["itemContainer",{"xmlns:xsi":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance","xsi:schemaLocation":"http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5 http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5/omeka-xml-5-0.xsd","uri":"https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=McKiernan%2C+Charles&output=omeka-json","accessDate":"2024-03-28T16:10:13-07:00"},["miscellaneousContainer",["pagination",["pageNumber","1"],["perPage","10"],["totalResults","3"]]],["item",{"itemId":"134528","public":"1","featured":"1"},["fileContainer",["file",{"fileId":"24159"},["src","https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/de80b293391129d77d1e511db1db9234.pdf"],["authentication","a85f687d0c8528b09388fc0216c683cb"],["elementSetContainer",["elementSet",{"elementSetId":"7"},["name","PDF Text"],["description"],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"94"},["name","Text"],["description"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1902768"},["text","A Howling Wilderness:\nStagecoach Days in the Mountains\nBy Stephen Payne\nCitations in the text refer to the Selected Bibliography, Local History Article AR-219.\nThe roads over the Santa Cruz Mountains served not only the settlers and loggers living and\nworking on the summit, but also provided the means by which people could travel to and from\nSanta Cruz or San Jose via the stagecoach. The early organized road companies quickly saw the\nbenefit of stage travel and encouraged use by the various stage companies of the day.\nThe first stagecoach line in California was established by John Whistman in the autumn of 1849.\nThis line operated between San Francisco and San Jose, with the latter city serving as its\nheadquarters. The fare for the nine hour trip was two ounces of gold or $32.00. The line ran an\nold French omnibus with mules and mustangs pulling the coach. With the first winter rain the\noperation came to a halt due to the poor road conditions. During the winter the line ran from\nSan Jose to Alviso, where passengers caught the ferry to San Francisco. With spring weather the\nline went back to full service between San Francisco and San Jose. (36:255-256; 45:236-237;\n55:Vol. VII,151)\nAs the years progressed other entrepreneurs established lines throughout California. The first\nservice connecting Santa Cruz and San Jose was established in 1854. The line ran from Santa\nCruz to San Juan Bautista, then on to San Jose. Passengers going on to San Francisco stayed\novernight before continuing on to the steamboat landing at Alviso. This line soon had an\nopposition line running from Santa Cruz to Soquel, then to Watsonville and over the Pajaro\nTurnpike mountain road into Gilroy and on to San Jose. (49:27; 62:477)\nIn 1855 the California Stage Company was awarded the United States mail contract between\nSan Jose and Santa Cruz, which paid $1,000 annually. The California Stage Company's fare was\n$5.00 from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. (5:231; 66:94) The California Stage Company went out\n\n�of business on March 1, 1855, but local employees in Santa Cruz formed the Pacific Express\nCompany, operating the same route from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. (66:125)\nAnother stage route to San Jose was established in 1857. This route started in downtown Santa\nCruz, crossed the San Lorenzo River at the Water Street Bridge and went up Graham Grade,\npast where the Pasatiempo Golf Course is now located, to Abraham Hendricks' stage stop in\nScotts Valley. At Hendricks' two horses were added to the four-horse team for the journey up\nthe mountain grade to Station Ranch, owned by Charles Christopher Martin, and then on up the\nmountain to Mountain Charley's stage stop, owned by Charles McKiernan. (62:477) From\nMountain Charley's the route went down the mountain to Patchen, Alma, Lexington (where the\ntwo additional horses were left off), Los Gatos, and on to San Jose.\nIn 1858 Frederic A. Hihn joined together with other Santa Cruz businessmen to form a joint\nstock stage company. The new stage route went from Santa Cruz to Soquel, then up the San\nJose-Soquel Road to \"Bonny Blink\" Hotel at Terrace Grove Road. From there the stage had\nanother stop less than a mile up the road at the old Hotel de Redwood. (62:477) From this point\nthe line went over the Morrell Cut-off to Summit Road and on to Patchen. From there it\nfollowed the stage route to San Jose. One stage line ran daily, while the other ran tri-weekly\ncarrying the mail. (5:250 fn.24, 266)\nA description of the early stage drivers' duties was written by Lucy Foster Sexton:\n\"The stages stopped at the towns with post offices, leaving the mail in boxes\nbetween. Driving up to farmers' boxes on tall polls, the bundles were thrown in, much\nas it is done on the rail road. The school children furnished the delivery.\"\nThese early stages were \"gaudily painted\" and pulled by four horses which were changed every\nfifteen miles at a saloon or hotel, and handled by lively drivers. (37:161)\nIn 1850 Warren Hall and Jared B. Crandall bought out Whistman's stage line. The new owners\npurchased Mud-wagons and horses from William Beeks who had brought them across the\nplains. (Mudwagons were light weight coaches designed for the winter roads, not for comfort.)\n(36:256) The following year Hall traveled to Concord, New Hampshire, and purchased several\nConcord coaches from the Abbott-Downing Company. These new coaches were added to Hall's\nand Crandall's stage line because the earlier coaches were not much more than buckboard\nwagons of various sizes and descriptions. Although the Concord coaches were the latest\ninnovation in travel, the coaches were too heavy for winter roads, which were hardly more than\none mud hole after another. During the winter months the mud wagons were used even\nthough many of the mountain roads were totally impassable. The Concord coaches (For a\ndetailed description of these coaches see 35:392-393.) were used in the spring after the roads\ndried out, and in the summer until the first autumn rains came. (36:258,260 fn. 17)\nThe Concord coaches seated nine passengers on the inside and eight on top. In good weather\nthe favored position was next to the colorful driver. Those so honored were expected to treat\n\n�the driver with drinks and cigars on the road. At the stations the drivers drank for free, although\nthe drivers were seldom drunk on the road. They were considered to be sober and dependable\nmen. (35:392-393; 36:257,259 fn. 13)\nN. C. Adams, one of the most accommodating drivers on the Santa Cruz Mountain route, while\nmaking up for lost time one day was stopped by a lady, who, after calling to him went back into\nher house. Thinking that the woman was going to fetch a package, Adams waited. After five\nminutes, Adams climbed off the stage and knocked at the door, calling out,\n\"Madame, ain't you pretty near ready?\"\nHurrying to the door the embarrassed woman replied,\n\"Oh, Mr. Driver, I ain't going on the stage, but I want to send a roll of butter to San\nJose and it's nearly come. Won't you wait till I finish it?\"\nWith that, Adams swallowed a quid of tobacco to distract his own attention, and waited.\nAnother driver, Sid Conover, had the self-appointed duty of supplying stamps to the ladies on\nhis route, who \"'didn't have a stamp in the house. \" (44:81)\nOne of the most famous drivers on the mountain route was Charley Parkhurst, who drove over\nthe mountain roads about 1868. The story of this driver is well known. Like all stage drivers,\nParkhurst wore a heavy muffler, gloves, a buffalo skin coat and cap, and blue jeans-turned up to\nreveal cuffs of an expensive pair of trousers worn under the jeans. Also, like other drivers,\nParkhurst had a sharp throaty whistle, used like a horn to warn others that the stage was just\naround a sharp corner. For these reasons she was able to hide her identity until her death.\n(38:6/24/1934)\nThe drive over the Santa Cruz Mountains was more than merely a means of conveyance from\none point to another. The ride was also a form of entertainment, similar to rafting down a river\nor other dangerous sports today. The ride was described in the May 1873 issue of Scribner's\nMonthly by Susan Coolidge:\n\"From San Jose, a day's staging over the summit of the Coast Range brings you to\nSanta Cruz, the favorite watering-place of California. I would advise any one with a few\nspare day's at command, to take this excursion, if only for the sake of the ride over the\nmountain, which is wonderfully fine. Flower-lovers should not fail to do so, for such\nroses, geraniums, jeasamines, and passion-flowers grow nowhere else as run riot in\nevery little garden in Santa Cruz.\" (19)\nAnother description of the mountain route appeared in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on May 16,\n1874, titled \"The Mountain Ride:\"\n\n�\"The ride across the Santa Cruz Mountains is one of the most attractive stage trips in\nCalifornia. The roads from Santa Clara to Santa Cruz command some very picturesque\nviews. . . . Ward & Colegrove's Concord coaches meet the morning train from San\nFrancisco at Santa Clara. Passengers reach Santa Cruz in time for dinner the same day.