper paperwork and the subdivision reverted to Isaiah Hartman, who subsequently transferred the property to the Wood Brothers. The Woods developed the park and sold lands, but the subdivision never thrived, partially due to the economic conditions of the Great Depression and partially due to the remoteness of the locale.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
37.1955N, 122.1466W

The site of McGaffigan's Switch is easy to find. It is located along McGaffigan Mill Road along State Route 9 roughly 5.5 miles north of Boulder Creek on the west side of the road. Notably, it is the last road before drivers enter Castle Rock State Park. Few relics of the railroad or mill survive. Along the former right-of-way, which is only accessible from behind a home, a few rails still sit stacked alongside a shallow cut. Otherwise, the road itself sits atop the railroad route, burying any remnants. The precise location of the shingle mill is unknown. While the road is public, the homes remain private properties and trespassing is not advised.

Citations & Credits:

• Clark, Donald Thomas. Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographic Dictionary. Scotts Valley, CA: Kestrel Press, 2008.
• Hamman, Rick. California Central Coast Railroads. Santa Cruz: Otter B Books, 2002.
• McCarthy, Nancy F. When Grizzlies Roamed the Canyons. Palo Alto, CA: Garden Court Press, 1994.
• Robinson, Lisa A. Images of America: The San Lorenzo Valley. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2012.
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA, 2015.

Freight Stops: Chase Lumber Company Mill on Feeder Creek

A mile beyond the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company mill on the San Lorenzo River and five miles north of Boulder Creek, James B. Sinnott owned a homestead. When he first moved there in the mid-1880s, he probably cut down the redwood groves and sent them downriver either on the flume or on skid roads to Boulder Creek for processing into lumber. Afterwards, he established "Sky Ranch," upon which he likely raised some cattle and horses. Very little is known of the Sinnott family of Sky Ranch, but members of it remained there into the 1920s. The property itself was leased in the late 1880s to the business partners Peery & Steen to harvest lumber.

In 1889, when the Dougherty Extension Railroad was lengthened for the first time beyond Doughertys, the route encountered Sinnott's ranch. An agreement between the lumber company and Sinnott was struck allowing the railroad tracks to pass through a corner the property. The next year, the Chase Lumber Company purchased a tract of timber northwest of Sky Ranch and decided that the most feasible way to get the timber to market was to build a spur off the Dougherty Extension Railroad to the mill. The Sinnott family was once again asked to grant a right-of-way through their land and, once they allowed this, Sinnott Switch became an informal stop along the rail line marking where the Chase mill spur broke off from the main extension railroad line. There is no evidence that the Sinnotts ever used the railroad at their mill, but several members of the family were active in local lumber operations so it is possible that they used the track to get to Doughertys and Boulder Creek, possibly through an arrangement with the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company.

The Chase Mill on Feeder Creek around 1895, showing the main structure in the back, a tramway at right, and the spur tracks somewhat obscured at left with a lumber car parked in the background. [Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History]

The Chase Lumber Company was a local firm run by Stephen H. Chase, who had been active in the area for longer than the Dougherty brothers. He began with a small lumber mill near the Summit in 1863, the first operation in the Santa Cruz Mountains to haul its lumber to San José. The success of the venture prompted Chase to expand operations and build a planing mill in San José. One of his new mills was erected on Boulder Creek in 1884, which gave him a better idea of the San Lorenzo Valley logging industry as a whole. He initially used Bear Creek Road to ship his lumber, but switched to using the Felton & Pescadero Railroad when it was completed in 1885. The next year, he founded S. H. Chase & Company and, in 1889, he bought space in Santa Cruz for a lumber yard, thereby entering the competitive Santa Cruz market against Frederick A. Hihn, the Grovers, the Loma Prieta Lumber Company, and Cunningham & Company. To support this increased business, Chase purchased from Cunningham & Company several parcels near the headwaters of Feeder Creek five miles north of Boulder Creek.

Google Map showing the rough route of the Chase Mill Spur, with
Sinnott's Switch at bottom and the Chase Mill at top. [Google Maps]

In 1891, Chase reincorporated as the Chase Lumber Company and began construction of the mill alongside the installation of a one-mile-long spur along the south bank of Feeder Creek from Sinnott Switch. Like the line it connected to, the spur was narrow-gauge and crudely made, but it did require a bridge across the San Lorenzo River, which may have been an impressive structure since the river cuts a broad and deep gulch in this section. The mill opened at the beginning of the 1892 season but shut down shortly afterwards due to a poor economic climate. In late autumn of the same year, much of the railroad trackage was destroyed in a landslide, forcing Chase to invest more in a mill that had yet to turn a profit. He decided to close the mill on Boulder Creek and turn all of his focus on the Feeder Creek mill. But profits would never come.

