Stations: Molino

The Southern Pacific Railroad did not employ the most creative naming scheme on its Loma Prieta Branch. Three stations have Spanish names, three are descriptive, and one is named after a property owner. Molino was no exception: a Spanish name describing a place, specifically a mill. However, Molino lived two lives, once in the mid-1880s and again from 1911. In both cases, it was often called Molino Junction since it marked the place where a spur line broke off from the branch line, initially to access the shingle mill of the Pacific Improvement Company situated on a small rocky floodplain, later the site of the Loma Prieta Lumber Company’s main mill.

The only known photograph of Molino in its first iteration, showing the Loma Prieta Branch to the left and the shingle mill spur to the right, with no facilities other than a station sign, circa 1885. [Courtesy Timothy Hopkins Collection, Stanford University – colorized using MyHeritage]

The site of Molino was first reached by Loma Prieta Railroad construction crews around August 1883, making it the oldest station on the line. Crews divided their focus at Molino, with the main force of men working on the branch line and a smaller force grading a 320-foot-long spur across Aptos Creek to the shingle mill, located on the property of Timothy Hopkins. No railroad documentation of the station from this period survives, but supporting evidence strongly suggests that it was officially recognized by the Southern Pacific Railroad when it took direct control over the route in 1884. A single photograph taken about 1885 shows a large sign marking the station, but no other facilities.

The shingle mill on the Molino spur, 1884. [Courtesy California State Library – colorized using MyHeritage]

During its lifetime, the spur leading from Molino was in constant year-round use. The shingle mill was the largest such operation in the county’s history to date. Daily operations were overseen by Frank Simmons on behalf of the Loma Prieta Lumber Company. The facility ran day and night throughout 1885, which was unusual at the time, and it produced around fourteen million shingles that year. The mill was supported by a meandering narrow-gauge railroad that ran south, crisscrossing Aptos Creek several times until reaching the edge of the southern edge of Rancho Soquel Augmentation, near today’s steel bridge over the creek.

Everything changed for Molino following a disastrous fire at the Loma Prieta Lumber Company’s primary lumber mill further down the line at Monte Vista on May 13, 1885. Rather than rebuild, the company decided to relocate its mill south to the site of the shingle mill. Preparation of the site commenced in spring 1886 and work on a new dam across Aptos Creek began in August under the direction of Kinsman Brothers of San Francisco. New trackage were built from Molino to the mill site, and the equipment from the old mill was moved in the winter after the year’s lumber operations had ended. By the time the new mill opened in spring 1887, Molino had vanished as a recognized station, though nothing had actually changed at the station’s site. The switch remained and the sign likely survived for many more years, though it was gone by the late 1900s. The location never appeared on timetables or in station books during these years, though it was often included on maps, including those published by third parties.

Southern Pacific Railroad radii survey of the Loma Prieta Branch from Molino to Loma Prieta, circa 1908. [Courtesy California State Library]

The longevity of the name Molino proved itself when it was incorporated into the name of the Molino Timber Company in 1910. In June 1911, the station reappeared as a formal station and was finally included in official Southern Pacific documentation. Curiously, Molino was listed with a 156-foot-long spur, a feature not present in the area immediately around the switch. This suggests that the station may have expanded to encompass a larger area stretching as far as 0.25 miles to the south, where logging activity continued even as the Loma Prieta Lumber Company wound down operations at its Aptos Creek mill.

In the spring of 1901, German immigrant and Aptos farmer Lorenz Schilling and his son John took out a contract from Timothy Hopkins to cut timber along the tracks south of Molino. Although all of the surrounding area had been harvested seventeen years earlier, the trees lining the Loma Prieta Branch had been allowed to remain standing due to a dream by Southern Pacific’s investors that Loma Prieta would one day host a prosperous mountain resort. In hindsight and with the commercial potential of the Loma Prieta Branch reaching its end, it became clear to the railroad that any chance for a profitable tourism industry on the line had passed. As a result, the remaining trees were marked for felling.

