Curiosities: Santa Cruz County's Borders

What is Santa Cruz County? It is perhaps a strange question since it seems easy to answer: Santa Cruz County is an administrative division on the California coast surrounded by Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara, and San Mateo Counties. But this is the status of the county today. Two of those counties did not exist when California became a state in 1850, and before statehood there were no counties at all! The development of Santa Cruz as a county and its changing borders over the past 175 years are the result of changing politics, culture, business, and many other factors. The origins of Santa Cruz County date back to the origin of Santa Cruz itself, when it was little more than a Spanish colonial outpost on the edge of a globe-spanning empire. 

"Ground plan of [Mission Santa Cruz] and surroundings kindly supplied by General Vallejo," ca 1878. [Courtesy Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley]

Santa Cruz began as Mission Santa Cruz when it was first established by a Franciscan missionary group led by Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén on August 28, 1791. The name itself—meaning Holy Cross—was adopted by Father Juan Crespí on October 18, 1769 as the designation for a creek (now known as Majors Creek) that flowed from Trés Ojos on Mission Hill into Neary Lagoon. At the mission, the Franciscans established a small community of monks and neophytes (Native Americans forcibly removed from their villages and converted to Christianity) that encompassed the Mission Orchard and Potrero to the north, Mission Hill and the flood plain below, and the West Side. On the east side of the San Lorenzo River, meanwhile, a Spanish invalidos (retired soldiers) pueblo known as Branciforte was established by Governor Diego de Borica in 1797. This name came from Miguel de la Grua Talamanco, Marqués de Branciforte, Viceroy of New Spain. The colony had no center and sprawled to the southeast to encompass around a dozen large unrecognized private properties.

"Map of City of Santa Cruz," 1933, by the California Pacific Title Company. [Courtesy Antique Maps Inc.]

When California became a state on September 9, 1850, both Santa Cruz and Branciforte remained distinct. Santa Cruz had ceased to be a monastic community following Mexican land reforms in the 1830s and as such much of its land had been given or sold to various families. By the 1840s, the land on both sides of the river had fallen into private ownership and a crude commercial zone had emerged around the old mission on the Upper Plaza. Following statehood, the commercial district shifted to the Lower Plaza below Mission Hill near the junction of Main Street and Willow Street (now Front Street and Pacific Avenue). On the East Side, commercial and industrial progress was slower with businesses gradually arising along Ocean Street, Soquel Avenue, Water Street, and Broadway. The only notable property development in Branciforte during this period was the establishment of Camp Alhambra, later Seabright, around 1880 as a seaside resort. It was only in 1905 that the area east of the river joined the City of Santa Cruz.

Excerpt from "A Map of the United States of Mexico," 1826, by Henry Schenck Tanner. [Courtesy California State University, Monterey Bay]

For its first 59 years of existence, Santa Cruz was not a recognized political entity. Mission Santa Cruz, like all of the California missions, was a decentralized area bounded only by the vague spheres of influence expressed by the surrounding missions at San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Juan, and Carmel. California went through several different administrative arrangements in the Spanish and Mexican periods but Santa Cruz always remained a part of Alta California, or Upper California, and under whichever governorship that territory fell. Neither the government of New Spain nor Mexico established counties and most daily governance was handled by alcaldes (combination mayor and sheriff) for the pueblos and head priests for the missions. Military affairs were handled from presidios at San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Diego. Not long after the Spanish government definitively fell to the Mexican government in 1821, monastic institutions were dissolved and land was granted by the governor to private individuals across Alta California. About a third of modern Santa Cruz County was divided into land grants, mostly arranged along the coast. On paper, all of these were beholden to the nearest alcalde for judicial matters but there was little enforcement in this wild northern frontier of Mexico.

Santa Cruz Fourth of July reenactment #2, ca 1875, Romanzo Wood [Courtesy California State University, Chico – colorized using MyHeritage]

Statehood changed everything for Santa Cruz. As host to both a former mission and pueblo, it had a surprisingly large pre-Gold Rush population compared to many other settlements in the state. By this point, several people of America, British, German, French, and even Russian nationality had settled in the county with many marrying into the settled Californio population. To these was added a massive influx of failed gold miners who swarmed into the county as early as 1849 and continued to increase the population over the next decade. Like all states of the United States, California chose to arrange itself by counties. As the territorial government began to organize the state, it initially planned to include Santa Cruz as part of Monterey County since the area's population was only 640 individuals at the time. A group of 19 California residents protested, citing the difficulty of travelling to Monterey from Santa Cruz and the different interest of the two areas. Thus, when the final 27 counties were agreed on February 18, 1850, Branciforte County was created separate from Monterey. Yet again people protested, arguing that the county seat was in Santa Cruz so it made no sense to name the county after the pueblo. The territorial government acceded to the request and renamed it Santa Cruz County on April 5, 1850. California formally became a state on September 9, 1850.

Skyland on the Santa Cruz–Santa Clara County line, ca 1925 [Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

While the name was agreed upon, the boundaries of Santa Cruz County have remained a point of contention ever since. Boundaries generally follow either ridgelines or waterways, whenever possible, and for Santa Cruz County it was entirely possible since the county was isolated between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The ridgeline, therefore, made a lot of sense as the inland boundary and it was established along what is today Skyline Boulevard, Summit Road, Loma Prieta Avenue/Way, and Mt Madonna Road. But waterways as borders make less sense since the peoples on either side of the river or creek often interact regularly. Thus, a major problem quickly became apparent that was not necessarily visible on the concept maps drawn up by the territorial officials in San José: where to draw the northern and southern boundaries of the county?

Map of California, from G. W. Colton, Colton's Atlas of the World (New York: J. H. Colton & Company, 1856).

The petition made in January 1850 had requested that the southern boundary essentially begin in the Gabilan Mountains west of San Juan and continue southwest in a roughly straight line until reaching the vicinity of Moss Landing. This would have placed the entire lower Pajaro Valley, including the area south of the river encompassing modern Pajaro, Aromas, and Las Lomas—about 25,000 acres—within Santa Cruz County. For the northern boundary, the petitioners suggested Point Año Nuevo as the northern boundary, with the line following the ridge to the top of the range. The government rejected both of these boundaries. To the south, the officials illogically drew the line down the middle of the Pajaro River, a body of water that was known for its periodic course changes. To the north, they overshot Año Nuevo completely and continued all the way to San Gregorio Creek, which was followed east until reaching its shared headwaters with San Francisquito Creek (the top of modern-day Page Mill Road). This boundary and the rest of San Francisquito Creek formed the southern boundary of San Francisco County, with Santa Clara County sharing the entire border of Santa Cruz County to the east and Monterey County to the south. The northern area, therefore, encompassed Pescadero, Pigeon Point, and Año Nuevo, as well as several other small coastal and mountain communities.