In 1893, a lumber racket emerged in the Bay Area which encouraged price fixing. Chase refused to join and the Southern Pacific Railroad, which was invested in the scheme, retaliated by increasing Chase's freight costs at Boulder Creek. Chase fought the racket and eventually settled out of court. In the meantime, his mill finally began to make money in the mid-1890s. At peak capacity, the mill processed 25,000 board feet of lumber per day, which amounted to five carloads. The company continued to operate along Feeder Creek until around 1899, eventually relocating its operations to a tract along Laguna Creek near Davenport, followed by a small tract along Smith Grade in Bonny Doon. In 1905, Chase sold his lumber yard in Santa Cruz to the California Timber Company and left the county permanently.

Chase died in 1915 but his son, J. A. Chase, continued to run the corporation for several more decades, albeit with a shifted focus on Northern California. The firm probably shut down in the late 1950s. The former trackage to Feeder Creek was seriously considered by Southern Pacific as a viable route to the Pescadero Creek basin until the San Francisco Earthquake in 1906 forced it to abandon all plans for future expansion in Santa Cruz County and its environs. The tracks to the mill were probably pulled around 1900 but may have lingered along with the rest of the Dougherty Extension Railroad until 1917.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:

37.1918N, 122.1525W

Almost nothing of the Chase Company mill or the spur to get to the mill survives today. The area through which the spur passed has remained uninhabited, a forgotten path on the south bank of Feeder Creek just south of Fern Drive north of Boulder Creek. Only a few cross-ties remaining visible, with most either buried or rotted away. A single piece of track stuck in a tree near the bottom of the grade is the only strong evidence remaining of the spur. The mill property is still a large block of land spanning almost all of the Feeder Creek basin and is rated for industrial use, though it is not currently being utilized for such. The junction of Feeder Creek with a smaller creek marks the rough site of the mill and some abandoned timber used in the construction of the mill still sits in disorderly piles around the site. Curiously, Google Maps records the address of the mill as 480 Chase Mill Road, despite the fact that no such road actually appears on any map. Clearly the legacy of Chase mill lives on.

Citations & Credits: 

• Hamman, Rick. California Central Coast Railways. Second edition. Santa Cruz: Otter B Books, 2002.
• "Nicholas Paul Sinnott", Monterey County: Biographies.
• Payne, Stephen Michael. "Felling the Giants", Santa Cruz Public Libraries. (From Stephen Michael Payne, A Howling Wilderness: A History of the Summit Road Area of the Santa Cruz Mountains 1850-1906, Santa Cruz: Loma Prieta Publishing, 1978).
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA, 2015.

Freight Stops: Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company Mill

The Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company was no rookie on the field in the spring of 1888. Founded in 1873 by William Patrick Dougherty with the support of his younger brother, James, the company had systematically harvested almost all of the saleable timber along the western side of Los Gatos Creek in the 1870s, after which it did the same along the upper half of Zayante Creek. But a massive fire in August 1886 destroyed the lumber mill at Zayante and forced most of the residents of the mill town to flee to other areas in the San Lorenzo Valley. The Dougherty brothers replaced the burned husk with a large shingle mill later that year, but the remaining timber was insufficient to justify a resurrection of the once-impressive lumber mill.

In the several years prior to the fire, the company had begun buying tracts of timber along the San Lorenzo River north of the flume mill (later Cunningham Mill) in areas that the San Lorenzo Valley lumber flume did not or could not reach. With sufficient lumber providers located further south along the flume, there was no reason to harvest timber north of the flume mill, so thousands of old growth redwood forest sat idle, awaiting a change in the market. The disaster at the Zayante mill finally convinced the Doughertys to relocate to this untapped area.

Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company mill north of Boulder Creek, 1895. [San Lorenzo Valley Museum]

As December 1887 approached, company workers began grading a railroad bed between the the Felton & Pescadero Railroad yard at Boulder Creek and the proposed Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company mill site four miles to the north, just below a convenient bend in the river where a dam could easily and relatively naturally be installed to create a mill pond. Most of the initial machinery for the mill was composed of surviving parts of the Zayante mill, supplemented with the newer machinery bought in late 1886 to replaced the destroyed components. These parts arrived at the new mill in May 1888, after the railroad tracks to the site were completed. Cunningham & Company, which was a sometimes partner and other times rival of the Doughertys, provided the lumber used in erecting the mill. When the mill opened on June 1, 1888, it was capable of producing up to 60,000 board feet of lumber per day. Over 100 workers, mostly foreigners, lived and worked at the mill prompting the creation of the Dougherty School in 1889. But as so often happens with sawmills in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Dougherty brothers' first mill north of Boulder Creak met a fiery end in September 1888, less than four months after opening.

