The following 2002 lecture was presented at the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor on the history of Arana Gulch. It is actually a tour of history of Arana Gulch from the mountains to the sea. Friends of Arana Gulch appreciates Ross sharing this wealth of information with us. Thanks Ross!
THE THRILLING HISTORY OF ARANA GULCH
By Ross Eric Gibson
Copyright 2002 by R.E. Gibson
One of the problems with seeing Arana Gulch as a place, is that it is used as a border between communities. Thus in the public consciousness, it falls into the crack between places, and even the term “Greenbelt” sounds more like a planted traffic median. This might sound less marginalized if it were called something like “Arana Gulch State Park.” So this is an attempt to identify its historic features and milestones, and imbue us with a sense of “Arana Consciousness.”
BOUNDARIES: The parameters of Arana Gulch run from the Yacht Harbor, up along the foot of Hagemann Bluff and Trevathan Hill (where Soquel Avenue enters town), passed Harbor High School, Dominican Hospital, Oakwood Cemetery, and De Laveaga Park, beyond Chaminade to Happy Valley.
PORTOLA: In the fall of 1769, California’s governor, Gaspar de Portola, led a party of explorers up the coast, trying to locate the Monterey Bay to establish California’s capital. But they didn’t recognize the bay due to fog and its great wide-openness, so they continued up the coast into Santa Cruz County. Many in the band were sick, carried slowly on hammocks rigged between two horses, which tended to come undone when they traveled up or down hill. They grew weary of getting bogged down in so many coastal lagoons, so they traveled up to a mile-or-so inland, and crossed Arana Gulch where Oakwood Cemetery is now. They skirted De Laveaga Heights, and forded the San Lorenzo River at a site called Spanish Crossing Street (now Tait St.) at the north entrance to town.
AGUAJITO: Even in Spanish days, Arana Gulch was a physical landform marking the eastern edge of the Branciforte plateau (or mesa), on which was established the 1797 Villa de Branciforte. Soquel Avenue was El Cameno Real (“the King’s Highway.”) Harbor High School and Loma Prieta Continuation High School sit on the site of the 40 acre landgrant “Rancho Aguajito,” the smallest county grant. In 1837 it was granted to Miguel Villagrana, who called it “Little Waterhole” (Aguajito), although today it’s just a dry lakebed.
JOSE ARANA (1794-1868): Arana Gulch was named after Jose Arana. He was born in Mexico in 1794, and married Felecitias Albarez. They came to Branciforte in 1833 with children Filipe, Juan, Homobono, Valose, Marcos and Maria. Jose established his farm in Arana Gulch, with his adobe built on the bluff where Holy Cross Cemetery is today. In 1842, Jose was granted the 92 acre Rancho Potrero Y Rincon de San Pedro Regalado (now the area north of Mission Hill, from Costplus to Costo).
FILIPE ARANA (1814-1859): With Jose overseeing his San Pedro Regaldo farm, his eldest son Filipe Arana took over operations of the Arana Gulch farm. His wife was Esperanza Amaya, but Gabino and Ramon are the only known names of their children. In 1859, a few weeks after the birth of Filipe’s ninth child, Filipe was hauling lumber near Waddell’s mill at the north county line near Ano Noevo Point. In a freak accident, Filipe fell under the wagon, which ran over his chest. He died 12 hours later.
MARCOS ARANA (1828-1903): Jose’s brother Marcos Arana had a farm halfway between Branciforte Grammar School and Morrissay Boulevard, and also worked as a teamster. His children were Mrs. Alta Garcia Alarcon, Mrs. Sonona Bravo, Joseph E. Arana, and Daniel Arana. In 1876, Marcos stole two harnesses and a plow from J. Gilbert of Branciforte, and was caught with them when he was tracked to Salinas. The case didn’t come to trial until 1879, when he was fined the cost of the items, $25. He moved to Monterey Co. in 1878, where his wife died in 1892. In 1894, he returned to Santa Cruz and lived with his daughter, Mrs. C.D. Alarcon, at her 95 Garfield St. home (now site of the County Government Center and San Lorenzo Park).
MARIA ARANA: Jose’s daughter Maria Arana married Francisco Barra in 1852. Then in 1861 Barra disappeared, and not until two years leter did the river reveal his shallow grave. He had been murdered on his way to town.