Mules hauling wood at the Schillings' camp, circa 1903. [Courtesy Aptos History Museum – colorized using MyHeritage]

The Schillings owned a pack of mules and used them to haul out splitstuff, which they cut where the trees fell. To support the operation, they built a workers’ camp beside the railroad tracks in a clearing south of Molino on the other side of a cut. It included a blacksmith shop, cabins, a cookhouse, a barn and hay store, and a supply shed. On the west side of the tracks across from the camp, Lorenz and John each built a cabin for himself and his family, where each lived for the next four years. Drinking water was provided from a pipeline extended from the village of Loma Prieta, with Spring Creek its ultimate source. The railroad built a short spur on the east side of the branch line into the camp so flatcars could be loaded without interrupting traffic continuing north. The operation at the Schillings’ camp ran through the summer of 1904. The spur track was left in place after the family closed shop.

Molino with dual-gauged tracks, circa 1915. [Composite of three photographs, courtesy Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, the Woods Mattingly Collections at the Aptos History Museum, and Santa Cruz Public Libraries – colorized using MyHeritage]

The Molino Timber Company converted the abandoned camp in late 1910 into a construction camp for making flatcars for its narrow-gauge railroad that ran along China Ridge. As a result, the location also served as the company’s southern end of track, though the standard-gauge tracks continued to Aptos. When the company was running at its peak in the mid-1910s, piles of splitstuff were stacked along either side of the tracks for nearly a mile north of the camp. This was never the intention, but market fluctuations and varying yields of splitstuff meant sometimes the supply far outstripped demand, leaving these stacks of unpurchased product waiting for a buyer. Molino Timber Company crews unloaded their freight and stacked it in such a way that it could be easily loaded onto a Southern Pacific flatcar whenever an order arrived. While this process led to double handling, it allowed the company to free up its small fleet of custom-made narrow-gauge flatcars quickly and avoided the need for a lumber yard, since most freight shipped out directly to customers via Southern Pacific.

Splitstuff stacked along the Loma Prieta Branch, circa 1915. [Courtesy Aptos History Museum – colorized using MyHeritage]

Although the Molino Timber Company ceased working on China Ridge in late 1917 and went out of business completely at the end of 1919, Molino continued to be used by the Loma Prieta Lumber Company in its logging operations along Bridge Creek. It produced a mixture of lumber and splitstuff, which allowed the company to process felled timber more efficiently. To save money, the company acquired the narrow-gauge rolling stock of the Molino Timber Company, supplementing it with a second locomotive and more flatcars. This meant that the bridge over Aptos Creek at Molino had to be dual-gauged to allow the narrow-gauge trains to reach the mill, which the company rebuilt to support this new project. For five summers from 1917, lumber crews cut down every accessible redwood tree standing on either side of Bridge Creek and its tributaries. And then, sometime in the middle of the summer of 1921, the last tree was cut and fellers found themselves without anything to do. The lumber company was done with the Aptos Forest once and for all, and all that was left was to clean up.

A mule team beside piles of splitstuff at the former Schillings' camp, circa 1919. [Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

In an abstract way, Molino became the most important station on the Loma Prieta Branch after 1921. There was no point in continuing along the branch line to Loma Prieta, and the tracks beyond had been abandoned years earlier. The extremely limited traffic that ran on the line—mostly a rail speeder car operated by the property’s caretaker—only stopped at the mill site, accessible on the spur that split off at Molino. In 1925, Southern Pacific announced the end of all official service to the line, effective January 31, 1926. The Loma Prieta Lumber Company used this opportunity to remove the last of the uncut timber, lumber, and splitstuff from the mill property, as well as the usable machinery and other equipment still stored there. Molino was abandoned at the same time as the rest of the branch on February 19, 1928. The station’s site is still accessible today and can be found where the Loma Prieta Grade Trail separates from the Aptos Creek Fire Road within The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park. The site of the Shillings’ camp and its spur is now the Porter Family Picnic Area.