"Map of the Southern Part of the Rancho Punta Del Año Nuevo, San Mateo County, California," surveyed by W.B. Treadwell and published March 1869. [Courtesy Antique Maps Inc.]

This was the state of the county for nearly two decades...and nobody at the edges liked it. To the north, the area immediately north of Waddell Creek caused endless headaches for people attempting to travel to Santa Cruz to conduct business. For many years there was no formal road here and travelers had to take the beach, which was uncrossable during high tide, storms, rain, or any other number of situations. The same slide activity that impacts that area today also made it treacherous then. In 1861, William Waddell built between his mill on Waddell Creek and the cove southeast of New Years Point, but it was expensive to maintain and not easily used in the winter months. The solution was obvious—separate the inaccessible part of Santa Cruz County and add it to another county that could more easily reach it. In 1856, San Mateo County had been formed out of the southern part of San Francisco County. Listening to petitions from Pescadero residents, the state transferred everything north of the southern border of Rancho Punto del Año Nuevo to San Mateo County on March 16, 1868, taking from Santa Cruz County approximately 90,000 acres of territory. Despite the border being quite clear legally, mapmakers for several more decades often included New Years Point within Santa Cruz County and it also remained the name of the northernmost polling station into the late 1890s.

Map of the Town of Watsonville, 1860, surveyed by James T. Stratton. [Courtesy Santa Cruz GIS]

To the south, farmers in north Monterey County were angry that they had to travel into a different county to sell their goods. While most of the arable land in the Pajaro Valley is within Santa Cruz County, a small portion along the south bank of the Pajaro River running from the vicinity of Aromas to the river mouth is also fertile land. Yet in the 1850s and 1860s, the best port in the Monterey Bay was at Santa Cruz, with additional fair-weather ports at Aptos, Soquel, and Davenport Landing. The only real alternatives for Pajaro Valley residents were Hudson's Landing, an unreliable tidal wharf near the northern headwaters of Elkhorn Slough, or the wharf at Moss Landing. Transportation across the Pajaro River could be quite difficult during the winter and spring, when high water levels made fording the river impossible. Ferries and bridges were attempted in the 1860s with the first permanent structure erected in 1868. Three years later, in 1871, the Southern Pacific Railroad reached the small settlement of Pajaro on the south side of the Pajaro River across from Watsonville.

The Santa Cruz local meets the main Coast Division commuter train at Watsonville Junction, ca 1918 [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

The arrival of the railroad in northern Monterey County occurred at the precise moment that citizens of Watsonville were agitating to move the county seat south, where the county was most accessible to the outside world via roads across Hecker Pass and through the hamlet of Chittenden, and south down the Salinas Valley. The railroad made the point even more clear that Watsonville was the gateway to Santa Cruz County. Yet to achieve their goal, they knew they needed to annex the rest of the Pajaro Valley. It was certainly not a new idea. In 1856, residents of the Pajaro Valley on both sides of the river, as well as people around Gilroy (the upper Pajaro Valley) and San Juan, petitioned the government to create a new county, with San Juan as the county seat. The legislature was unimpressed and the idea was rejected.

Southern Pacific Railroad tracks passing through Chittenden near the southeastern county line, ca 1900 [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

In the aftermath of the failed secession scheme, Santa Cruz County was more unified than ever before or after. While some still campaigned for annexation of the valley or secession to Monterey or Santa Clara County, others decided the best option was to convince the San Francisco & San Jose Railroad to extend its track to Watsonville. In 1867, wealthy men from both leading towns of the county joined forced to incorporate the California Coast Railroad, which they hoped would connect Watsonville to Gilroy, where the newly-formed Southern Pacific Railroad planned to run its first line. Indeed, in 1869 that came closer to reality when the Santa Clara & Pajaro Valley Railroad, a subsidiary, extended the track to Gilroy putting a spur of the transcontinental route within reach. Before the partners could act, though, Southern Pacific incorporated the California Southern Railroad in 1870 and began buying land along a right-of-way to Watsonville. The next year, Southern Pacific extended a branch line from its mainline to Hollister to Pajaro. The move, while welcomed, was an insult to the people of Santa Cruz County since the railroad only entered the county briefly at Chittenden before crossing into Monterey (now San Benito) County. It was for this reason that many in Santa Cruz lost faith in Southern Pacific and began organising their own railroads. But the people of Watsonville quickly decided that they did in fact have a railroad, and they had no need for a separate one to Santa Cruz.

Excerpt from "Official Map of Monterey County, California," 1898, surveyed by Lou G. Hare. [Courtesy Library of Congress]

The establishment of San Benito County from the northeastern section of Monterey County on February 12, 1874 as well as the start of construction on the Santa Cruz Railroad around the same time led to a panic among Watsonville's leading citizens. They suddenly realized that they had one last opportunity to seize the county seat from Santa Cruz and annex the rest of the Pajaro Valley, but they had to act fast. Perhaps thinking that the State Assembly was in a mood to shift county boundaries, the city fathers began circulating a petition among the residents of Watsonville and those across the river in Aromas, Pajaro, and the scattered farms south to Elkhorn Slough. At the same time, a vigorous war of letters were raged in the pages of the Santa Cruz Sentinel and Pajaronian. And as a hail mary, Charles Ford placed an injunction on the Santa Cruz Railroad hoping that the project would either go bankrupt fighting a pointless lawsuit or fail to meet the conditions of its contract with the county. None of these plans worked, though: the county boundary stayed put and the railroad continued building its route to the Southern Pacific tracks at Pajaro.