LIVE OAK: In 1823, soldier/statesman Sebastian Rodriguez took an interest in ranching Bolsa del Pajaro (the “Bird’s Nest”) in the Watsonville area, and was later joined by his brother Alejandro. Both served another shift in the military, then Sebastian and Alejandro retired to Bolsa del Pajaro in 1831, and in 1835 Sebastian became Commissioner of Branciforte, with Alejandro as Alcalde (judge-mayor). Alejandro hoped Pajaro would be confirmed as a joint-grant, but when Mexico granted it exclusively to Sebastian, Alejandro settled Rancho Encinalitos in 1836, which means “Little Live Oaks.” Alejandro never bothered to file a formal claim for Encinalitos, because of his obsession to be granted part of Bolsa del Pajaro, an obsession his relatives carried on in the courts long after his death, up into the 1860s.
RODRIGUEZ ADOBE: Branciforte native Jose de la Cruz Rodriguez was the son of Roman Rodriguez. Jose became the owner of 210 acres between Arana Gulch and 17th Avenue, Capitola Road and Soquel Drive. In 1855 he built his adobe home on Paul Sweet Road at what is now Oakwood Cemetery. A few of Jose Arana’s children married into the Rodriguez family, such as Juan (John) Arana who married Santa Rodriguez. Sheriff John Porter squatted on the Rodriguez land, and gained title in 1860, which forced Jose to pay Porter $3,000 to get his land back. The Rodriguez barn stood at the northwest corner of 7th Avenue and Capitola Road, and in the 20th Century was a popular place for dances. In 1956, the Rodriguez adobe was torn down to make way for more graves in Oakwood Cemetery.
PAUL SWEET: Upper Arana Gulch turns into a canyon between the foothills of De Laveaga Park bluff and the Chaminade hill. This canyon was known as Sweet Gulch. It was named for New England sailor Paul Sweet, who came to Santa Cruz in 1842, working first as a logger for Isaac Graham at his Zayante sawmill, then Sweet established California’s first tannery in Scotts Valley in 1843. In 1849, Sweet bought the upper Arana Gulch from the Rodriguez family, which became his Sweet Gulch Farm. Sweet fought in the Bear Flag Revolt in 1846, and while in Southern California, married an Indian from Santa Barbara. They raised a family in Sweet Gulch, and and she nursed him in his later infirmity, before he died in 1890. Buried at his farm, Sweet was the first grave in what later became the Oakwood Cemetery area.
TREVATHAN HILL: The fear of foreigners in Spanish days were hardly put to rest, when the first Anglos to settle in Branciforte were pirates! William Trevathan was not a pirate, but arrived with Julian Wilson, William Atchison and Billy Buckle, who served in Lord Cochrane’s privateer army. The pirates jumped ship in Monterey, and joined Trevathan in moving to Branciforte in 1824. Yet far from making pests of themselves, they converted to Catholicism, married, and settled down. Trevathan married Antonia Perez, and had a ranch on the north-west bluff overlooking Arana Gulch. For that reason, the east entrance to town was called Trevathan Hill, and his name remains on a local street.
HOLY CROSS CEMETERY: The Catholic Church had outgrown its tiny old Mission Cemetery on Mission Hill, making multiple burials in some of the graves. When they built the new Catholic Church they converted the old Arana Bluff east of Arana Gulch into the new cemetery. Most of the graves were moved to the more spacious setting, including a section for the Mission Indians.
JUAN ARANA: Jose Arana’s son Juan (known as John in American days), was a saddle-maker. He married Santa Rodriguez, and had 11 children, three of whom died in childbirth. Those who survived were: Elvira, who married Joseph Tait. John Arana Jr., who settled in Watsonville. Claudina (b. Santa Cruz Feb. 7, 1874, d. San Francisco June 21, 1959), who married Aptos-native Urban Cordova in the mission church in 1866. Mary (called May), married Michael Meehan, whose children were Eddie, and Mary Ellen Michael. Alonzo Arana who remained in Santa Cruz. Sarah (Mrs. L.A. Miller), lived in San Francisco, as did her brother, Eddie Arana. And Manuel (Mel) Arana, who died in 1941.