\nFrom Santa Clara depot to the base of the Mountains at Santa Cruz Gap, the route lays\nacross one of the most fascinating portions of the Santa Clara Valley. . . . The passage\nthrough Santa Cruz Gap introduces a change in the scene. . . . The Gap looks like a weird\ncanyon both walls of which are rocky and rugged. It is a slight grade for the coach and\nthe six horses have an easy thing of it climbing up the timber skirted slopes. . . . On the\nsummit fourteen miles from Santa Clara and just before reaching the well-known abode\nof Mountain Charley, the landscape expands and stretches out to such proportions that\nthe eye is lost in the vastness of the scene. Far below, over the tops of the redwood\ntrees an enchanting view of the Bay of Monterey is obtained. It is the distant silver lining\nto a cloud of forest-crowned hills. The ride now becomes exciting. Ward, a veteran\namong California stage coach veterans, handles the reins over six splendid and surefooted animals. Under his skillful guidance these horses seem to fly as they whirl the\ncoach down steep hills, and around the shortest of curves. His partner Colegrove, drives\nthe stage on the alternate days, and his fame as a driver is not second to Ward's. Both\nare artists in their time and with either on the box there is no danger on the\nmountainous path.\"(27)\nThe coaches, horses, and drivers that traveled the Santa Cruz Mountain stage routes from the\n1850's to the 1880's were part of a wild and exciting era. Two of the drivers mentioned in the\nlast account left memoirs, Henry C. Ward and George Lewis Colegrove. Ward's account deals\nwith other phases of early California staging, but Colegrove's account as both a stage driver and\nlater as a conductor on the South Pacific Coast Railroad offers a look back to the stagecoach\ndays in the Santa Cruz Mountains. A look at his life offers a generalized glimpse of what all\nother stage drivers' lives were like during the stagecoach era in California.\nGeorge Lewis Colegrove was born in the Dundee area of McHenry County, Illinois, on March 29,\n1843. When he was seven, George's father, John Smith Colegrove, left his family and went to\nthe gold fields in California. John Colegrove eventually settled near Dutch Flat, California. At\ntwelve, young Colegrove went to live with an uncle, Louis Holdridge, with whom he lived until\nhe was eighteen. Leaving his uncle's home, George traveled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he\nworked in a livery stable. With the onset of the Civil War, Colegrove joined the Union Army, but\nhe broke his leg and was left behind when his company went off to war. In March 1863,\nColegrove drove the lead wagon in an emigrant wagon train traveling to California.\nUpon reaching California, Colegrove worked as a teamster in San Francisco (1:ii-iii) until July\n1869, when he hired on as a driver for the Santa Cruz and San Jose Stage Line. In the company\nof the line's owner, Billy Reynolds, Colegrove first drove a stage over the Santa Cruz Mountains\non July 15, 1869. The stage left Santa Clara with four horses, stopping at Lexington where the\ncompany had a bar, to add two more horses for the ascent of the mountain. At the Scotts\n\n�Valley Station the additional horses were left and the stage continued on to Santa Cruz. (1:4345)\nA few months later Reynolds sold his stage company to McFarlane and his son, William \"Bill\"\nMcFarlane, who ran the line for his father. The station agent, Henry Whinery (or Winnery), at\nSanta Clara was too set in his ways to make changes suggested by the McFarlanes. After an\nargument Whinery left. Traveling to Santa Cruz, where he had many friends, Whinery formed a\nnew joint stock company. The largest shareholder was Charles McKiernan, the owner of the toll\nroad at the summit. One of the drivers, Cambridge, who had crossed the plains with Colegrove,\nquit the McFarlanes and went to work for Whinery's new company. (1:45-47)\nWith the new competition, McFarlane was forced to lower his fares from $2.50 down to $1.00,\nand a price war ensued. Although both companies were carrying full loads of passengers, they\nwere both losing money. Still the fight went on. (1:47-48)\nAs Charles McKiernan was the largest shareholder in the opposition line he had had to pay most\nof the losses during the past year. He was anxious to end the war as the only revenue he had\nwas what money he could make off his toll road. At first, this did not matter because the\nMcFarlanes were paying most of that money, since they had to use the road for their stage\noperations, paying $2.00 a day. But one day McFarlane Senior had talked with McKiernan in\ntown and told him that it was not fair for the McFarlanes to be subsidizing the opposition.\nMcFarlane met with the settlers along the old San Jose-Soquel Road and together they fixed up\nthe road and bridges, thus abandoning McKiernan's toll road.\nAfter a year of the price war there existed bitter feelings on both sides. During this time\nColegrove was living with the McFarlanes. One morning as the men were having breakfast\nCharles McKiernan came down from his ranch to talk over the situation:\n\"Now, Mr. McFarlane, it has been an awful long hard fight. I think it is time we quit it.\nI have a proposition that I would like to have you interested in. I would like to\nconsolidate these lines and make it a joint stock company. We would take one side off\nand put the fare up and make it pay. We have lost money enough.\"\nAfter McKiernan left the breakfast meeting, Colegrove told McFarlane Senior that he did not\nfeel that they should consolidate: \"If you stay with it and do not consolidate with them they will\nquit the business in the next month or six weeks.\" Colegrove then offered to work for nothing,\nbut, in the end, the lines were consolidated.\nShortly after the lines were consolidated the McFarlanes were forced out of the business\naltogether, leaving Colegrove without a job. (1:48-5 1) After a short camping trip in the Boulder\nCreek area of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Colegrove went into San Jose and talked to William\n\"Uncle Billy\" Hall, the second operator of a stage line in California and the first to use Concord\ncoaches. Colegrove discussed the feasibility of starting, another opposition line to that of\nWhinery and McKiernan.\n\n�Hall, who had disapproved of Whinery and McKiernan's practice of forcing the McFarlanes out\nof business, told Colegrove that he still had several horses and a Concord coach. Hall agreed to\nlet Colegrove use the stock and equipment for free as long as Hall's name was not mentioned.\nWith this, Colegrove started up an opposition line with Thomas Mann as an alternate driver.\nAlthough Colegrove lowered the fare to $1.00 for travel on the new Pioneer Stage Line, from\nSan Jose to Santa Cruz, the Mountain Charley Stage Line did not follow suit. Whinery and\nMcKiernan felt that, since they were already established and known, they had no worry from\ncompetition. Within a month Colegrove had to add an additional coach, and shortly after that\nColegrove bought another Concord from a man in Watsonville for $225. (1:58-78)\nIn the spring of 1872, having lost too much money, McKiernan talked to Santa Cruz Sheriff\nCharles Lincoln about running the stage line. Lincoln told McKiernan that he would think about\nthe offer, then he went to see Colegrove. Posing as the new owner, Lincoln told Colegrove that\nhe had bought the line for $3,000 and would like to cooperate with Colegrove. The two men\nagreed to each run one stage apiece. The arrangement went well until November 1872, when\nbusiness began to slacken. Lincoln decided that he did not want to run the line and gave it back\nto McKiernan. This event put McKiernan in a tight spot for Colegrove now learned that he had\nbeen deceived and was ready for another fight. In the end McKiernan decided to quit the stage\nbusiness. (1:78-83)\nThat winter, 1872-1873, was so wet that by the end of December Colegrove was forced to\ncurtail operations over the mountain route, as it had turned into a series of mud holes. In\nJanuary 1873, Colegrove, along with a new partner, Henry C. Ward---an old stage hand in\nCalifornia---started an opposition line to the Watsonville Stage Line between Santa Cruz and\nWatsonville. Within a few months the older Watsonville Stage Line bought Colegrove and Ward\nout, rather than compete against their $.50 fare.(1:90-93)\nAfter selling out to the Watsonville line, Colegrove and Ward met with Charles McKiernan to\ndiscuss the reopening of the Santa Cruz to San Jose stage line. Colegrove and Ward agreed to\nbuy out McKiernan's stage line for $3,000; both men put up $1,000 cash and a $500 note. In\nMay 1873, the Pioneer Stage Line again served customers over the Santa Cruz Mountains.\n(1:93-94)\nOn the spring morning of April 1, 1874, while backing out an eleven passenger mud-wagon\nfrom the Pioneer Stage Line's barn in San Jose, Henry Ward ran a wheel over his foot crushing\nhis big toe. Unable to make the passenger and mail run from San Jose to Santa Cruz, Ward\nenlisted the help of John Pursey Smith, an experienced stage driver who knew the dangers of\nthe Santa Cruz Mountain road. (1:65)\nThat afternoon, at a quarter to three, as the four horse team was walking up a hill about a half\nmile from the stage stop (and United States Post Office) at Patchen, a man, his face covered by\na blue flannel mask, stepped out in front of the stage. Pointing a double-barreled shotgun at\nSmith, the highwayman ordered the stage to stop and told Smith to\n\n�\"Throw out that Express box.\"\nLooking down the barrels of the shotgun the frightened driver had the unpleasant duty of\nexplaining to the bandit:\n\"We don't carry any express box. It goes around by Watsonville.