Official Map of Santa Cruz County, by Andrew Jackson Hatch, 1889. [Courtesy Library of Congress]

With one exception relating to the southeast border around Mount Madonna Park in 1976, Santa Cruz County's boundaries have not shifted since 1868, but it wasn't for lack of trying. In 1879, as the financial conditions across the United States continued to stagnate and taxation in Santa Cruz County increased as a result, editor William Richard Radcliff, editor of the Pajaronian, boldly suggested the county be annexed to Santa Clara or Monterey County as a means of reducing debt and lowering taxes. It was not as radical as an idea as it may seem. Neighboring San Mateo County was divided by the Santa Cruz Mountains with only rugged roads binding its two sides together. In 1879, Santa Cruz had a railroad line that linked its leading city to Santa Clara County, as well as several roads through the mountains. Many residents of Santa Clara County also had business interests in Santa Cruz County, with some businessmen travelling between the two counties weekly.

Ruins along upper Pacific Avenue after the April 14, 1894 fire. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

This idea went nowhere, especially once the Southern Pacific Railroad took control of all of the county's railroads in 1887. By this point, Santa Cruz was well connected to the state's railroad network even if its route through the Santa Cruz Mountains was of a different gauge than the rest of Southern Pacific's system. On April 14, 1894, though, a massive fire destroyed many buildings in downtown Santa Cruz, including the county court house and other local governmental buildings. Radcliff revived his old proposal to annex the county to Santa Clara. Once more the country was in the midst of a depression and the taxes required to rebuild the destroyed county buildings would be a burden on many. Radcliff's bold plan led to weeks of debate and editorials in the Pajaronian, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and the Santa Cruz Surf, but in the end nothing happened. Santa Cruz retained the county seat and Santa Cruz County remained separate from its neighbors.

The boundaries of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, 2024.

More proposals have come and gone over the subsequent 130 years with varying levels of public discourse but no success. Many businesses, organisations, and governmental entities now transcend the Pajaro River, showing that the county line is a little more than an administrative division. This is no more apparent than the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, a Santa Cruz County-centered district that includes two primary schools and a middle school in Monterey County. And as expected, the Pajaro River has shifted its course since 1850 and now around 175 acres of Monterey County sit on the north side of the river while about 110 acres of Santa Cruz County are on the south side. Although the boundary has barely moved since 1868, the bases for those boundaries have and will continue to shift as time moves on. And future political decisions too may lead to further re-drawings of the county line, leading to a larger or smaller county than today, or even no county at all! Only time will tell.

Citations & Credits:

• Clark, Donald T. Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary. Second edition. Scotts Valley, CA: Kestrel Press, 2008.
• Lydon, Sandy, "The plan to obliterate Santa Cruz County." The Pajaronian, October 12, 2022.
• Various articles from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, The Pajaronian, and the Santa Cruz Surf.

Maps: Santa Cruz to City Limits

Mapping industrial areas can be a difficult task even when all the factors are known, and it is much more difficult when there remain unknowns. Santa Cruz's West Side industrial area remains poorly documented, partially because many people today have forgotten that it ever existed. When the Ocean Shore Railway and Coast Line Railway (a Southern Pacific subsidiary) first passed through the West Side in 1905 on their way to Davenport, the West Side was a land of fields with scattered homes along West Cliff Drive but little in the interior west of The Circles. And little changed for decades.

Ocean Shore maintenance shops near the Garfield Park subdivision,  ca 1910s. [Courtesy UC Santa Cruz – colorized using MyHeritage]

The first commercial development using the railroad on the West Side was the Ocean Shore Railway itself. In a section of an undeveloped subdivision east of The Circles and north of the Santa Cruz Lighthouse, the railroad established its Southern Division's maintenance shop, wye, and engine shed. The buildings, spurs, sidings, and wye covered seven blocks, from Gharkey to Oregon Street, and from Centennial to beyond Laguna Street. This facility was flanked on either side by passenger stops. To the north was the main Santa Cruz Bay Street station, where the ticket office for the Ocean Shore Railway was located, though this structure was always only intended to be temporary. After passing through a cut under Bay Street, the line terminated at the Bay Street (now West Cliff Drive) truss bridge, where a passenger shelter was located above the Southern Pacific Railroad's Union Depot. Passengers could walk up the short pathway from the depot to the shelter to switch trains. In the opposite direction of the maintenance yard was the Garfield Avenue shelter, which provided a transfer point with the Union Traction Company's electric streetcars as well as a drop off for visitors to the Vue de l'Eau Casino and the Christian Church Tabernacle at the center of The Circles.

Map showing railroad stations and rights-of-way, streetcar routes, and major roads and waterways through the Santa Cruz West Side to just beyond the city limits, 1906-1980. [Click to enlarge]

On the Coast Line Railroad, there were some parallels through the West Side in the early years. The track departed the Santa Cruz Union Depot via a track that climbed up the hill on the west side of Neary Lagoon. At California Street, it turned southwest to more or less parallel Mission Street. California Street was the first flag-stop of the Coast Line and featured a small shelter in the V formed from the intersection of Bay and California Streets. Another stop, presumably with a small shelter, was at Younglove Avenue, which, like the Ocean Shore's Garfield Avenue stop, catered to people transferring onto a Union Traction streetcar or departing for the tabernacle or casino.

Aerial photograph showing Rapetti and Orby stations and the San Vicente Lumber Company mill, August 8, 1919. [Courtesy UCSC – colorized using MyHeritage].

Just east of Moore Creek, both railroads set up their final stations within the city limits. The Coast Line Railroad was first with Orby near Swift Street, probably named after a racehorse. What its original intended customer base was is unclear, but it may have been established to help passengers access Swanton's Beach, today's Natural Bridges. The Ocean Shore Railway only established a stop beside Moore Creek in 1911 to provide railroad service to San Vicente Lumber Company's mill. The mill, established that year, had dammed Moore Creek, creating what later became known as Antonelli's Pond, and erected a large lumber mill beside it. The railroad extended a looping spur along the east side of the mill, with a second spur that went toward the millpond. The Coast Line soon took advantage of this new customer, as well, and extended its own spur until the two looping spurs of the railroads met in front of the mill. The Coast Line installed two parallel spurs north of the mill to pick up lumber shipments.