DESPERADO: On Feb. 8, 1865, Juan Arana was attending a fandango at the Perez Tavern (site of today’s San Lorenzo Park playground), when to everyone’s surprise and thrill, the desperado Faustino Lorenzana came out of hiding to attend. He sometimes rode with his more famous outlaw cousin Tuburcio Vasquez, whom some viewed as a Jesse James style folk hero, and champion of Spaniards cheated out of their land by Yankees. Lorenzana was accompanied by his 18-year-old nephew Pedro, and Juan Arana’s 18-year-old nephew Jose Rodriguez.
TROUBLE: Arana was outraged to see his handsome, intelligent nephew associated with these criminals, and demanded Rodriguez leave the gang. Arana told him Lorenzana was no champion of the downtrodden, as his gang robbed & killed Spaniards as often as Anglos. The body of Arana’s brother-in-law, Francisco Barra (Rodriguez’ own uncle), had been found less than two years earlier killed by highway-men, so Arana said Rodriguez insulted his aunt by joining this gang. Publicly humiliated, Lorenzana began punching Arana, but stopped when Arana drew a knife. Lorenzana left vowing revenge.
NOTORIOUS GULCH: The only entrance to town from the east was through Arana Gulch, but it was a notorious pass through a gnarled oak forest, which was an impassible bog in winter, and only less difficult in summer. A rickety wooden bridge was built by 1860 (later replaced in 1890 and 1935). In the fog, rain, or gloom of night, it was dreary and forbidding. Here Faustino Lorenzana, Pedro Lorenzana, and Jose Rodriguez hid, intending to murder Arana in an ambush when he returned home.
JACK SLOAN: Two horsemen approached at 8:30 PM, who turned out to be Jack Sloan and his brother-in-law, Towne, returning to Sloan’s 7th Avenue farm. The two would have passed by without noticing the deperados, but Sloan’s horse spooked, and the men in hiding were discovered. When asked what they were doing there, one of the gang cursed and fired his pistol. The sound of the gun frightened the Sloan horses, which bolted, carrying the riders wildly out of the Gulch. They regained control of their horses where the turn-off to Holy Cross Cemetery is. Sloan was in such a rage, that he ignored the pleas of his companion, and rode back into the gulch. When Lorenzana drew his gun, Sloan beat him with a coiled laureate. Rodriguez shot Sloan twice, but both shots were flesh wounds. Sloan fell off his horse, then Lorenzana approached, and fired the fatal bullet. The men fled, and in the ensuing search, Pedro was found by a mob and lynched. Ironically, this silenced the only witness against Rodriguez, and Rodriguez was found not guilty for lack of evidence.
FRIGHT: Sloan’s funeral was one of the largest in the county to that date. Then in 1895, a terrified mother and daughter drove their wagon into Santa Cruz at full gallop. They said they’d stopped at the bottom of Arana Gulch when a tall thin man appeared walking out of the woods, to cross the road. He wore a broad-brimmed hat and long overcoat, but as he crossed in front of their wagon, he disappeared before their eyes! Tom Sweeney cried, “That’s exactly how Jack Sloan looked when he was murdered in the gulch!” Other sightings were reported in 1917, 1934, and 1952. Even recently, a couple who live in Arana Gulch said one evening they noticed the spector of a man floating across their creekside deck.
ENDINGS: Jack Sloan never realized he had saved the life of Juan Arana, and Arana no longer felt safe in Arana Gulch. So Juan moved to Soquel after the Civil War, only to be attacked there in 1866 by Jose Ramos. Juan left his father Jose in charge of the Arana Gulch farm, and it was there that Jose Arana, pioneer and patriarch, died of natural causes March 1, 1868. Juan eventually retired to San Luis Obispo in 1894, seeking relief for his poor health.
HAGEMANN GULCH: Frederick Hagemann of Hanover, Germany, settled in Santa Cruz in 1866 as a partner in Claus Spreckels’ brewery. Hagemann’s 110 acre ranch was laid out on a peninsula above Arana Gulch, with Hagemann Gulch in the middle. He called his property “Live Oak Ranch,” the first to use the English translation of Rancho Encinalitos. As his ranch prospered, Hagemann’s original simple cottage became elaborately remodeled in 1885 into a gingerbread castle with fantasy minarets. It is today owned by Mrs. Gunn, and has quite beautiful interiors. The same architect also built him the Hagemann Hotel on Pacific Avenue in 1892. Frederick died in 1901.