1892 Sanborn Map of the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company facilities north of Boulder Creek.
[UC Santa Cruz Digital Collections]

The brothers subcontracted their orders to Cunningham & Company, which reaped great profits during the following year, although this unexpected influx of money led to the company's overextension and collapse during the recession of the 1890s. Meanwhile, the Doughertys rebuilt. A new mill was operating by November but the mill did not return to full operation until the following spring. From 1889 to 1891—three seasons—the mill fulfilled its contracts and ran at capacity. And then, in October 1891, the mill burned down for a second time. By this point, Cunningham & Company had moved its operations to Santa Cruz so the Santa Clara Mill & Lumber Company simply purchased the recently-vacated mill of its rival and relocated it to the north. As the 1890s recession receded in the mid-1890s, the Doughertys began increasing productions and improving facilities, reaching a daily capacity of 50,000 board feet.

This third and final mill is well documented by two Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. The main track of the Dougherty Extension Railroad, which originally terminated at the mill, eventually continued north on the east side of the main mill. Two spurs, however, broke off to terminate in front of the mill, while four tramways also ran from the mill in order to shuttle lumber onto stacks. A third spur crossed the San Lorenzo River to the west of the mill and wrapped around the entire facility, reuniting with the main track north of the mill. It was along a short branch of this spur that the Doughertys installed an engine house for their single locomotive, the former Santa Cruz & Felton locomotive popularly nicknamed the Dinky (originally the Felton). Photograph evidence also confirms that another spur broke off from the mainline north of the mill at terminated a short distance to the east behind the employee cook house. This may have been where the locomotive's water tower was installed.

1908 Sanborn Map showing the California Timber Company facilities north of Boulder Creek in their final years.
[UC Santa Cruz Digital Collections]

Doughertys, as the mill and surrounding settlement became known, reached its peak in the late 1890s, although William Dougherty never lived to see this having died in 1894. His brother, James, and Henry L. Middleton, a prominent lumber investor and Boulder Creek's de facto mayor, continued to direct the company in its final years. During this time, Doughertys became a popular tourist location, with picnickers visiting on weekends and camping in unharvested redwood groves or areas that were already in the process of recovery further to the south. As must inevitably happen, though, the timber tracts in the San Lorenzo Valley were nearly all harvested by the end of the century. In 1900, the Dougherty Extension Railroad was extended to its maximum length after which time operations shifted to harvesting a tract of timber near Waterman Gap. In 1902, company's final property along Bear Creek was cut, although it is unclear if the timber from this location was processed at Doughertys or in Boulder Creek. James Dougherty's death in July 1900 signalled the spiritual end of operations, even if they limped along for two more seasons.

In 1903, the Dougherty widows, Middleton, and Loma Prieta Lumber Company chief investor Timothy Hopkins consolidated most of the remaining lumber operations north of Boulder Creek into a new firm titled the California Timber Company. The company quickly packaged up most of the mill's machinery and hauled it far up Bear Creek to a tributary called Deer Creek, which they harvested for several more years. Meanwhile, the remains of Doughertys sat mostly vacant. Some former employees continued to live in their cottages while just to the north, plans were put in place to found a new subdivision named Driftwood, centered around James Dougherty's former home of the same name. The venture proved fleeting, though, and the most of the remaining residents moved elsewhere. The railroad tracks through the site continued to be used by workers at the Pescadero mill until the end of 1913, after which the school shut down and the track was pulled for scrap. Despite several attempts to start a subdivision there, none succeeded for over two decades.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
37.1714N, 122.1397W

The area of Doughertys eventually became the subdivision known as Riverside Grove, established in May 1935. It is accessible off of State Route 9 from Teilh Drive. The mill site itself is south of Riverside Grove, located at the end of Either Way off of Teilh. No signs of the mill or railroad track remains in the immediate vicinity due to subsequent residential developments. A reminder of logging days remains with "Lake Street" sitting along the former site of the log pond. Some property lines also still hint at the railroad's right-of-way, although the right-of-way is otherwise difficult to discern in this area.

Citations & Credits:

• Hamman, Rick. California's Central Coast Railways. Second edition. Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2002.
• Robinson, Lisa A. Images of America: The San Lorenzo Valley. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Press, 2012.
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA, 2015.