Fire damage at the Walti, Schilling & Company slaughterhouse, December 1, 1931. [Courtesy UCSC – colorized MyHeritage]

In 1920, the San Vicente Lumber Company leased the Ocean Shore's southern division and continued to use it until 1923, when its mill shut down. This left the entire West Side industrial area to the Southern Pacific Railroad, which only gradually added customers. Southern Pacific's first customer was the City of Santa Cruz's light and sewer pumping station at Neary Lagoon. In 1909, a short spur was installed above the lagoon where an oil tanker could park to provide fuel to the plant. On the opposite end of the West Side, across a substantial trestle bridge that spans Moore Creek, Walti, Schilling & Company built a slaughterhouse that opened in 1923, having relocated from a slaughterhouse at Twin Lakes. This facility operated off of a spur associated with Orby for decades, only closing in 1977.

Advertisement for Pfyffer Bros. Brussels sprouts, ca 1940s. [ebay]

The industrial district centered around Orby and Swift Street grew slowly over the ensuing decades. The Union Ice Company was the first to transfer there, erecting an artichoke and peas packing plant on behalf of J. L. De Benedette in late 1936. Construction required the area to be rezoned for industrial use, which was granted, opening the entire area up to further development. The next business to join was the Coast Box & Drum Company, an alternative name for the Half Moon Bay Box & Drum Company, which moved onto a spur beside Swift Street in 1937. It focused on making packaging materials for local artichoke, sprout, and apple growers. At the same time, the Santa Cruz Artichoke Growers Association moved into an attached packing house, operating off the same spur. Three years later, the Davenport Artichoke Growers Association relocated into a large packing house next door to Union Ice and was renamed Pfyffer Bros., run by Fred and Joseph Pfyffer.

The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company's plant on the West Side shortly after opening, ca 1954. [Courtesy UCSC]

The largest and best-known industry on the West Side was the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company's gum factory, opened in 1954. Construction of the plant began in 1951 and required the shifting of the Union Ice Company's packing house and the installation of a new spur. Wrigley, meanwhile, was given a long spur that ran behind the plant. This was likely when the so-called Swift Street siding was installed, as well, which once ran from Natural Bridges Drive to Swift Street. As the Wrigley plant was under construction, Birds Eye, another produce company, opened a packing house to the east on Fair Avenue in 1951. A decade later, around 1961, the E. V. Moceo Company opened its own packing house across the tracks from it.

The Thomas J. Lipton Company plant on the West Side, ca 1970. [UCSC]

The prominence of Wrigley and the growing collection of packing houses around Swift Street attracted new industries to the area. The construction firm of Borchers Brothers moved to Fair Avenue in 1964 and established the easternmost spur on the West Side. They did not stay for long, though, and in 1968 the warehouse was taken over by Peerless Portable Metal Buildings, moving from a warehouse on Delaware Avenue. However, it seems this company did not use the spur since it was designated vacant in 1977. More importantly, though, was the construction of the largest plant on the West Side: the Thomas J. Lipton Company's factory, also on Delaware Avenue. This massive complex, which opened in 1969, was below the railroad grade, so a forked pair of spurs curved down from near Swift Street, across a field, and to two separate loading bays on the east side of the plant. In 1970, Mondo Bros. Distributing Company relocated from Amat Street to a warehouse and office on a spur just beside Swift Street, wholesaling beer and wine. This was likely the last new industry to operate off of an industrial spur on the West Side.

The former Davenport Branch with the detached Mondo Bros. spur in the foreground and the Swift Street siding in the distance, November 28, 2017. [Derek Whaley]

From the mid-1970s through to the mid-1990s, patronage of industrial spurs on the West Side plummeted. When the Union Pacific Railroad continuously welded the track in the early 2000s, only the Swift Street siding remained intact. The spurs that once catered to Mondo Bros., Wrigley, and Moceo all remain in place, suggesting they were the last businesses to stop using their spurs, but they have been disconnected from the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line. This entire stretch of rail can be followed along the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail.

Maps: Aptos Area

The Loma Prieta Branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad was a surprisingly long-lived affair despite its only significant function being the hauling out of lumber from Rancho Soquel Augmentation. Built in late 1883 and early 1884 by the Pacific Improvement Company under the name Loma Prieta Railroad, the route eventually reached near the headwaters of Aptos Creek and Bridge Creek. Meanwhile, the Pacific Improvement Company itself ran a long twisting tramway down the east bank of Aptos Creek to the southern boundary of the Augmentation and maintained a mill at Molino to the north.

The original Loma Prieta Lumber Company mill on Aptos Creek at Monte Vista, ca 1885. [Aptos Museum – colorized using DeOldify]

After the Loma Prieta Lumber Company finished its intended harvesting job, the closely-related Molino Timber Company installed a meandering narrow-gauge line along the top of China Ridge, with several long spurs venturing down tributary streams of Hinckley Creek far below. Later operations also returned to Bridge Creek to finish the harvesting of timber there. Even while all these operations were ongoing, the F. A. Hihn Company built its own narrow-gauge railroad up nearby Valencia Creek to its mill just inside the Augmentation. The track continued for a long distance beyond the mill and remained in place until 1895. Two decades later, the Hihn Company returned to harvest timber on the ridge between Bridge and Hinckley Creeks, building a small isolated railroad deep in the mountains and using highlines to haul the logs out. The last operations along the lines were small mills built outside Aptos hauling in logs from small uncut tracts.

All of the branch lines, sidings, and spurs of the Loma Prieta Branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad, 1883–1936. Also, the narrow-gauge Valencia Creek Railway, owned and operated by the F. A. Hihn Company, 1886–1895. Not all streams and roads marked. Click image for a larger size. [Derek R. Whaley]

The Loma Prieta Railroad, later Branch, was built in several stages over a period of over forty years if the various long spurs are considered. The primary track initially, built from April 1883, ran a distance of 5.0 miles from the Southern Pacific station at Aptos to the original Loma Prieta Lumber Company mill at Monte Vista. The route was surveyed by the Southern Pacific Railroad and its construction was overseen by W. F. Knox and a Mr. Partridge, who together managed a crew of 200 Chinese workers. While none of the line survives today, nearly all of the original right-of-way is still fully accessible to the public as a part of The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park. Some of the long spurs, namely those of the Molino Timber Company along China Ridge and Bridge Creek, are also accessible as public trails.