\"\nNot believing the driver's story, the bandit again demanded the express box. As the driver tried\nto repeat his explanation, a passenger, Mrs. J. M. Smith, also told the bandit that the express\nbox was not aboard.\n\"Well, give me that mail sack,\" the road agent demanded.\nSmith quickly threw down the two mail sacks, one destined for Patchen and the other for Santa\nCruz. The bandit kicked the two bags aside saying that he guessed that there would be nothing\nof interest in them and, as he had come for money, the passengers would have to do instead.\nSome of the passengers had managed to hide most of their valuables when they realized what\nwas happening. One woman, a Mrs. Canny of San Jose, simply refused to part with her\nvaluables. All the bandit received was $45 from the unfortunate stage riders. After securing the\nmoney and valuables the bandit tossed the mail sacks back to the driver and allowed the stage\nto proceed on to Patchen and Santa Cruz.\nAfter arriving in Santa Cruz, Smith immediately telegraphed the stage office in San Jose. George\nColegrove received the message and, while showing the message to Ward, asked him,\n\"Do you think that is right, or someone giving us an April Fool?\"\n\"No, I think it is on the level,\" replied Ward.\nAfter discussing the matter the two stage men decided not to press the issue, \"because,\" as\nColegrove explained, \"if it gets out it will hurt our travel.\"\nBut word of the robbery did get out and on his next regular run to Santa Cruz, Colegrove was\nasked by a townsman,\n\"You have stage robbers on your route, have you?\"\nTo which Colegrove replied, \"It seems like it. It didn't amount to much.\" (1:65-67;\n33:4/4/1884)\nThe rest of April went by without any further incident until the end of the month when\nColegrove's mother and brother came to San Jose from Dutch Flat, California, to visit him.\n\n�Colegrove decided to take a few days off work to show his family around Big Basin, near\nBoulder Creek. Contacting an old employer of his, Colegrove asked William (Bill) McFarlane if he\nwould drive the stage.\nEverything started out well. Colegrove gave his mother and brother seats on top of the stage,\nwhere they could enjoy the mountain scenery. Upon arriving in Santa Cruz Colegrove turned\nthe operation over to McFarlane. On the next day McFarlane took the stage over the mountains\nto San Jose on an uneventful trip.\nOn April 28, McFarlane was driving the stage back over the mountains to Santa Cruz. At twenty\nminutes to two in the afternoon the stage was five miles above Lexington on an uphill grade\nthat forced the horses to walk. As the stage was passing a long pile of cord wood beside the\nroad, out stepped two armed highwaymen. One of the road agents blocked the rear of the\nstage and the other stood in front of the horses. Both men were carrying double-barreled\nshotguns and both had Bowie knives dangling from their wrists on leather thongs. The robbers\nhad masks of knitted cloth over their heads with slits cut out for eyes and mouths.\nThe highwayman in front of the stage called to the driver,\n\"Didn't I tell you to stop. Now stop or I'll-\"\n\"Oh, did you, if its 'stop' here goes---Whoa!\" replied McFarlane as he reined up the\nleading horses.\nAs the bandit in front kept his shotgun trained on McFarlane and the passenger riding on top,\nthe other bandit appeared at the window,\n\"Now hand out your wallets dam'd (sic) quick,\" he demanded, taping the window\nledge with his shotgun for emphasis.\nThrusting his hand with the dangling knife attached into the coach,the robber took the\nvaluables and money from the frightened passengers.\nThe passengers were reluctant to part with their wallets, giving instead their pocket change.\nSeeing this, the road agent snapped at them,\n\"That won't do. Pass out your wallets.\"\nCollecting the wallets, the bandit again made a demand, \"Now let's have your\nwatches.\"\nWhile this was going on inside the coach, the passenger sitting on top managed to hide $60\nunder the cushioned seat. To divert attention McFarlane remarked,\n\n�\"Boys, this is pretty rough on us, stopping our stage twice in one month.\"\nReceiving no response from the highwaymen, McFarlane continued,\n\"This is the first time I've been stopped.\"\n\"Well then, it's a stand-off between us,\" replied the masked man at the front, \"This is\nthe first time we've ever stopped anyone.\"\nAfter finishing with the inside passengers, the other bandit turned his attention to the man\nsitting with the driver.\n\"Pass down your coin, sir,\" he demanded.\nBut getting only seventy-five cents did not satisfy him.\n\"Oh, you've got more money than this. Get down from there, so that I can go through you.\"\nAs the passenger stood up the robber caught sight of a valuable gold English watch (worth over\n$100). After taking the watch the bandit again demanded that the passenger step down, but at\nthis point McFarlane had had enough and told the highwaymen,\n\"Boys, it's getting late and I'm behind time.\"\nAs the horses started to move, one of the road agents said, \"Well, I guess you'd better go on.\"\nBy the time the passengers disembarked from the stage in Santa Cruz, Sheriff Robert Orton had\narrived at the stage stop. Discussing the situation with Colegrove, who had been waiting for the\nstage with his family, Orton asked Colegrove,\n\"I guess we will have to get out and get them or they will drive the travel all off the\nroad. What do you think we had better do about it?\"\n\"I think we ought to start out tonight to look for them and cover all these roads by\nSoquel and by the stage road, by Mt. Charley's and the Saratoga road. If we don't they\nwill work their way into some town and, after they get into some town, it is all off. You\ncan't get them. If you get them before they get to town they will have some of the\nthings on them.\"\nThe Sheriff quickly formed a posse and by that evening three groups set out from Santa Cruz to\nlook for the highwaymen. Deputy Sheriff Jackson Sylva and Frank Curtis went to Felton and\nthen up the Zayante Creek toward the Summit. Remington Getchel and John Acorn (or Aiken)\ntraveled to Soquel and then up the old San Jose-Soquel Road to the Summit. Sheriff Orton and\nColegrove took the main stage route through Scotts Valley and up to Mountain Charley's.\n\n�Before leaving Santa Cruz, Sheriff Orton telegraphed San Jose and advised Sheriff John H.\nAdams of the situation, arranging to meet with Adams' posse at Patchen.\nColegrove and Orton arrived at Mountain Charley's toll gate at eleven o'clock that night and, as\nColegrove got off the buggy to open the gate, he asked the Sheriff,\n\"Do you think we had better wake them up?\"\n\"I don't know,\" the Sheriff replied, \"I don't think I would disturb them.\"\nAs Orton and Colegrove had the shortest distance to travel, they reached Patchen first and\nproceeded to search the cabins on the road to Lexington. At a cabin owned by James Bryant the\nSheriff arrested two men, but later released them.\nWhen Getchel and Acorn traveling from Soquel arrived, they reported to Sheriff Orton that they\nhad seen nothing of the bandits. One of the local Patchen residents said that a friend living on\nthe Los Gatos Creek had seen two men with shotguns in the area. Within a few minutes Sheriff\nAdams and the Santa Clara posse arrived and reported that someone else had reported two\nmen by the creek area.\nFeeling sure that these men might be the robbers, the posse set out for the Los Gatos Canyon,\nabout three miles northeast of Patchen. Stopping at a wood-cutters camp near Forest Grove at\nthree or four in the morning, Colegrove asked if they had seen the bandits.\n\"Why there were two men by here just about sundown. Both of them had shotguns. Maybe\nthey are the ones-\" replied the wood-cutter.\nBefore setting out the posse rested and had some breakfast. After eating, the posse went as far\nup the creek as they could with the buggy and then continued up the canyon on foot. Coming\nonto a cabin, Sheriff Orton had his men surround the place. Just then a man came out of the\ncabin. Seeing Colegrove and Sheriff Adams the startled man turned toward the cabin; but with\nthe rest of the posse in position all around his place the outnumbered man gave up.\nUnder questioning, the man shook like a leaf, but denied any part in the robbery or to having\nseen anyone during the day. Although Colegrove thought that the man was telling the truth,\nespecially since the only weapon found in the cabin was an old rusty six-shooter, to be certain,\nthe posse took him with them back to Patchen, where he could be identified by local residents.\nDuring this time Deputy Sheriff Sylva and Frank Curtis had traveled to Felton where George\nNewell joined them. The posse was joined by a Californio named Martin further up the Zayante\nCanyon. Martin acted as their guide for the rest of the trip. Traveling farther up the mountain,\nthe posse questioned several people before arriving at Mountain Charley's at three-thirty in the\nmorning. Waking up McKiernan, the men learned that he had seen two men shooting at a\n\n�squirrel on his ranch earlier that day. When McKiernan had called out to them, he received no\nreply as the men rode on.\nUpon hearing this account, Sylva's posse, along with McKiernan, went after the squirrelshooters. Tracking the men through the mountains to Jones' Creek, four miles from Saratoga,\nthe posse sent Martin down to the toll gate on the Saratoga-Boulder Creek Road to see if their\nprey had escaped into the valley. Learning that the men at the toll gate had seen no one, the\nposse continued in its search and soon arrived at an old cabin. The dilapidated cabin had last\nbeen used as a cattle barn.