Citations & Credits:

• Gilbert, M. E., ed. Santa Cruz County: A Faithful Reproduction in Print and Photography: Climate, Capabilities and Beauties. San Francisco: H. S. Crocker Company, 1896.
• Hamman, Rick. California Central Coast Railways. Second edition. Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2002.
• Interstate Commerce Commission. Finance Docket No. 6615 "Abandonment of Branch Line by Southern Pacific." January 20, 1928.
• Powell, Ronald G. The Reign of the Lumber Barons: Part Two of the History of Rancho Soquel Augmentation. Santa Cruz, CA: Zayante Publishing, 2021.
• Powell, Ronald G. The Shadow of Loma Prieta: Part Three of the History of Rancho Soquel Augmentation. Santa Cruz, CA: Zayante Publishing, 2022.
• Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Miscellaneous records. 1887–1930.
• Various articles from the Santa Cruz Evening News, Santa Cruz Sentinel, and Watsonville Pajaronian. 1883–1912.

Stations: Newell Junction

When Addison Newell established his homestead along a remote tributary of the San Lorenzo River in 1867, he likely did not anticipate how long his name would be remembered. Indeed, he did not stay long in the area. In 1875, he sold the property and moved away, leaving his name to the little tributary stream, Newell Creek. Soon afterwards, the San Lorenzo Valley Flume & Lumber Company erected its v-flume up the valley. At Newell Creek, it installed a feeder flume to keep the water flowing in the main flume on its way to Felton. The area around this junction became a gathering point for local residents when a school was established near here as Newell Creek School in 1876. By 1881, the area also supported a shingle and box mill operated by John Peter Houck, an operation that would at times lend the name "Shingle Springs" to Newell Creek.

The Felton & Pescadero Railroad changed the situation at and for Newell Creek. Demolishing the flume, the railroad erected a line to Boulder Creek that had to cross Newell Creek before reaching Pacific Mills (Ben Lomond). In fact, Newell Creek was its first major fluvial crossing. Because of the nearby school, the railroad established a siding at Newell Creek that was appropriately named the Newell Creek School House Siding. Whether the siding was actually used to shuttle in nearby school children or was used for freight is unknown. When the Southern Pacific Railroad took over in 1887, Newell Creek did not appear on its timetables and its very status during this period remains unclear.

The passenger shelter at Newell Junction, c. 1920. [The Valley Press]

In 1891, Newell Creek reappeared in Southern Pacific station books as a freight stop. By 1895, a platform and spur were also available at the stop. This likely reflected the future plans of the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company, which increasingly owned the entirety of the Newell Creek valley, which included hundreds of acres of prime old-growth redwood. By 1902, Newell Creek was the only significant watershed in the San Lorenzo Valley that had not been harvested. But that soon changed.

The California Timber Company succeeded the Santa Clara Valley Mill & Lumber Company in 1903 and it shifted operations from above Boulder Creek to Newell Creek. To support this venture, the Southern Pacific Railroad constructed one of its shortest branch lines, the 1.5-mile-long Newell Creek Branch, which ran between Newell Creek and the Newell Mill. Because the Boulder Creek Branch was scheduled for broad-gauging, the Newell Creek Branch was built dual-gauge. This not only allowed for it to be upgraded immediately, but it made it easier for the California Timber Company's narrow-gauge trains to use the mill trackage efficiently.

Newell Creek station became Newell Junction in 1908, once standard-gauging was completed, and it retained this name for the remainder of its existence. Around this same time, a small shelter was installed beside the switch to allow passengers to flag passing trains. This shelter was identical to the one at Brackney. Whether a freight platform remained after standard-gauging is unknown, but it seems unlikely since the spur at Newell Junction was removed at this time.

As a functioning branch line, the Newell Creek Branch ceased all or most operations by 1913, although the tracks remained in place until 1920, when the branch was decommissioned. Nonetheless, Newell Junction retained its name as a junction, despite the branch having disappeared. A remnant of the branch remained as a spur until 1930, although the purpose of this spur is unknown. The station remained available as a flag-stop until the end of passenger service at the end of 1930, after which the entire line only serviced freight. The Boulder Creek Branch was abandoned on January 25, 1934, at which time Newell Junction ceased to exist. The fate of the station shelter and sign remains unknown.