The crossing of the Loma Prieta Branch and the Valencia Creek Railway behind Aptos Station, 1916. [University of California, Santa Cruz, Legacy Digital Collections]

The 5-mile route to Monte Vista began at a wye constructed in Aptos just west of the station at the bottom of today's Aptos Creek Road. The route then more or less followed the path of the current road as it parallels Aptos Creek on its east bank. The first substantial bridge was a 188-foot-long span over Mangles Gulch just north of town. From there, the grading work mostly involved several short cuts until the right-of-way finally crossed Aptos Creek over a 189-foot-long bridge 1.75 miles north of Aptos. This location is just northeast of the current vehicular bridge. After passing through two longer cuts, the railroad entered Rancho Soquel Augmentation, where the Loma Prieta Lumber Company, the Pacific Improvement Company, and Frederick Hihn owned extensive timber acreage.

A bridge under construction along the Loma Prieta Branch, ca 1883. [Roy Graves Collection, Bancroft Library]

Once inside the Augmentation, the route continued north passing through more cuts and across several short bridges over gullies. This route today is identical to the Aptos Creek Fire Road to the Porter Family Picnic Area (the last gate). Beyond the gate, the railroad followed today's Loma Prieta Grade Trail across Love Gulch to the Porter House site. The two routes then separated with the Grade Trail continuing up Bridge Creek and the main line of the railroad crossing Aptos Creek over a 210-foot-long bridge to the current Fire Road. The village of Loma Prieta was located here, on the east bank of the creek 3.7 miles from Aptos. Almost nothing survives of this area, with even the building foundations gone or buried deep in brush.

Molino in the mid-1880s before the Loma Prieta Lumber Company relocated its primary mill along the spur. [Timothy Hopkins Collection, Stanford University]

Even before the main railroad was completed, the Pacific Improvement Company began its bold plan to carefully harvest the timber south of the village of Loma Prieta. It did this via a very rugged and complex railroad route that paralleled the Loma Prieta Branch on the east bank of Aptos Creek heading south. This standard-gauge track broke off from the branch line just north of the Porter Picnic Area at a site called Molino and turned sharply to the east until the grade of the hillside was too steep. It then backed down to the creek level via a switchback and turned south. The railroad crossed the creek almost a dozen times with a total of at least twenty-one bridges required as it made its way south to the boundary of the Augmentation. A mid-sized shingle mill just below the Picnic Area processed all of the wood cut along this track. In order to not undermine the picturesque qualities of the Loma Prieta Branch, the Pacific Improvement Company left a solid wall of foliage between its track and the main track so that passengers could barely see the heavily-harvested forest beyond. The Porter Trail follows parts of this route and the Porter Family Picnic Area sits on the route, but much of it is now overgrown and difficult to discern.

The Loma Prieta Branch served as Main Street in the village of Loma Prieta, ca 1888. [Aptos Museum]

Returning to the main branch line, it continued beyond the village of Loma Prieta and followed or closely paralleled today's Aptos Creek Fire Road through five cuts of various lengths. Where the road crosses Aptos Creek to begin its climb to the top of China Ridge, the tracks continued on, crossing Aptos Creek via a 280-foot-long curving bridge that immediately passed into a deep cut. After two short bridges, another long cut, and a 210-foot-long bridge over Aptos Creek, the Loma Prieta Railroad made its final journey to Monte Vista. This route stuck closely to the steep northwest bank of Aptos Creek, crossing over several short bridges before making a final descent into the mill grounds at the 5.0 mile marker.

Early photograph of the original Loma Prieta mill at Monte Vista with the millpond spur faintly visible above the mill at the top of the photograph. [Aptos Museum]

Almost immediately after it was built, the line had to be extended and corrected to address the poorly anticipated fact that the canyon was too narrow for the mill. The initial solution, likely begun immediately after the mill was opened in March 1884, was to build a long spur across Aptos Creek just west of the mill. This spur ran along the southeast bank of the creek to a switchback, at which point it continued further northeast above the millpond so that logs could be dumped into the water. But this system was not very effective and the Loma Prieta Lumber Company soon decided to relocate the mill further south to Molino, just north of the Pacific Improvement Company's shingle mill. A convenient fire in 1886 accelerated the move.

A siding and a spur beside the millpond of the Loma Prieta mill on Aptos Creek, ca 1890s. [Aptos Museum]

The new mill, which opened in 1887, involved many different railroad spurs and sidings in the vicinity of Molino. From the shingle mill spur, a new track went north across Aptos Creek where it split into three parallel spurs, all ending in front of the mill. On the west bank of the creek beside the mainline, several new sidings broke off to allow cars to dump logs into the mill pond, while three new spurs were also installed for maintenance work and to park unused cars. To the northeast of the village of Loma Prieta, another spur broke off the mainline and headed south, paralleling today's Aptos Creek Fire Road a short distance, while a branch off this spur briefly paralleled the wagon road to Trout Gulch (today's Trout Gulch Trail). One last spur sat just across from today's vehicular bridge across Aptos Creek from the bottom of the China Ridge switchback. Most of these short spurs were used to park unused cars or repair rolling stock.

The F. A. Hihn Company mill on Valencia Creek, ca 1890. [Aptos Museum – colorized using DeOldify]

Even as the final tracks were laid for the initial plan of the Loma Prieta Branch, Frederick Hihn was busy building his own narrow-gauge railroad along Valencia Creek in the spring of 1887. This track interchanged with the Southern Pacific Railroad at Aptos via a dual-gauged section where lumber could be loaded onto stacks for standard-gauge cars to later pick up. Much less of this right-of-way survives today and even its exact route is not entirely clear since it was built privately. For the most part, the track ran along the west bank of Valencia Creek between today's Valencia Road and the creek bed, with some reports suggesting the track actually sat immediately beside the creek for much of its length. Where the creek splits, with Cox Creek heading to the east, is the boundary of the Augmentation.