DE LAVEAGA: Jose Vicente de Laveaga was a wealthy, well educated Mexican, who had spent summers in Santa Cruz since the 1870s, and eventually purchased a 565 acre forested estate in 1887, a portion of which bordered north Arana Gulch. This avid horseman seemed quite aloof and dignified, seldom responding to people as he passed by. Then it was learned he was deaf, and far from feeling superior, he developed a strong empathy for the helpless, the afflicted, and animals.
WILL: This lifelong bachelor found it hard to make friends, yet when he died, many came forward to tell how his quiet charity had been a godsend, and it was soon learned how much he had given in secret to so many needy individuals and groups. He left De Laveaga Heights to Santa Cruz as a park, with the stipulation that part be set aside as an asylum for invalids. However, a lawsuit by his relatives said California law forbids give over a third of an estate to charity, so Santa Cruz got its park, but not its asylum.
PARK: The trolley was extended to the park entrance, which then was on Pacheco Street. An arched entrance gate had lanterns on pillars and flower-planted row-boats. His memorial was a Rose Pergola made of rustic logs, onion domes, and a fountain. It sat prominently on Rosario ridge, named after his birthplace in Mexico.
MOVIES: Around World War I, three movie studios were established in the park, with movies filmed on outdoor stages where the public could watch from behind a wire fence. A zoo was built at the park to house the animals used in filming. These included bears, herds of buffalo, and white elk. The studios left in the early 1920s, but the zoo survived until the Depression made feeding them a burden, and they were disbursed in 1933. The zoo and later the animal shelter reflected De Laveaga’s affection for animals.
MODERN IMPROVEMENTS: A golf course and Frisbee range were installed in the 1960s and 1970s, the latter including the highest point in De Laveaga Park, which he named La Corona, “The Crown.” In 1974, the Stroke Club converted he old Navy Reserve building at the park into the Cabrillo College Stroke Center, unwittingly fulfilling De Laveaga’s dream for his park, of a facility serving the disabled.
WOODS LAGOON: John Woods was born in Ohio in 1818, and came west with the Gold Rush of 1848. He soon settled in Santa Cruz, working first at Bennett’s Sawmill on Love Creek (Ben Lomond), before establishing a farm at today’s Seabright in 1849. Wood’s Lagoon became a popular boating and swimming pond.
In the 1870s, Camp Capitola manager S.A. Hall, tried to repeat the formula for that resort by creating Camp Marina on Wood’s Farm, renaming the lagoon “Lake Marina,” but the name’s didn’t take. Only the name of the trotting track around the park survives, known as the Marine Parade. When F.M. Mott purchased the land in 1884, he named it “Seabright” after his fond memories of the Sea Bright resort in New Jersey. Woods died Oct. 11, 1887.
SEABRIGHT: Seabright started as a camp for friends and relatives, to a religious retreat for Transcendentalists, and finally an independent village. It had its own depot, its own downtown (which still exists today), its own post office in 1899, and its own Carnegie Library, which today houses the Natural History Museum. It was nicknamed “Ladiesville,” because when the tourists went home in the winter, the town was mostly women. They couldn’t vote, but made their feelings known in favor of annexing Seabright to Santa Cruz in 1904.
SCHOLL MARR CASTLE: The Seabright Bathhouse stood across the street from the library, owned by Louis Scholl, who received the Carnegie Medal for Bravery by saving 23 people from drowning off Seabright Beach. Scholl converted the bathhouse into “Scholl Marr Castle” in 1928, which was Louis Scholl’s surprise for his invalid wife, who always dreamed of owning a castle by the sea. It was run as beach rentals, and a supper club upstairs, until it was demolish in 1965.
SEABRIGHT CANNERY: When a canning plant was proposed for Santa Cruz before World War II, opposition to bringing its smell and smoke into the downtown area, resulted in the cannery being built on the outskirts of the city limits in Seabright, overlooking Wood’s Lagoon. It was hidden from view behind a wall of cypress trees. This gave the city the benefit of its taxes and jobs, without having to look at it. The cannery was run under the Portola label, which for a time was quite widely known.
TWIN LAKES: The Baptists established their state camp and conference grounds on the peninsula between these Wood’s Lagoon and Schwan Lake in 1890, giving their religious retreat the name of Twin Lakes. It’s resort hotel was named the Hotel Surf, because the Santa Cruz Surf newspaper had been such a strong advocate of the resort and hotel. But its finest landmark was the Queen Anne-style Baptist church, with its enormous round tower. It was torn down in the 1960s to build a larger modern church, although the round tower seemed a nicer landmark than what looks like a hypodermic steeple.