\nSuspecting that the robbers might be in the cabin, the posse surrounded the place. As they\nwere getting into position, one of the highwaymen saw what was happening and shot at the\nposse with a pistol. The posse returned the fire but did no damage. Charles McKiernan, who\nhad brought his old Henry hunting rifle with him, circled around to a part of the cabin that was\nmissing some boards and called in at the bandits,\n\"Hello, fellows, what are you doing there? Come out here.\"\n\"We are not coming out,\" was the reply.\n\"Come out, or I will shoot,\" McKiernan warned.\nAt this point, the men jumped up and one of them went for his gun. McKiernan again ordered\nthem to stop, but the road agents were intent on a shootout and McKiernan shot. The ball\ngrazed the cheek of one of the highwaymen and lodged itself in the other one's shoulder. With\nthat the fight was over and the men gave up.\nThe posse marched the highwaymen back to McKiernan's ranch. After arriving at the ranch and\nwhile they were waiting for Sheriff Adams to arrive from Patchen, one of the bandits boasted,\n\"Yes, a hell of a lot of heroes you are. I would like to be turned loose and I would\nmake short work of you. That cockeyed fellow with the rifle was the only one I was\nafraid of.\"\nThe bandit was still defiant a few days later when a reporter from the San Jose Weekly Mercury\ninterviewed him in the Santa Clara County Jail:\n\"We wouldn't have surrendered had it not been for that blasted Henry rifle which that\none-eyed chap \"Mountain Charley\" carried. I was raising my gun to fire, when he let fly\nwith his rifle. . . Had it not been for that we would have made a break, and they never\nwould have taken us. I didn't care a continental for the pistols as long as we had our\nshot guns, and we would have made it warm for them. As it was we acted sensibly, and\n'chucked over our chips.'\"\n\n�The bandit who did most of the talking was Albert P. Hamilton, known in San Francisco as a\nburglar who had served time in San Quentin. Hamilton made the remark that he would get\nMcKiernan for capturing him. After a trial, Hamilton, along with Peter Carr, the other bandit,\nwas sentenced to ten years in San Quentin, but, after only six or seven months, Hamilton\nescaped prison with two murderers.\nWhen Charles McKiernan learned of Hamilton's unexpected freedom he was understandably\nuneasy, especially since it was known that Hamilton had a girlfriend in nearby Saratoga. Six\nmonths later the San Francisco police captured Hamilton in San Francisco after he returned on a\nship from Seattle, Washington, and McKiernan's worries were over.\nThe other bandit, Peter Carr, was instrumental in fighting a fire at San Quentin and due to this\naction and his general good behavior Carr received a reprieve by Governor William Irwin. (1:6774; 33:5/2/1874; 32;29)\nThese two men were the only road agents active in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But, although\nthe highwaymen were captured, the regular troubles of the stage line were not over. On the\nday after the capture of the bandits, while the team hitched to the stagecoach was being\nwatered by the driver at the Lexington stage stop, one of the horses bit another horse and the\nwhole team ran away towing the stage. The passengers sitting inside managed to jump to\nsafety, but a woman sitting on top kept her seat too long and when she finally jumped off the\nstage she suffered a broken leg. The team kept going until the coach was overturned and all\ncame to a dusty, grinding, crushing stop. (33:5 / 2 /1874)\nDuring the winter of 1874, Ward and Colegrove decided to phase out the large Concord\ncoaches and purchase new Yosemite wagons made in San Francisco. The new coaches seated\nthirteen passengers, all facing forward, and had a \"sunshine top,\" a canvas that could be rolled\nback. The passengers enjoyed the new coaches, as they could see the scenery better. (1: 102104)\nIn 1874 Ward left the stage business to join a Wild West show, but two months later he\nreturned to San Jose. Shortly after Ward returned the Pioneer Stage Line was broken up, as\nColegrove was peeved at Ward for leaving. Ward stored one of the Concord coaches at William\nHall's barn. Fifty years later it was discovered and given to the Wells-Fargo Museum at San\nFrancisco. On that occasion George Colegrove drove the stage into the museum. (1: 104-105)\nDuring the spring of 1878, as the new narrow-gauge railroad from Alameda to Santa Cruz was\nnearing completion as far as Los Gatos, Colegrove met with Alfred E. \"Hog\" Davis, the president\nof the South Pacific Coast Railroad. Davis asked Colegrove to run a \"jumper service\" from\nWright's tunnel over the mountains to Felton. This arrangement was to last until the tunneling\nwas completed through the mountains.(1: 106-107)\nColegrove agreed to work for Davis and ran the \"jumper service\" for a year before Davis again\nmet with him in April 1879. At this meeting Davis asked Colegrove to work as a conductor on\n\n�the railroad. On August 22, 1879, Colegrove started to work for the railroad, although he still\nowned the stage line, which was run by John Dowd and Chris Coffin.\nOn May 1, 1880, the South Pacific Coast Railroad began direct service from Alameda to Santa\nCruz. Although the first run ended in disaster as the train ran off the track near Rincon, it\nsignaled the end of the stagecoach era in the Santa Cruz Mountains. (1: 110, 110 fn. 10)\n\nSource\nExcerpted from Payne, Stephen Michael. A Howling Wilderness: a History of the Summit Road\nArea of the Santa Cruz Mountains 1850-1906. Santa Cruz, CA: Loma Prieta Publishing, 1978.\nCopyright 1978 Stephen Michael Payne. Reproduced with the permission of the author.\n\nIt is the library’s intent to provide accurate information, however, it is not possible for the library\nto completely verify the accuracy of all information. If you believe that factual statements in a\nlocal history article are incorrect and can provide documentation, please contact the library.\n\n�"]]]]]]]]],["collection",{"collectionId":"8"},["elementSetContainer",["elementSet",{"elementSetId":"1"},["name","Dublin Core"],["description","The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/."],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"50"},["name","Title"],["description","A name given to the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"123576"},["text","Santa Cruz History Articles"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"41"},["name","Description"],["description","An account of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"123577"},["text","Original articles by library staff and by local authors and material from historical books. "]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"264219"},["text","Articles on Santa Cruz County history, many with illustrations, are available here.\r\n\r\nThe Santa Cruz Public Libraries is grateful to our local historians and their publishers for giving permission to include their articles. The content of the articles is the responsibility of the individual authors.\r\n"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"264220"},["text","It is the library's intent to provide accurate information. However, it is not possible to completely verify the accuracy of individual articles obtained from a variety of sources. If you believe that factual statements in an article are incorrect and can provide documentation, please contact the library."]]]],["element",{"elementId":"45"},["name","Publisher"],["description","An entity responsible for making the resource available"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"264216"},["text","Santa Cruz Public Libraries\r\n"]]]]]]]],["itemType",{"itemTypeId":"1"},["name","Document"],["description","A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text."],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"7"},["name","Original Format"],["description","If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894521"},["text","Paper"]]]]]],["elementSetContainer",["elementSet",{"elementSetId":"1"},["name","Dublin Core"],["description","The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/."],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"50"},["name","Title"],["description","A name given to the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894511"},["text","A Howling Wilderness: Stagecoach Days in the Mountains"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894512"},["text","Stagecoach Days in the Mountains"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"39"},["name","Creator"],["description","An entity primarily responsible for making the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894513"},["text","Payne, Stephen"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"45"},["name","Publisher"],["description","An entity responsible for making the resource available"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894514"},["text","Santa Cruz Public Libraries"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"40"},["name","Date"],["description","A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894515"},["text","1978"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"42"},["name","Format"],["description","The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894516"},["text","TEXT"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"44"},["name","Language"],["description","A language