The approximate location of Newell Junction today. [Google Street View]

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
Approx. 37.0838N, 122.0815W

The site of Newell Junction is at the bottom of Newell Creek Road at its junction with Glen Arbor Road, although it is unclear where precisely the shelter was located. The Boulder Creek Branch right-of-way parallels Glen Arbor Road to the south and west in this area, while Newell Creek Road closely matches or parallels the route of the former Newell Creek Branch. No remnant of Newell Junction survives, but Addison Newell's legacy continues through street names and Newell 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, CA: Otter B Books, 2002.
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA, 2015.

Stations: Riverside

When the Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad arrived in Felton in 1875, it was situated on the west bank of the San Lorenzo River. On the east bank, the area was mostly just pasture land—former forest harvested decades earlier by Isaac Graham's logging crews during the days of Mexican California. By 1873, the plot of land beside the river ford was owned by John S. Hager, who decided to build a picnic ground in the low flat created at the confluence of Zayante Creek and the river. In 1881, the location was named Camp Felton, just in time for the arrival of the Felton & Pescadero Railroad, the right-of-way for which passed directly beside the picnic area.

On June 17, 1880, the Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel published a short commentary noting the merits of the area as a picnic grounds:

Within a few hundred yards of Felton, just across the San Lorenzo and between it and the Zayante, lies the prettiest spot for picnics and camping parties on the whole San Lorenzo. It has been used by the people of Felton to picnic at for many years, and the grove has been partially cleared of underbrush, avenues and winding walks have been cut, rustic seats put in many places, tables and benches to accommodate a great many put up, a large dancing floor laid, and many other things done to make it pleasant and comfortable, but the place has been known to few besides the Feltonites. Now that the S. P. C. R. R. is in running order, picnic parties have discovered this lovely retreat, and it is occupied from a party from San Francisco numbering some two hundred, who propose to stay some time. They are very comfortably settled, having sent down in advance three car-loads of freight, with men to put up tents and arrange things for housekeeping. They have thirty four white tents among the green trees, and the camp has a very cheerful, animated look. There is a large majority of women and children during the week, but on Saturdays the husbands and fathers come down to spend Monday with their families in the quiet shades of this most beautiful grove. They spend their time hunting, fishing, bathing, gathering ferns, flowers, etc., and in visiting the different lime kilns, mills, big trees — which are only a short mile from camp — go to Santa Cruz and take a plunge in the ocean and come back on the next train.

George Treat, a prominent Felton entrepreneur and lumberman, took over Camp Felton in 1885 and helped develop it into a seasonal retreat. He advertised widely to attract seasonal campers, and the nearby Felton Station was certainly a draw. But other more appealing camping and picnic areas throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains increasingly offered more attractions. Treat leased the property to Joseph Ball in 1891, who renamed the place Maple Grove even though there were no maple trees there. It was under Ball's proprietorship that the Felton Covered Bridge was completed in 1893, allowing the residents of Felton to directly access the picnic area without needing to ford or wade through the river.

An oxen team hauling a log alongside the tracks near Maple Grove, c. 1890s. [The Valley Press]

The direct railroad history of the location begins in 1903, when the Southern Pacific Railroad added a flag-stop for the picnic area under the uninspired name River Station. This stop was intended exclusively for passengers visiting Maple Grove and it appears that no formal structures were ever installed there by the railroad. Just before the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, the stop was renamed Riverside and placed on the formal timetable, albeit without scheduled stops. Curiously, at the same time, the picnic grounds were officially renamed Felton Grove and Felton Baseball Ground, under the management of Glass and Draper. It can be assumed that the baseball diamond was installed at around this time. The station remained unchanged until the line was standard-gauged in 1908.

Felton Baseball Grounds beside the railroad right-of-way, c. 1910s. The large, shaggy tree is still standing within the parking lot of Felton Bible Church. [Vicki Wees]

The removal of the Felton Branch and its replacement with a spur across the San Lorenzo River beside the covered bridge seems to have marked the end of Riverside. In 1909, it was seemingly renamed Pettis, but the next year, that location appeared at the site of Brackney further down the Boulder Creek Branch suggesting the renaming was simply an editorial mistake. River Station and Riverside arose during a time that saw a massive expansion of excursion services and summer picnic trains throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains, so it is perhaps not surprising that it appeared when it did. However, its rapid disappearance is odd but may be tied to subsequent developments at the site.