VENETIAN VILLAGE: In 1905, looking for a permanent site for the Santa Cruz Venetian Water Carnivals, a Methodist Syndicate purchased the portion of Woods Lagoon where the Crow’s Nest is, which at the time formed a peninsula into the lagoon. Here they hoped to establish Venetian Village as a beachfront amusement park, with gondola-rentals for Wood’s Lagoon. But after the 1906 earthquake, the project died as funding dried up. However for decades after, Twin Lakes Beach was still noted on maps as Venice Beach.
TROLLEY: In 1904, the Eastside trolley line was extended down to Capitola, running along Twin Lakes Beach on an elevated trestle. Besides sightseeing and mass transit, the trolley served as a school bus for children along the line. And many remember riding to school in a winter storm, when the beach disappeared under high tide, and the waves beat against the sides of the elevated trestle. The extension of the trolley line to Capitola in 1904, was accompanied by the linking of several roads along the coast into a new boulevard called East Cliff Drive. This ran along the mouth of Wood’s Lagoon.
BACKYARD INDUSTRIES: During the 1890s Depression, large industries closed, dumping large numbers of unemployed suddenly on a community. Santa Cruz began looking for a different model, where small ranchettes and backyard farms could sell to central co–ops, so the failure of any single farmer wouldn’t effect the industry as a whole.
FLOWERS: One of these was the flower bulb industry, which centered in the Santa Cruz to Capitola area. A number of horticultural pioneers congregated in this area, such as the Leedham, Thrift, Butler, the Veterli Bros., Rynalt, and Antonelli Bros., who developed local varieties of dahlias, pelargoniums, fresias, delphiniums, primrose, and begonia. Around World War I, a stem nematode infestation led to the quarantine of Holland bulbs, which turned Santa Cruz County into the “Bulb Capital of the Pacific,” and “Begonia Capital of the World.”
CHICKS: The companion industry was chickens and eggs. The De Laveaga Park area was called Chickenville, where the State Egg Laying Contest building stood. The Live Oak area east of Paul Sweet Road featured the adobe-style Mission Hatchery, with its “Quality Chicks Since 1906.” This was Chicken Alley along Chanticleer Avenue, producing entire ranchette subdivisions. Near the University, the Kalcar Quarry mined the grit needed for chicken feed. The Santa Cruz variety of chicken became popular around the country for producing more eggs and larger eggs per hen. After Petaluma, Santa Cruz was the “Queen City of Poultry.”
EASTGATE: From Morrissay to Arana Gulch is the Eastgate district. Its name came from a 1918 entry arch designed by William Weeks, with a neon Santa Cruz sign welcoming visitors to town. It stood at the top of Trevathan Hill. At one time, Eastgate was a well known area, with Eastgate Avenue, and a business district called “Eastgate Village.”
GOLD MINING: One of the Woods boys invented a method to extract gold from sand. When the Great Depression hit, his method became a popular passtime at the mouth of Wood’s Lagoon, up to World War II. As a result, the Seabright Bluff overlooking this beach was named Punta Del Oro (“Gold Point.”) Golfing champion Marion Hollins founded Pasatiempo Golf Course in 1932, then established her Pasatiempo Beach Club on Punta Del Oro. She helped establish Woods Lagoon as a bird sanctuary.
CHAMINADE: Chaminade was built in 1930 as a Catholic boy’s high school. It was run by the Marianist Brothers, who named the school after the 1817 founder of their French order, William Joseph Chaminade. This high school predated the University as the original “City on a Hill” campus, boasting some of the most beautiful school views around. In the late 1940s, the curriculum was change to a Novitiate for training boys for the priesthood. It closed in 1974, and in 1985, new owners converted it into the Chaminade Whitney Conference Center.
FISHING FLEET: There had been several failed attempts at establishing a protected yacht harbor in Santa Cruz. The San Lorenzo River mouth was proposed in the 1930s, and several other proposals involved massive break-waters sealing in the bay from Lighthouse Point to the San Lorenzo River mouth. In 1939, Neary Lagoon was considered for a yacht harbor, regarding West Cliff as a natural barrier against sand influx. Boats had been moored off the municipal pier until World War II, when davits were put on the wharf to raise the whole fleet out of the water. This was to prevent a Japanese invasion from gaining easy access to this fleet.