of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894517"},["text","EN"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"51"},["name","Type"],["description","The nature or genre of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894518"},["text","ARTICLE"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"43"},["name","Identifier"],["description","An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894519"},["text","AR-217"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"38"},["name","Coverage"],["description","The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894520"},["text","Santa Cruz (County)"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"49"},["name","Subject"],["description","The topic of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894564"},["text","Santa Cruz Mountains"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894565"},["text","Summit"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894566"},["text","Colegrove, George"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894567"},["text","McKiernan, Charles"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894568"},["text","Stagecoaches"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894569"},["text","Crime and Criminals-Burglary, Robbery, Larceny"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"48"},["name","Source"],["description","A related resource from which the described resource is derived"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894582"},["text","Excerpted from: Payne, Michael. \"A Howling Wilderness: A History of the Summit Road Area of the Santa Cruz Mountains 1850-1906.\" Santa Cruz, CA: Loma Prieta Publishing, 1978."]]]],["element",{"elementId":"47"},["name","Rights"],["description","Information about rights held in and over the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894583"},["text","Copyright 1978 by Stephen Michael Payne. Reproduced with permission of the author."]]]],["element",{"elementId":"46"},["name","Relation"],["description","A related resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894591"},["text","Selected Bibliography"]]]]]]],["tagContainer",["tag",{"tagId":"15"},["name","Transportation"]]]],["item",{"itemId":"134525","public":"1","featured":"1"},["fileContainer",["file",{"fileId":"24156"},["src","https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/99a1eb8a2f5a58b44d9235f2c2aa7f12.pdf"],["authentication","01a86583adc55ba7e7f79a2b8dda61e8"],["elementSetContainer",["elementSet",{"elementSetId":"7"},["name","PDF Text"],["description"],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"94"},["name","Text"],["description"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1899568"},["text","A Howling Wilderness:\nThe Summit Road Area – Santa Cruz Mountains\nBy Stephen Payne\n\nCitations in the text refer to the Selected Bibliography, Local History Article AR-219.\nSituated between the Town of Los Gatos and the City of Santa Cruz, in the central coast\ncounties of California, is the Summit Road area of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Summit area\nspans two counties: Santa Clara and Santa Cruz, and is roughly bounded on the west by\nHighway 17 and on the east by Loma Prieta Road. The northern boundaries are the Moody\nGulch area, Patchen (an early post office and present state landmark) and Wright's Station\n(abandoned). The southern boundaries are the Skyland-Highland area, Hester Creek School\n(abandoned), and the little burg of Laurel. This area encompasses roughly twenty square miles.\nThe first written record of this area was left by Spanish explorers in the mid-1700's. The Spanish\ncalled the area the Sierra Azul (Blue Mountains) and found the area to be a rough and wild land\nenclosed by giant coast redwoods (Sequoia Sempervirens). An apt description of the Santa Cruz\nMountains was written by a padre in Santa Cruz:\n\"The adjecent mountains were wild and rugged, the canyons deep and dark with the\nshadows of the forest. Coyotes broke the stillness with their dismal howls, and herds of\ndeer slacked their thirst in the clear waters of the San Lorenzo. Grizzly bears were\nnumerous, prowling about in herds, like hogs on a farm.\" (38:4/22/1934)\nIn the early 1850's when the first settlers came into the Summit area of the Santa Cruz\nMountains they found that the region's condition was the same as described by the long\nforgotten padre. Lyman Burrell, who moved to the area with his family in 1853 wrote years\nlater what they found at their new home:\n\n�\"It seemed like a vast, solitary wilderness-no houses, and no roads. I knew that\nbears and lions dwelt here, but I feared them not.\" (17:12/31/1881)\n\"At that time there was no one living in this vacinity. It might truly have been\ncalled a howling wilderness: for these beautiful hills and valleys, now covered\nwith orchards and vineyards, comfortable houses, schoolhouses, good roads,\nwith all kinds of improvement going on, and everywhere teeming with busy life,\nwere then the abode of fierce and dangerous animals. They made their homes in\nthe thickets and hollow trees, and went forth both day and night to seek food for\nthemselves and for their young. Wild cats and lions were often seen prowling\nabout while the sun was shining: and the night was often made hideous by the\nhowling of the coyotes.\" (17:1/28/ 1882,9-96)\nTo this wilderness area came the pioneers of the 1850's. In order to have livestock on their little\nranches carved out of the forests of giant redwoods, they had a constant battle with the\nnumerous grizzly bears and mountain lions of the area. The most famous of the early pioneers\nwas \"Mountain Charley\" (Charles Henry McKiernan). McKiernan hunted throughout the area in\nthe 1850's and killed \"hundreds\" of bears. Although McKiernan usually won his encounters with\nthe four-hundred to one-thousand pound creatures, two almost killed him.\nMcKiernan's first run in with a bear, while not as famous as his second, was, nonetheless an\nexciting adventure. While hunting near Lyman Burrell's ranch, in 1853, McKiernan saw a large\nbear lying near a pond. McKiernan rode his mule to within thirty feet of the sleeping bear,\ndismounted with his musket, took aim at the back of the bear's head and fired. Assuming that\nthe bear was dead, he was slowly reloading his weapon when the bear rose up and charged\nhim. He grabbed at his saddle horn and tried to mount his mule, but the frightened animal\njerked back, threw him, and ran off. Seeing the running mule, the bear returned to her cubs and\nMcKiernan began to search for his gun. Because of his activity the bear was again aroused and\ncharged McKiernan.\nHe took to his heels, and never man ran as he did until he reached home. The bear got pretty\nclose to him at times, and would doubtless have caught him had she not been mortally\nwounded.\nOn the following day McKiernan returned to the spot with a rifle in hand and found the bear\nlying dead with her two cubs at her side. McKiernan took the two cubs home to raise, but four\nmonths later the cubs killed some hogs and he was forced to destroy them. (29)\nMountain Charley's second encounter with a bear almost ended with the bear getting the best\nof McKiernan. On May 8, 1854, McKiernan, in the company of John Taylor, a neighbor, was out\nhunting with Taylor's dog. After killing five deer the men were in the process of dragging the\ncarcasses out of a gulch when they spotted a bear four hundred yards below them feeding with\nher cubs. The men decided to kill the bear and started down an animal trail after it. But as they\nwere going down the trail, the bear started up it. As they were climbing over a mound, the\n\n�startled men saw the bear on the other side. \"The bear gave a snort and plunged at them.\"\nTaylor took a hurried aim and shot, but the bullet missed and he headed for the nearest tree.\nMcKiernan also fired, hitting the bear over its eye, dazing it momentarily. Not having time to\nreload his gun, McKiernan hit the bear over the head until the rifle broke. The enraged grizzly\nrose up\n\"with its tremendous jaws open, and made a snap at Charley, catching him over the\nleft eye and forehead, crushing the skull and tearing out about five by three inches of\nit.\"\nMcKiernan tried to protect his head with his arms, but the bear took the upraised arms in its\nmouth, \"crushing down with her grinders upon one arm, while her tusks passed entirely\nthrough the other, escaping the bone. \" At this point the bear dropped the still-conscious\nhunter and went down the hill to protect her cubs which Taylor's dog was attacking. Taylor,\nthinking that McKiernan was dead, left for McKiernan's home to get a horse to pack his friend's\nbody home.\nAfter chasing Taylor's dog away from her cubs, the bear returned to McKiernan, dragged him to\na clearing under an oak tree and pawed over him. Finally the bear left.\nWhen Taylor returned, he found McKiernan sitting up and conscious, but paralyzed from the\nwaist down with shock. McKiernan told Taylor that he had been conscious throughout the\nentire ordeal.\nAfter taking McKiernan to his house, Taylor went to San Jose to get a doctor. Taylor returned\nthe next morning at sunrise with Dr. A. W. Bell, who, after examining the hole over McKiernan's\nleft eye and nose, sent for his partner, Dr. T. J. Ingersoll. Dr. Ingersol reached McKiernan's\nhouse about nine that evening with a silver plate hammered out of two Mexican pesos. After\nexamining his patient, Dr. Ingersofl, found that the silver plate was too small. The next day Dr.