In 1910, David and Alice Goulding were running the Felton Grove Planing Mill & Lumber Yard at or near the site, suggesting the picnic area had disappeared by this year. Little else is known about the site throughout the 1910s including whether or not the mill and yard utilized any railroad spur. Ownership may have changed hands several times, and the property itself may have been subdivided.

Felton Grove Auto Camp in the mid-1920s. [Ronnie Trubek]

Things changed dramatically on May 30, 1922, when the Felton Grove Auto Camp opened its doors on the property. No longer dependent on the railroad, the campground now catered exclusively to auto campers who came with camper trailers and tents. The resort included tennis and basketball courts, a playground for children, tent cabins for families, and scenic paths alongside the river and Zayante Creek. The San Lorenzo River was also seasonally dammed to create an impressive swimming hole just downstream from the covered bridge. In 1937, a new central building that doubled as a dance hall was erected near Felton Grove's entrance on Park Avenue.

The entrance to Felton Grove Auto Camp, 1937, with the railroad tracks to Old Felton in the foreground. [Ronnie Trubek]

Despite some minor improvements throughout the 1930s, Felton Grove Auto Camp was hit hard by the Great Depression. All formal newspaper advertising for the park appears to have ended in 1932. In 1934, the resort became a summer camp for St. Joseph's Military Academy of Belmont, who continued to use the location until at earliest 1938. A bad winter storm in 1938 severely damaged parts of the resort, but the resort reopened in May of that year with a large season-opening dance. For the remainder of the 1930s until the start of World War II, Felton Grove Resort served as a popular evening retreat for locals and visitors alike, even while the military academy students continued to camp outside each summer. Floods could not permanently sway the resolve of the resort owners and visitors. The late 1930s was the heyday of Felton Grove Resort, but then the war came and nobody had time to vacation anymore.

Felton Grove subdivision, circa 1928. The railroad right-of-way can be seen at the top of this map. [Ronnie Trubek]

World War II changed the demographics of the San Lorenzo Valley dramatically and also altered the vacation patterns of Americans. As such, small resorts such as Felton Grove could not compete with larger or more rugged campsites. By the mid-1940s, Felton Grove began evolving into a year-round residential subdivision. Amenities originally offered by the auto camp such as dancing and sporting activities continued through the 1950s, but then faded away as Felton itself evolved into the semi-rural commuter suburb that it is today.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
Approx. 37.0508N, 122.0679W

It is not entirely clear where the location of Riverside was, but it was probably near today's Felton Covered Bridge County Park or the adjacent Valero gas station, which is approximately the point where the Boulder Creek Branch crossed Graham Hill Road. In any case, there were never any structures associated with this stop and, as such, nothing of it survives to the present.

Felton Grove still does survive, although not precisely in the manner it had originally been conceived. The dance hall still sits behind the laundromat on Park Avenue. All of the original camper spots have been converted into residential properties, but terrible winter storms remind residents that the area was only ever intended for seasonal enjoyment, not year-round habitation. The former railroad right-of-way to Old Felton has since been converted into another stretch of squarish properties, but these are not formally a part of the Felton Grove subdivision and were probably parcelled off in the late 1940s.

Citations & Credits: 

• Wees, Vicki. Felton Grove, 2013.
• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA, 2015.

Carnadero

Carnadero Station on the 1939 San Juan Bautista USGS Map.

In the open fields to the south of Gilroy sits the lone remnants of a little-used railroad station that goes by the name of Carnadero. Named after a Spanish word that means either "bait maker" or "butchering place", a likely reference to a nearby tributary of the Pajaro River called Carnadero Creek (or Uvas Creek), Carnadero Station first appeared in Southern Pacific Railroad records in 1871. Early that year, the railroad completed its track through the area on its way to Hollister and Tres Piños at the southern end of the Santa Clara Valley. Soon afterwards, Carnadero Station was established as the start of a new branch line to the town of Pajaro and (eventually) to Salinas. By 1873, this route became the main line of the railroad and the route to Tres Piños became a branch.