Valencia School in the village of Valencia, date unknown. [Aptos Museum – colorized using DeOldify]

Hihn set up both his village of Valencia and his mill just north of the Augmentation boundary, 3 miles north of Aptos. The village was slightly to the east of the confluence at the junction of Valencia and Bear Valley Roads. The mill itself sat in the creek bed just to the northwest. The only surviving remnants of any of this are the Valencia Hall and schoolhouse that are still situated near their original sites. The right-of-way of the railroad continued north beyond the mill through an increasingly-narrow canyon for 3 more miles, crossing over Valencia Creek at its only significant bridge about 2 miles north of the mill. It is unknown how many spurs and sidings Hihn's company built aside from the main track and, unlike the Loma Prieta Branch, this railroad rarely ran passenger service other than for employees and their families. The entire route was pulled in early 1895 for reuse in Gold Gulch south of Felton. Some sections of this route still exist as private roads, such as Bark Road, but all of it is now private property and very difficult to access. 

Chinese workers building the Loma Prieta Branch, ca 1884. [Aptos Museum]

Returning to the Loma Prieta Branch, not long after the mill pond was built for the new mill north of Molino, a spur was installed up Spring Creek. The purpose of this was to harvest timber from the southern face of China Ridge, although Spring Creek itself was only lightly touched since the water from this creek supplied the drinking water for the nearby village. The track crossed Aptos Creek at the end of a deep cut that is still visible along the Aptos Creek Trail just east of the bottom of the Fire Road switchback. After crossing the creek, the track split into several switchbacks that climbed up the ridge. One line went east along the northwest bank of Aptos Creek, while the other climbed Spring Creek briefly and then paralleled the longest part of today's Fire Road switchback. At the western curve of the switchback, the track turned sharply around and then continued west until stopping just above Bridge Creek. It then switchbacked one final time to nearly Aptos Creek. This track was probably expanded over several seasons and then taken up for the track to be used at the end of the main branch line.

People posing on either side of Aptos Creek somewhere along the Loma Prieta Branch north of the village, late 1880s. [Aptos Museum]

By March 1888, most of the lower tracts along Aptos Creek were harvested and the Loma Prieta Lumber Company wanted to move further up the creek. Southern Pacific obliged and extended the track an additional two miles along the steep western bank of the creek. Around a dozen short bridges were required to cross myriad gullies and gulches before crossing Aptos Creek just outside a second Monte Vista, 6.4 miles north of Aptos. This route can still mostly be followed today by taking the Aptos Creek Trail, although many of the bridges are now detoured around and there is a substantial switchback bypass at Marijuana Gulch. Upstream from this gulch, a massive landslide has erased all of the right-of-way but diligent explorers can find it again further north, where they can follow it to the site of Monte Vista and Five Finger Falls beyond. This spot marks the northern end of the Aptos Creek Trail but not the end of the track.

Postcard of a boy beside Five Finger Falls above Monte Vista, 1890s. [Aptos Museum]

The area from the second Monte Vista to the end-of-track was still built of the highest quality but was not viable for passenger service. At Monte Vista, a compound bridge split into two tracks with one forking to end at a small mill and the other continuing around the mill and its millpond to then wrap around Five Finger Falls over a long viaduct that crossed Aptos Creek twice before finding its footing again on the east bank of the creek above the falls. From this point, the track practically straddled the creek from the east bank until just short of the 1,000-foot elevation point, where a long viaduct was indeed built directly over the creek. Initially, the track ended just at the bottom of Bassett Gulch, where Aptos Creek forked. A later extension around 1890 extended the track further up the gulch to the 7.04-mile mark, where it ended at the 1,200-foot elevation point. This effectively marked the end-of-track for the line and over the next twelve years, it was progressively cut back to the village of Loma Prieta as logging ended along the upper tracts of Aptos Creek.

A Southern Pacific locomotive operating somewhere along the Loma Prieta Branch, date unknown. [Woods Mattingly Collection, Aptos Museum]

Other spurs appeared across the line even as the main line was slowly cut back. Indeed, the removed track was frequently repurposed for use elsewhere. Several short spurs were built just upstream from Aptos Creek's confluence with Spring Creek. The Aptos Creek Trail passes directly through this area when it crosses Aptos Creek, but only some bridge remains and a single cut on the south bank of the creek mark the location. A more ambitious right-of-way was installed along the east bank of Aptos Creek across from today's slide area south of the second Monte Vista. Because of how briefly it existed and the slide activity, most traces of this track are gone, but it originally crossed Aptos Creek over a high bridge and then switchbacked within the current slide area, ending a little west of Marijuana Gulch above today's Aptos Creek Trail switchback. This was the last substantial logging operation along the upper parts of the creek.

Pack mules at Schillings Camp south of Molino, ca 1901. [Aptos Museum]

In 1897, focus shifted to logging south of Loma Prieta. Short spurs were extended up Bridge Creek and Love Gulch, where they linked up with skid roads. The Bridge Creek Trail follows the former right-of-way while the remains of the latter can be seen from the Loma Prieta Grade Trail just north of where it crosses Love Gulch. Further south in 1901, a split stuff mill was built along a short spur called Schillings Camp at the present site of the Porter Family Picnic Area. All activity effectively ceased along the line for the next ten years as focus shifted to harvesting timber on Hinckley Creek and, after 1906, Scott Creek north of Davenport. However, the tracks to the old Monte Vista site remained in place for later use. 

Molino Timber Company Camp No. 1 with steam winch, ca 1913. [Aptos Museum]

The final stage of railroad expansion along the Loma Prieta Branch was overseen by the Molino Timber Company, which was founded by employees of the Loma Prieta Lumber Company. In 1912, the company installed a third rail on the Loma Prieta Branch between a new, smaller mill at Molino and to a point just before the long curving bridge across Aptos Creek upstream. Here, it installed a narrow-gauge incline directly up the southern slope of China Ridge just to the west of Spring Creek. Camp No. 1 was built at the top of the ridge where a steam winch was installed to ferry short flatcars up and down the line to a landing below. Today, the site of the top of the incline is marked along the Aptos Creek Fire Road while the bottom of the incline was located where the Aptos Creek Fire Road crosses Aptos Creek at the bottom of the switchback.

The Molino Timber Company's train crossing a deep gulch along China Ridge, ca 1913. [Aptos Museum]

From Camp No. 1, the Molino right-of-way followed the ridge line along the same route that now constitutes the Aptos Creek Fire Road along China Ridge, with only a few detours across short bridges. To navigate the tight turns of the route, a short locomotive and short cars were used. The first section built was between the Loma Prieta Branch and Sand Point, a distance of 3 miles. This was soon extended another 0.9 miles to Camp No. 2, which was located on a hillside far above Hinckley Creek. Today, this is a relatively flat but otherwise unremarkable point along the Fire Road.