\nIngersoll returned to San Jose, had another plate made and returned by eight that evening. The\ntwo physicians cleaned the wound and completed surgery by eleven that night--without the\nbenefit of anesthetics.\nA week later Dr. Ingersoll was forced to remove the silver plate as it was irritating the wound.\nTwelve months later the wound became infected and again Dr. Ingersoll, this time with a Dr.\nSpencer, was forced to operate. During this surgery chloroform was used to put McKiernan to\nsleep. This was the first reported local instance of the use of the new anesthetic. After the\ndoctors removed an abscess caused by a wad of hair in the wound, McKiernan recovered\ncompletely.\nThe wound left McKiernan's face disfigured. From the time of the accident to the end of his life\nhe wore large brimmed hats, pulled down to his eyebrows, to hide the scars. (29; 13; 38:\n4/22/1934; 18: 3-5; 20: Vol. I 12/21/1957, 4, Vol. III Autumn 1960, 13)\n\n�McKiernan lived to tell his tale to many a small mountain child. But, his encounter was not the\nonly one between a pioneer and a grizzly.\nDown the hill at Lexington, a huge Frenchman,\"with a mighty barrel chest, enormous biceps\nand ham-like fists\" fought a bear without benefit of a weapon. The Frenchman was out hunting\none day when he suddenly came upon a bear. Quickly firing his rifle without taking proper aim,\nhe managed only to wound the beast in the shoulder. The bear immediately charged the\nFrenchman who tried to club it with his rifle. The bear knocked the rifle out of the man's hand\nand bit down on his left wrist. Then the bear grabbed his left arm with both of its paws. At this\npoint the powerful Frenchman's right arm was free and he began to slug the bear's chest with\nall his might. The bear hung on to the man's left arm, biting and clawing at it, while the\nFrenchman was hitting her with his free hand. Finally the bear had had enough and, letting the\nexhausted man go, she lumbered off into the woods. The man's friends found him unconscious\nwith blood streaming from his arm. Although he lost his arm, the Frenchman lived. The bear\nwas found the next day-dead from injuries caused by the Frenchman's mighty blows.\n(38:6/24/1934)\nLyman Burrell was another of the early pioneers unfortunate enough to have experienced a\nbrief encounter with a grizzly bear. One day in the mid-1850's Burrell and his son, James Birney\nBurrell, were in a pasture, building a fence to hold some pigs they owned. The pigs were nearby\nforaging in the field and began to make some strange noises. Taking up his axe, Lyman Burrell\nwent up a trail to investigate. To his surprise he saw a mother bear and her cub running down\nthe same trail at him. With only his axe in hand Burrell decided that his best move would be to\nrun as fast as he could toward the new fence. Lyman Burrell wrote of the incident in 1882:\n\"I turned back and ran as fast as possible in the trail, with the bear and cub behind\nme. I soon came to a short turn in the trail, where I stumbled and fell flat on the ground,\n… The old bear instantly took one of my limbs between her jaws. She gave me one good,\nstrong bite.\"\nFortunately in the confusion the bear decided to keep going and did not further molest Burrell.\nBy the time his son reached the scene with a rifle, the bear and cub were gone.\nBurrell's wife managed to patch up his leg and he was able to work, after a six-months'\nconvalescence. The encounter with the bear taught Burrell to have more respect for the grizzly\nbear: \"Until this happened, I had never felt any fear of wild animals; but after this, I never had\nthe least desire to meet a bear.\" (17:3/9/1882,10-11)\nCharles McKiernan's son, James V. McKiernan, told John V. Young that when the early pioneers\nhunted bear they did so in the following manner:\n\". . . always the grizzly was treated with respect, and the best shot was a downhill\nshot, with a fast horse for a quick getaway if necessary.\" (38:4/22/ 1934)\n\n�Although the pioneers tried to keep their distance from the giant grizzly, sometimes the bears\nwould come to them. While the Burrells were building their first home in 1853, they, not\nrealizing it, located their cabin next to a bear path. Every morning the Burrells would awaken\nand find new tracks outside their cabin, although the bears never bothered them while they\nwere in the house. Once Lyman decided to put up a large gate to cut off the path. One night a\nbear came up the path and encountered the gate. Rather than going around and jumping the\nlow fence, the bear \"took hold of it, wrenched it from its fastenings, and laid it on the ground, thinking, no doubt, that he was lord of the forest, and always should be.\"\n(17:12/31/1881,13,16b; 1/28/1882,14b)\nAlthough the foul-tempered grizzlies were a major problem in the wilderness of the Santa Cruz\nMountains, the more numerous and agile mountain lions created problems too. When the early\npioneers tried raising sheep, goats, or even pigs, the lions would quickly deplete their stock.\nEven the building of large fences would not deter the spry cats.\nOne night as the Burrells were sleeping, they awoke to the screechings and growlings of their\ndog and a mountain lion, fighting at their front door. Lyman jumped out of bed, grabbed his\nrifle and flung open the door. He could not see well enough to shoot so instead, shouted\nwarnings at the animals. Presently the dog returned victorious and the lion ran off into the\nnight:\nHe (the dog) was not badly wounded. He seemed greatly pleased with his victory. He was so\nexcited over it that he sat on the steps and barked all the rest of the night. (I 7:1 / 28 / 1882,1313b)\nThe mountain lions would stop at nothing to get a sheep, goat, pig or even small calf. The\nBurrells were raising some calves in a pen. One night a mountain lion jumped the fence, killed a\ncalf, and jumped the fence again carrying the dead animal. Upon this discovery, Lyman put a\nfull-grown Spanish cow inside the pen on the following night, thinking that the lion would be\nback for another meal. He was right! That night the lion came back, but this time met with\nmore than its match. The cow gored the lion and pushed it clear through the fence, breaking\nseveral planks in the process. The Burrells never again had trouble with lions getting their calves\nin that pen. (17:3 /4/ 1882,4)\nOther early settlers had problems with the many mountain lions of the district. In 1874, Walter\nYoung's mother was taking some freshly-killed venison into Santa Cruz from their ranch on\nSummit Road. Traveling down the San Jose-Soquel Road on horseback, she heard a rustling in\nthe bushes. She knew at once that a mountain lion had caught the scent of the deer meat and\nwas stalking her. Rather than attempt to outrun the quicker lion with her horse on that section\nof overgrown road, she rode on slowly, keeping an apprehensive watch for the lion. The\nstalking cat crossed the road behind her several times, but Mrs. Young remained calm.\nReaching a clearing on both sides of the road near a neighbor's house, Mrs. Young decided that\nthat was the time to make a run for it. Her horse raced through the clearing and rider, horse,\nand venison reached safety. (40:7/21/1959)\n\n�On another occasion Walter Young's father, William A. Young, was out hunting near the San\nJose-Soquel Road. Walking through the woods, Young was forced to crawl through a section of\nbrush that was quite thick. Midway through he heard a wildcat's growl. Turning around on his\nhands and knees, he spotted the cat ready to spring. He was a good shot and managed to get\nthe cat before she got him. In searching the area, Young found the reason the wildcat was after\nhim. She was protecting several kittens. (40:7 /28/ 1959)\nAside from the obvious threat of wild animals the settlers faced other problems. The early\npioneers of the Summit area had to carve their own roads out of this wilderness. The rugged\nmountains were covered by giant first-growth redwood trees, along with madrone, oak and bay\ntrees. Any open area was covered with a heavy covering of manzanita, scotch broom, sage and\nother almost impenetrable brush. The steep canyons with year-around running water were\nalmost impassable. Early roads no more than paths, would often wash out at the first heavy\nwinter rains; and to clear land or build a good road required a great amount of work and time.\nThe giant trees, often fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, had to be brought down by axe and\nsaw. Then the stumps were either blasted from the earth or left in place while vineyards and\nfruit trees were planted in the new clearings.\nBut, even with all the hard work and danger associated with this wilderness, the pioneers came.\nThey built ranches, stores, post offices, schools, churches, wineries, packing sheds and lumber\nmills. Even a railroad was cut through the canyons and trees, and tunneled through the heart of\nthe Santa Cruz Mountains.\n\nSource\nExcerpted from Payne, Stephen Michael. A Howling Wilderness: a History of the Summit Road\nArea of the Santa Cruz Mountains 1850-1906. Santa Cruz, CA: Loma Prieta Publishing, 1978.\nCopyright 1978 Stephen Michael Payne. Reproduced with the permission of the author.\n\nIt is the library’s intent to provide accurate information, however, it is not possible for the library\nto completely verify the accuracy of all information. If you believe that factual statements in a\nlocal history article are incorrect and can provide documentation, please contact the library.