The area around Carnadero is the former Rancho Cañada de Las Uvas (Rancho Canyon of the Grapes), originally owned in 1842 by Lorenzo Pinedo. It was later sold to Bernard Murphy and it passed to his son Martin John Charles Murphy in 1860. It was his family that still owned the land when the railroad passed through. Pinedo and Murphy were both famous for growing grapes in the region, a practice that began in the mission days. Thus if any industry operated out of Carnadero, it was probably this. In contrast, the "butchering" reference in nearby Carnadero Creek actually dates to the Portola Expedition and, therefore, predates any later land usage. Local agricultural and pastoral farms sprang up along the railroad track in the area, so it should not be surprising to find a freight platform at Carnadero in 1899. What precisely was shipped out from this point is not known, but the numerous buildings are shown to sit alongside the tracks, Carnadero Avenue, and Carnadero Creek from the 1913 to 1939 USGS survey maps. Some maps even suggest an unincorporated township resided along the state highway which was about a mile away from the station.

For many years the station saw a lot of passing trains, but by the 1930s service to the stop had all but ceased. Except for some freight and local passenger customers, the station does not appear to have attracted any significant groups. Picnickers preferred more scenic spots such as Sargent or Chittenden, while most freight customers could just as easily go to Gilroy three miles to the north. The station remained on timetables but only as a flag-stop. When the double-track was installed from Gilroy to Sargent, any siding or spur at Carnadero was removed and none is ever shown on USGS maps. The truncation of the Tres Piños Branch to Hollister in 1942 also likely reduced active traffic at the stop. Although Carnadero remains a registered station on Union Pacific Railroad timetables, it is unlikely that it receives regular customers and there are currently no facilities at the station to permit freight or passenger loading. It seems to remain a stop only because of the Hollister Branch.

Official Railroad Information:
Carnaderos was established around June 1871 along the mainline of the Southern Pacific Railroad track. In November 1871, the route to Pajaro was opened with its junction to the main line at Carnadero. In August 1873, the Pajaro route became the main line and the other route became the Tres Piños Branch (Hollister Branch from August 1942 to today). As of 1899, Carnadero had a C-class freight station, which implies a siding or a spur and a small freight platform but no formal service. The presence of a station structure at any time in its history is not known. The station was located 83.2 miles from San Francisco via San José. By 1937 a double-track running from Gilroy to Sargent passed through Carnadero, probably replacing the siding or spur that was originally there as it is no longer referenced. A phone was the only listed service at the stop and no passenger or freight stops were scheduled, although the station served as a flag-stop for all passing passenger trains. Little has changed at Carnadero since 1940 and it still remains an officially-registered Union Pacific Railroad station and the junction for the Hollister Branch.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
36.976˚N, 121.543˚W

Carnadero Station is located at the break of Carnadero Avenue, a dirt road south of Gilroy. Take the Bolsa Road exit on State Route 101 and head south on Bolsa Road—Carnadero Ave will be on the left (east). Beside the tracks is a large clearing on either side of the road and the triple-track junction of the Hollister Branch with the mainline. It is unclear what the ownership status of the surrounding property is so caution is advised. As usual, this is an active track so do not trespass on or across the tracks.

Citations & Credits:

• Nanney, Duncan. Personal correspondence.
• Robertson, Donald B. Encylopedia of Western Railroad History: Oregon, Washington. Caxton Press, 1986.

Castroville & Del Monte Junction

Castroville and Del Monte Junction on a 1915 USGS map.

As with so many things located in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, the town of Castroville owes its origins to the Spanish and Mexican periods of California history. The town is unique, though, for having a name derived from one of the most well-known local citizens, Juan Bautista Castro, yet integrating that name into a very English suffix, "ville" (as in town or village). Thus we get Castro's Village. The land for the town was sectioned off from the much larger surrounding Rancho Bolsa Nueva y Moro Cojo (New Bag and Lame Moor), which will receive a much more thorough description in the article on Moro Cojo. Juan Bautista was the son of Simeon Castro, grandson of Joaquin Castro, one of the original Spanish colonists in the area. He founded his town in 1863 in an area more or less surrounded by marshes.