Highlining a pallet of splitstuff from Hinckley Gulch up to China Ridge, 1910s. [Aptos Museum]

Shortly after the Molino Company began its operations in 1912, the F. A. Hihn Company reassembled its small narrow-gauge locomotive, the Betsy Jane, and shipped it along the Molino grade to Sand Point, where it was hauled down on cables to the headwaters of Bridge Creek along the southern slope of Hinckley Ridge. Here, the Hihn Company built a dizzying network of narrow-gauge tracks that switchbacked and corkscrewed across the hillsides, isolated from the rest of the network. Splitstuff that was processed in this remote basin was loaded until pallets and hoisted up to Sand Point via highline cables. Plans to connect this track to the former grade further to the south along Bridge Creek never materialised and Betsy Jane was eventually abandoned to become the lost locomotive of the Forest of Nisene Marks. Parts of this right-of-way can be found along the Hinckley Basin Fire Road and West Ridge Trail west of Sand Point.

Molino Timber Company Camp No. 3 near Sand Point, overlooking Hinckley Creek, ca 1916. [Aptos Museum]

Returning to the Molino mainline, the original right-of-way separates from the modern Fire Road at Camp No. 2 and descended down to Hinckley Creek on a gradual, meandering route 1.7 miles long to Camp No. 3. Unlike the rest of the right-of-way, this section had a steep grade, exceptionally sharp turns, and required at least six cuts. Today, the cuts and some crude bridge remains are the only real evidence of this right-of-way, and they are difficult and dangerous to find. The route did not actually end here, though. The only place where a railroad ever crossed Hinckley Creek was just beyond Camp No. 3 along a 0.8 extension that ended just across the creek from the camp. Around the same time, a second highline rig was installed between the Hihn Company's track and a new landing area just north of Sand Point above Hinckley Creek. This was the last trackage installed along China Ridge.

Worker replacing ties along a Bridge Creek spur, date unknown. [Aptos Museum]

As operations wrapped up along the ridge, the Molino Timber Company installed tracks along the west bank of Bridge Creek beyond the site of the Porter House beginning in 1918. This is the pair of rights-of-way so well known today as the Bridge Creek Trail and the Loma Prieta Grade Trail, and both trails follow the original Molino railway routes almost exactly. The Bridge Creek route was a new track that partially followed the old standard-gauge spur. It continued all the way to Maple Falls, a distance of 1.6 miles, although Camp No. 4 was 0.4 miles to the south, where the Loma Prieta Grade Trail crosses Bridge Creek to join the Bridge Creek Trail. The well-known landmark, the bridge of logs, is a part of this branch just south of Camp No. 4, and other bridge remains can also be seen along the route.

Molino Timber Company Camp No. 5, now Hoffman's Historic Site, 1918. [Woods Mattingly Collection, Aptos Museum]

The final section of the Molino line broke off from the Bridge Creek track at a switchback where today's trails divide north of the Porter House site. It then continued—following today's trail—for 1.4 miles until reaching Camp No. 4 "Camp Liberty," now known as Hoffman's Historic Site. This didn't mark the end of the right-of-way, though. This branch continued on, following today's trail, for another 0.8 miles to Big Tree Gulch, where some of the last standing redwood giants of the Aptos Creek basin were felled. This is roughly the point where the Loma Prieta Grade Trail turns toward Bridge Creek After this operation ended in 1919.

Ruins of the Molino Timber Company's mill at Molino, March 8, 1952. Photo by Paul L. Henchey. [University of California, Davis, Library, Archives and Special Collections]

In a strange twist, the Loma Prieta Branch was used one final time in 1920 by Ruth Ready, a daughter of Frederick Hihn. Following Hihn's death, he left property near the right-of-way to Ruth and she had two spurs built on either side of the first bridge over Aptos Creek, naming the station Ready. Today, the southern landing is George's Picnic Area. This operation ended in 1921 and the branch sat more or less abandoned for 15 years until the Southern Pacific Railroad formally abandoned the branch and tore out the remaining tracks to the former village of Loma Prieta. Logging continued within the Augmentation for three decades but trucks were used to haul out logs. Eventually, the land was transferred to the state to become the Forest of Nisene Marks in 1965.

Citations & Credits:

• Hamman, Rick. California Central Coast Railways. Second edition. Santa Cruz, CA: Otter B Books, 2007.
• 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.

Maps: Downtown Santa Cruz

The 1.9 miles of trackage between the eastern portal of the Mission Hill tunnel and the bridge over the San Lorenzo River saw much change of the decades. The first track through this area was probably set in early 1875 by the Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad and since that time the section has undergone five distinct phases in development, each demonstrating its own unique characteristics.

A Southern Pacific excursion train on Chestnut Street with the remnants of the second track recently paved over at left, c 1950s. Photography by L. L. Bonney. [Jim Vail – Colorized using DeOldify]

The first phase was the brief period from 1876 to 1883 when the city hosted two narrow-gauge railroads and all of its horsecar lines were owned by or derived from those two lines. The Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad maintained a track initially down Pacific Avenue and, following the completion of its tunnel under Mission Hill in 1876, later down Chestnut Street. Its former Pacific Avenue track was subsequently spun-off as the Pacific Avenue Street Railroad, a horsecar line that ran up Mission Street on one side and ultimately to the San Lorenzo River at the beach on the other. The Santa Cruz & Felton was also responsible for building the Railroad Wharf—it's southern terminus—and a connection to the adjacent Powder Works Wharf, which was soon afterwards demolished in 1882. The railroad supported a small selection of customers north of Beach Hill including the Centennial Flour Mills and Olive & Foster, but otherwise was mostly focused on delivering lumber and lime products from Felton. When the South Pacific Coast Railroad took over the line in 1880, it added a new passenger depot outside the portal of the tunnel and expanded the freight yard beside Neary Lagoon to add more sidings for Grover & Company and later lumber customers. Little else changed for the company until 1893.