\n\n�"]]]]]]]]],["collection",{"collectionId":"8"},["elementSetContainer",["elementSet",{"elementSetId":"1"},["name","Dublin Core"],["description","The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/."],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"50"},["name","Title"],["description","A name given to the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"123576"},["text","Santa Cruz History Articles"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"41"},["name","Description"],["description","An account of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"123577"},["text","Original articles by library staff and by local authors and material from historical books. "]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"264219"},["text","Articles on Santa Cruz County history, many with illustrations, are available here.\r\n\r\nThe Santa Cruz Public Libraries is grateful to our local historians and their publishers for giving permission to include their articles. The content of the articles is the responsibility of the individual authors.\r\n"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"264220"},["text","It is the library's intent to provide accurate information. However, it is not possible to completely verify the accuracy of individual articles obtained from a variety of sources. If you believe that factual statements in an article are incorrect and can provide documentation, please contact the library."]]]],["element",{"elementId":"45"},["name","Publisher"],["description","An entity responsible for making the resource available"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"264216"},["text","Santa Cruz Public Libraries\r\n"]]]]]]]],["itemType",{"itemTypeId":"1"},["name","Document"],["description","A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text."],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"7"},["name","Original Format"],["description","If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894488"},["text","Paper"]]]]]],["elementSetContainer",["elementSet",{"elementSetId":"1"},["name","Dublin Core"],["description","The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/."],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"50"},["name","Title"],["description","A name given to the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894478"},["text","A Howling Wilderness: The Summit Road Area - Santa Cruz Mountains"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894479"},["text","The Summit Road Area - Santa Cruz Mountains"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"39"},["name","Creator"],["description","An entity primarily responsible for making the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894480"},["text","Payne, Stephen"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"45"},["name","Publisher"],["description","An entity responsible for making the resource available"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894481"},["text","Santa Cruz Public Libraries"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"40"},["name","Date"],["description","A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894482"},["text","1978"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"42"},["name","Format"],["description","The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894483"},["text","TEXT"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"44"},["name","Language"],["description","A language of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894484"},["text","EN"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"51"},["name","Type"],["description","The nature or genre of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894485"},["text","ARTICLE"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"43"},["name","Identifier"],["description","An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894486"},["text","AR-214"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"38"},["name","Coverage"],["description","The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894487"},["text","Santa Cruz (County)"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"49"},["name","Subject"],["description","The topic of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894544"},["text","Santa Cruz Mountains"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894545"},["text","Summit\r\n\r\n\r\n"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894546"},["text","Pioneers"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894547"},["text","McKiernan, Charles"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894548"},["text","Bears"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894549"},["text","Burrell, Lyman"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894550"},["text","Mountain Lions"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"48"},["name","Source"],["description","A related resource from which the described resource is derived"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894576"},["text","Excerpted from: Payne, Michael. \"A Howling Wilderness: A History of the Summit Road Area of the Santa Cruz Mountains 1850-1906.\" Santa Cruz, CA: Loma Prieta Publishing, 1978."]]]],["element",{"elementId":"47"},["name","Rights"],["description","Information about rights held in and over the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894577"},["text","Copyright 1978 by Stephen Michael Payne. Reproduced with permission of the author."]]]],["element",{"elementId":"46"},["name","Relation"],["description","A related resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1894588"},["text","Selected Bibliography"]]]]]]],["tagContainer",["tag",{"tagId":"39"},["name","Biography"]]]],["item",{"itemId":"134351","public":"1","featured":"1"},["fileContainer",["file",{"fileId":"20788"},["src","https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/files/original/d4f6478e85fdd87aeacdc72ea6f501c0.pdf"],["authentication","e652de84378c93154fcba41b0d5d3ef4"],["elementSetContainer",["elementSet",{"elementSetId":"7"},["name","PDF Text"],["description"],["elementContainer",["element",{"elementId":"94"},["name","Text"],["description"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1899569"},["text","Mountain Charley\nBy John V. Young\n\nMost colorful of Santa Cruz Mountain characters of the pioneer days was Mountain Charley McKiernan, one of the first\nwhite settlers in the region. Hunter, rancher, teamster, road-builder and stage-line operator, McKiernan was said to be\nthe idol of every small boy who grew up in the region. According to his admirers, his motto was: \"Right wrongs nobody.\"\nThe simple statement \"I knew Mountain Charley\" was the proud boast of many an old mountain man, and tales of this\nhalf-legendary figure have long survived him. After he was disfigured by a bear in a fight that is a legend in itself, it was\nsaid of McKiernan that no grizzly would argue with him over the right-of-way on a trail, a typical tall tale that in no way\ndetracted from McKiernan's sterling reputation.\nCharles Henry McKiernan was born in Ireland in 1825 (or possibly 1830). As a young quartermaster in the British army,\nhe traveled to Australia and New Zealand, where he was stationed when word came of the California gold strike of 1848.\nHis enlistment having expired, he signed on as a seaman on a ship headed for San Francisco.\nNot waiting for their pay, the crew members jumped ship to join recruiters who met them at the pier with bottles of\nwhiskey as inducements to work in the mines. The wages were up to $20 a day. In Ireland at the time of McKiernan's\ndeparture the prevailing scale was about $20 a year.\nWith his savings from his first year's work in the mines McKiernan organized a pack train to carry supplies to the Trinity\nmining district of northern California. Attacked by Indians on his second trip, McKiernan and his company lost everything\nbut their lives.\nBack at the mines, McKiernan accumulated a second stake and headed out for the Santa Clara Valley. There he found\nthat conflicting claims to all the land made investment quite inadvisable. With a friend named Page, he entered the\nSanta Cruz Mountains early in 1850 to look for available land to homestead.\nFollowing an old Indian trail from what is now Los Gatos, the two men stopped at a small pond the Spanish padres had\ncalled Laguna del Sargento, a long-time favorite camping place of the Indians. On the site were quantities of mortars,\npestles, and flint arrowheads. Page went on to Santa Cruz, but McKiernan found the spot to his liking, and there he\nsettled, completely alone. He established his homestead on the highest point of the ridge, where the southwest corner\nof Redwood Estates now joins Summit Road.\nNear a spring McKiernan later built a frame house, said to have been the first such structure in the entire mountain\nrange, from redwood lumber whipsawed on the spot. (Whip-sawing was a crude form of lumbering performed by two\nmen using a long, thin, flexible sawblade with handles at both ends. One man stood in a pit under the log, the other man\non top, alternately pulling up and down on the saw to make the cut. It was brutal work, but it did the job. Lumber cut in\nthis fashion was worth about $100 a thousand board feet in those days).\n1\n\n�His home and corrals completed, McKiernan started to raise sheep and cattle and to hunt deer for market; but grizzly\nbears, cougars and wildcats soon made mincemeat of the sheep. Long-horned steers, better able to cope with the\npredators, were sold for $6 to $8 a head, mainly for their hides and tallow.