The town's lots were sold at auction to anyone who could build upon them in 1870 and the Southern Pacific Railroad passed through the settlement two years later, in 1871. At the time, this was the railroad's primary route between San Francisco and Los Angeles, though in later years it would become a part of the Salinas Sub-Division of the Coast Division. At the same time, Castro became county supervisor for the region and money began trickling in to help develop the community. By 1875, the town had 900 residents operating out of two hotels, five mercantile stores, three saloons, a flour mill, two blacksmith shops, a newspaper, two churches, and many other structures. A post office was established by 1873, bolstered by the presence of the railroad. Castro hoped to attract the Southern Pacific into turning its small station into a full-fledged freight yard, but Salinas was cheaper and the railroad set-up shop there. For a time, Castroville was just another stop on the route between Gilroy and Salinas.

Castroville developed over the next century as a mostly agricultural stop, with Chinese laborers brought in early on to help in the fields and to clear out sloughs and marshes. Claus Spreckles maintained a number of sugar beet fields in the area, and used both the Southern Pacific and Pajaro Valley Consolidated Railroad to haul his goods to Watsonville or Spreckles for processing. In 1922, Andrew Molera planted artichokes in Castroville and it has since become their primary industry, known worldwide.

Castroville Station's long freight house in 1948. The hay-day of Castroville is at an end and the station is primarily a stop
along the Monterey Branch and the mainline. (Wilbur Whittaker)

The arrangement of the original station at Castroville is not known to this historian but the freight station present in 1948 is pictured above. The freight building was a long standard Southern Pacific design with a freight loading ramp on one end and the passenger depot just across from the other end. Unfortunately, photographs of the passenger station are not presently available for viewing.

Castroville served as second function beginning around 1880 when it became the new terminus for the former Monterey & Salinas Valley Railroad, which the Southern Pacific Railroad had purchased in December 1879. Southern Pacific standard-gauged it and merged it completely into its parent company in March 1888, dismantling the former track between Salinas and Bardin's.

Sometime around 1913, the popularity of the Monterey Branch, popularly known as the Del Monte Branch for the Del Monte Hotel, grew so large that the Southern Pacific renamed Castroville to "Del Monte Junction". The station reverted back to Castroville in January 1929 when most of the regular service between Castroville and Pacific Grove was replaced by bus service.

Castroville Station, abandoned and unused, c. 1980. [George Pepper]

The main customer at Castroville was always the agricultural industry, and today there is still one spur to a former local industry located near Commercial Parkway. Other spurs still exist as well, with traces of even more visible on overhead satellite views of the large freight yard. While Castroville no longer has a station structure, it does still function as a holding yard for some nearby businesses, and both a siding and a spur remain operable and in use. Meanwhile, the now spiked track to the Monterey Branch, which still exists in a disconnected state, parallels parts of Del Monte Avenue on its southern end.

Official Railroad Information:
Castroville Station was 110.4 miles from San Francisco via Gilroy and San José and 10.0 miles from Watsonville Junction. It first appeared on the earliest Southern Pacific timetables of the route. By 1899 it had full telegraph and phone service, a class-A freight depot with a platform, and a 6-siding yard with a water tower. In 1940, the yard had expanded to include over a mile of siding and spur trackage. With realignment of the tracks in the late 1940s, the station shifted to 106.5 miles from San Francisco. A wye was added to the stop around 1960. Passenger service to the stop ended prior to 1974, at which time the yard had 6,300 feet of siding and spur space.

Geo-Coordinates & Access Rights:
36˚N 45' 29.18", 121˚W 44' 38.48"

Castroville Station was located at the northeast corner of Del Monte Avenue and Blackie Road along what is now Cara Mia Parkway. The structure has since been removed. The freight yard itself parallels the entirety of Del Monte Avenue, beginning just south of where State Route 156 crosses the tracks.

Citations & Credits:

• Clovis, Margaret. Images of America: Monterey County's North Coast and Coastal Valleys. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2006.
• Rice, Walter and Emiliano Excheverria. Images of Rail: Rails of California's Central Coast. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2008.