A short South Pacific Coast Railway train outside the Santa Cruz Union Depot, late 1890s.
[Harold van Gorder Collection, Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History – Colorized using DeOldify]

The division between the first two phases was really more represented by the other railroad in town, the Santa Cruz Railroad. Completed in 1876, the system began as a narrow-gauge route and operated its own City Railroad horsecar line using its existing trackage between Cherry Street and the bathhouses at the beach. It likely had at least one crossover with the Santa Cruz & Felton near Cherry Street, where the two tracks began their parallel route down Chestnut Street, but there appears to have been little cooperation between the two lines. Focused more on customers further to the east, the Santa Cruz Railroad had no freight customers in the Lower Plaza of Santa Cruz. Fiscal and natural disasters in 1881 led to the railroad's sale to Southern Pacific, which promptly ended the City Railroad and standard-gauged the route to Watsonville.

Map showing Santa Cruz city trackage, including horsecar lines, c 1892. [Derek R. Whaley]

This prompted the second phase, which lasted 1883 until 1892, where rival gauge track crisscrossed downtown. The South Pacific Coast, which was leased to Southern Pacific in 1887, maintained a narrow-gauge alongside the Pacific Avenue Street Railroad, the East Santa Cruz Horse Railroad, and the Santa Cruz, Garfield Park & Capitola Railroad, while the Santa Cruz Branch of the Southern Pacific had a standard gauge. Two separate passenger depots for the railroads faced each other across Cherry Street and rolling stock could not properly interchange between the tracks, leading to transfers of cargo and the Railroad Wharf becoming dual-gauge. Meanwhile, no standard-gauge traffic could go north of Mission Hill while no narrow-gauge traffic could head east.

The Santa Cruz Union Depot after the tracks were standardized, 1910s.
[M. Jongeneel Collection, Santa Cruz MAH – Colorized using DeOldify]

The opening of the Santa Cruz Union Depot in 1893 inaugurated the third and least known phase. Most of the trackage between the Mission Hill tunnel and the Railroad Wharf were dual-gauged and the old depots opposite Cherry Street both closed and were replaced with a new combined depot at the end of Washington Street beside the old Santa Cruz & Felton freight yard. A few new freight customers moved in including the Santa Cruz Lumber Company, formed from a merger of several other companies, the Loma Prieta Lumber Company, and the Union Ice Company. Meanwhile, the trackage was simplified somewhat with the main track migrating from the Beach Hill cut to the Neary Lagoon outlet.

Excursion train on the Davenport leg of the wye at Santa Cruz, July 21, 1951. Photograph by Wilbur C. Whittaker.
[Jim Vail – Colorized using DeOldify]

During this time, standard-gauge tracks to Davenport via both the Coast Line Railroad—a Southern Pacific subsidiary—and the Ocean Shore Railroad led to the expansion of the maintenance and turning yard to facilitate the addition of a wye and switchback from the Lower Plaza to the marine terrace to the west. A spur was also added at the beach for the Cowell Lime & Cement Company, ostensibly to serve the company but obviously to block the Ocean Shore's ability to build a pier into the Monterey Bay.

Map showing Santa Cruz city trackage, including streetcar lines, c 1920. [Derek R. Whaley]

When the route reopened in 1909, all of the trackage in Santa Cruz was standard gauge and the entire freight yard around the Union Depot was reorganized, prompting the fourth and longest phase of trackage within the city. From 1904 to 1926, the Union Traction Company held a monopoly on the local streetcar services, standard-gauging, simplifying, and electrifying all of its lines. When the company finally replaced its streetcars with buses, it pulled all of its municipal trackage. Meanwhile, from 1909 to 2003, the layout of the freight yard only changed a little, despite many customers coming and going over the decades and the depot itself closing in 1973.

A double-headed excursion train on Chestnut Street with the remnants of the second track recently paved over at left, April 25, 1948. Photograph by Wilbur C. Whittaker. [Jim Vail – Colorized using DeOldify]

A few substantial changes occurred, though, including the closure of the Ocean Shore Railway in 1920 followed by its track abandonment three years later, the removal of tracks from the Municipal Wharf in 1931, and the demolition of the turntable and engine house in 1942. The end of scheduled passenger service to Watsonville in 1938 and to San José in 1940, followed later by the end of the Suntan Special in 1959 and all special excursion trains in 1965, also marked an important turning point for the city. Slowly, structures began to disappear, largely due to fire, but the tracks remained down Chestnut Street, there was still siding space for sand hoppers at the depot, and the iconic wye is a fixture even today.

An excursion train turning onto Beach Street, June 25, 1939. Photograph by Wilbur C. Whittaker.
[Jim Vail – Colorized using DeOldify]

The fifth phase of Santa Cruz trackage history began approximately in 1985 when the Santa Cruz Big Trees and Pacific Railway began running tourists between Felton and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. By this point, only a few freight customers remained at the Santa Cruz yard and most other than the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company only used the trackage sporadically. A more formal start to this final period came in 2003, seven years after Union Pacific took over the line, when the municipal trackage was completely removed with the exception of the three main tracks to Davenport, Felton, and Watsonville and a single short spur. Freight and the Big Trees train continued to pass through the area but no longer stopped there for any reason except allowing trains to pass.

The Routes Today:
The primary arteries of the routes through the city still exist and can largely be followed legally. The track begins near the junction of Chestnut Street and Green Street just west of downtown and continues down Chestnut Street for nearly a mile. Along the way, a few century-old wigwags still can be found and they continue to operate when a train runs down the street. The dual tracks down Chestnut Street have long since been removed and replaced with a single track down the middle. After crossing Laurel Street to the south, the old freight yard area is entered and can be followed along either of its branches.

A view down Chestnut Street today, 2020. [Google Streetview]

Nothing substantial remains except the spur and three ends of the wye, although a few foundation blocks and a maintenance area still occupy the former site of the turntable. While there is no trespassing allowed within the yard, a new trail will soon open allowing people to parallel the tracks. The tracks continue under West Cliff Drive to the San Lorenzo River, and this entire area is paralleled with pedestrian footpaths. No remnant of the wharf spur remains. Similarly, the former Ocean Shore right-of-way above the marine terrace to the west has also been built up and is no longer discernible nor should exploration in this area be attempted. All evidence of the former Union Traction Company trackage has long since disappeared.

Citations & Credits:

• Whaley, Derek R. Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Santa Cruz, CA, 2015.