\nDeer meat was worth 10 cents a pound and was easy to obtain, at first. Since the deer had never heard the sound of a\nrifle before, they were still feeding by day and would only look around in curiosity when one of their number fell to\nMcKiernan's muzzle-loading blunderbuss.\nMcKiernan made two trips a week to Alviso (in those days a seaport on south San Francisco Bay) with deer meat to be\nshipped to San Francisco. He was alone in the mountains until 1853, when the Lyman John Burrell family settled farther\ndown the ridge, above the site where the town of Wright's later located. In the same year, one John Bean settled on\nBean Creek near the present town of Glenwood, and Charles C. Martin homesteaded land adjoining McKiernan's. Martin\noperated a stage line and toll road on the Mountain Charley road, and later built a home in the Valley for his family.\nThere were no roads west of San Jose at that time, and no fences. Until McKiernan and his neighbors hacked out an oxtrail, later to become a stage route, only an Indian trail crossed the Santa Cruz Mountains. McKiernan later built several\nroads, one of which still bears his name. It was a cut-off route out of Los Gatos, running up through Moody Gulch near\nwhat is now Holy City, and across the site of Redwood Estates to join the old Indian trail near McKiernan's home.\n(Author's note: Portions of this road are still in use, mainly by local residents, running south from Summit Road near its\njunction with Highway 17 to join the old Glenwood Highway at Scotts Valley. It is narrow and winding, having only one\nlane with turnouts. The site of his cabin is designated by a historical marker.)\nMcKiernan, along with many others, tried his hand at gold mining on and near his property, even to the extent of staking\nout a claim in company with four other men, but nothing came of the venture. No paying amounts of gold were ever\nfound in these mountains.\n\nThe Famous Bear Fight\nEven for a region as rich in legendary lore as the Santa Cruz Mountains, the story of Mountain Charley McKiernan's fight\nwith a grizzly bear is outstanding as a tale of heroism and fortitude, one that has needed no embellishment (although\nmany versions exist). As told (1934) by McKiernan's son, James, residing at the old home place near the summit, the\nlegend differs only in minor detail from several other versions current at the time.\nGrizzly bears in the 1850's were too plentiful for the ranchers, who hunted them relentlessly to stop depredations on\ntheir livestock. They also made a profit selling bear hides and meat. The grizzlies were huge, shaggy creatures weighing\nfrom 800 to 1200-pounds (the only species of bear in these mountains), and were always treated with respect. They\nwere best hunted from an uphill stand with a fast horse ready for a quick getaway if necessary. Often it took several\nbullets to put a grizzly out of action. McKiernan had often shot grizzly bears; in fact, he was one of the best known bear\nhunters in the mountains.\nOn May 8, 1854, McKiernan and a friend named Taylor started out for a gulch about a mile southwest of the McKiernan\nplace, where Taylor was planning to take up some land. After shooting a couple of deer, the two men spotted a shegrizzly with two cubs. As both men were excellent shots, they decided to go for the bear and headed up the gulch to\napproach the animal from above.\nWhen they arrived at their chosen spot, the bear and her cubs had disappeared. Following a deer trail in pursuit, they\ncame upon the she-bear around a bend, standing and facing McKiernan at a distance of no more than six feet, her\nforepaws outstretched for a raking hug.\nMcKiernan fired instantly, with the muzzle of his gun up against the bear's chest, while Taylor fired over McKiernan's\nhead into the bear's face. McKiernan reversed his gun to club the bear with the stock, but the bear beat down the\n2\n\n�weapon and seized him with her powerful forepaws, crushed the front of his skull in her jaws, then tossed him aside and\nstarted for Taylor.\nMeanwhile Taylor's small dog had attacked the two cubs. Their squalling distracted the mother and she turned to their\nrescue, giving Taylor a chance to escape to the ridge top, supposing that McKiernan had been, killed instantly. The bear\nchased the dog away, then returned to McKiernan and dragged him to the end of a clearing under an oak tree and after\npawing him over left him. The bear was never seen again.\nHis rifle reloaded, Taylor returned to the scene to find McKiernan sitting up and conscious, but paralyzed from the waist\ndown. The fight had lasted only seconds, and McKiernan said he had been fully conscious all the time and had recalled\nevery act of his life in the process.\nTaylor bound up McKiernan's head with his shirt and leaving his loaded rifle for protection went for help. Accounts differ\nas to whether a doctor came to the ranch to attend McKiernan, or whether he was taken either to San Jose or to Santa\nCruz for the medical attention.\nIn any case, the doctor hammered a silver plate out of two Mexican dollars and fitted it into the broken place in\nMcKiernan's skull where the bear had chewed away the bone over his left eye up to the top of the frontal bone. Within\nthree weeks the plate had started to corrode and had to be removed, to be replaced some time later with another plate.\nMcKiernan suffered through the entire ordeal without anesthetics until the wound healed. He suffered from severe\nheadaches for two years, however, until a specialist in Redwood City removed the second plate and found a lock of hair\nunder it. By this time anesthesia had become more generally available, sparing McKiernan the pain of the third\noperation.\nAlthough terribly disfigured (he wore a hat low over his left eye the rest of his life), McKiernan enjoyed full health until\n1890, when he became ill with an obscure stomach ailment. He died on January 18, 1892, thirty-eight years after the\nbear fight that made him famous.\n\nSources\n\n\nThis article is a chapter from Ghost Towns of the Santa Cruz Mountains by John V. Young. Western Tanager\nPress, c1979, c1984. It is reproduced with the permission of the author.\n\nThe content of this article is the responsibility of the individual author. It is the Library's intent to provide accurate local history\ninformation. However, it is not possible for the Library to completely verify the accuracy of individual articles obtained from a\nvariety of sources. If you believe that factual statements in a local history article are incorrect and can provide documentation,\nplease contact the Webmaster.\n\n3\n\n�"]]]]]]]]],["collection",{"collectionId":"8"},["elementSetContainer",["elementSet",{"elementSetId":"1"},["name","Dublin Core"],["description","The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. 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The content of the articles is the responsibility of the individual authors.\r\n"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"264220"},["text","It is the library's intent to provide accurate information. However, it is not possible to completely verify the accuracy of individual articles obtained from a variety of sources. If you believe that factual statements in an article are incorrect and can provide documentation, please contact the library."]]]],["element",{"elementId":"45"},["name","Publisher"],["description","An entity responsible for making the resource available"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"264216"},["text","Santa Cruz Public Libraries\r\n"]]]]]]]],["itemType",{"itemTypeId":"1"},["name","Document"],["description","A resource containing textual data. 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Western Tanager Press, c1979, c1984."]]]],["element",{"elementId":"45"},["name","Publisher"],["description","An entity responsible for making the resource available"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1891725"},["text","Santa Cruz Public Libraries"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"40"},["name","Date"],["description","A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1891726"},["text","1979"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"42"},["name","Format"],["description","The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1891727"},["text","Text"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"44"},["name","Language"],["description","A language of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1891728"},["text","En"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"51"},["name","Type"],["description","The nature or genre of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1891729"},["text","ARTICLE"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"47"},["name","Rights"],["description","Information about rights held in and over the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1891731"},["text","Reproduced with the permission of the author."]]]],["element",{"elementId":"49"},["name","Subject"],["description","The topic of the resource"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1892839"},["text","McKiernan, Charles"]],["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1892840"},["text","Santa Cruz Mountains"]]]],["element",{"elementId":"38"},["name","Coverage"],["description","The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant"],["elementTextContainer",["elementText",{"elementTextId":"1892841"},["text","Santa Cruz (County)"]]]]]]],["tagContainer",["tag",{"tagId":"39"},["name","Biography"]]]]]