YACHT HARBOR: In 1963, Woods Lagoon was selected for the yacht harbor, and the lagoon was opened to the sea by constructing a jetty. Because beach sand migrates in a southerly direction around the bay, the jetty increased the size of Santa Cruz Main Beach, and Seabright Beach. It also depleted sand from other beaches, opening up new erosion patterns on Pleasure Point, and denuding Capitola Beach.
GLEN COOLEDGE BRIDGE: To replace the loss of the main road, East Cliff Drive, a new bridge was constructed at the upper end of the harbor in 1963, connecting Murray and Eaton Streets. It was named the Glen Cooledge Bridge, after a 1944 Felton man who was a popular State Assemblyman from 1953 until his death in 1962. Cooledge Drive at the University is also named for him. In only ten years, demand at the yacht harbor so greatly outstripped its 360 boat berths, that the harbor was extended north of Glen Cooledge Bridge in 1973, adding 560 berths.
DOMINICAN HOSPITAL: Judge Curtis H. Lindley seems the least likely person to start a dairy farm. Yet at the turn-of-the-century on what he called “Sweet Road,” he established Linwood Farm named for Judge Lindley. In 1904, Mary Jane Handley founded her “Hanley Institute of Hydrotherapy and Massage” at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. She had several nursing stations downtown, and established Hanley Hospital in 1905. She used hypnotism instead of anesthesia, and other experimental methods, some of which were proven in time. The hospital grew, and was given to the Dominican Sisters after her death. In 1965, Sisters Hospital on West Cliff Drive wanted to expand and modernize, so they bought the Linwood Farm and built Dominican Hospital, overlooking Oakwood Cemetery.
And this makes a fine place to end, which is after all the site of beginnings and endings. We have toured the length of Arana Gulch from the mountains to the sea.
THE THRILLING HISTORY OF ARANA GULCH
By Ross Eric Gibson
Copyright 2002 by R.E. Gibson
One of the problems with seeing Arana Gulch as a place, is that it is used as a border between communities. Thus in the public consciousness, it falls into the crack between places, and even the term “Greenbelt” sounds more like a planted traffic median. This might sound less marginalized if it were called something like “Arana Gulch State Park.” So this is an attempt to identify its historic features and milestones, and imbue us with a sense of “Arana Consciousness.”
BOUNDARIES: The parameters of Arana Gulch run from the Yacht Harbor, up along the foot of Hagemann Bluff and Trevathan Hill (where Soquel Avenue enters town), passed Harbor High School, Dominican Hospital, Oakwood Cemetery, and De Laveaga Park, beyond Chaminade to Happy Valley.
PORTOLA: In the fall of 1769, California’s governor, Gaspar de Portola, led a party of explorers up the coast, trying to locate the Monterey Bay to establish California’s capital. But they didn’t recognize the bay due to fog and its great wide-openness, so they continued up the coast into Santa Cruz County. Many in the band were sick, carried slowly on hammocks rigged between two horses, which tended to come undone when they traveled up or down hill. They grew weary of getting bogged down in so many coastal lagoons, so they traveled up to a mile-or-so inland, and crossed Arana Gulch where Oakwood Cemetery is now. They skirted De Laveaga Heights, and forded the San Lorenzo River at a site called Spanish Crossing Street (now Tait St.) at the north entrance to town.
AGUAJITO: Even in Spanish days, Arana Gulch was a physical landform marking the eastern edge of the Branciforte plateau (or mesa), on which was established the 1797 Villa de Branciforte. Soquel Avenue was El Cameno Real (“the King’s Highway.”) Harbor High School and Loma Prieta Continuation High School sit on the site of the 40 acre landgrant “Rancho Aguajito,” the smallest county grant. In 1837 it was granted to Miguel Villagrana, who called it “Little Waterhole” (Aguajito), although today it’s just a dry lakebed.
JOSE ARANA (1794-1868): Arana Gulch was named after Jose Arana. He was born in Mexico in 1794, and married Felecitias Albarez. They came to Branciforte in 1833 with children Filipe, Juan, Homobono, Valose, Marcos and Maria. Jose established his farm in Arana Gulch, with his adobe built on the bluff where Holy Cross Cemetery is today. In 1842, Jose was granted the 92 acre Rancho Potrero Y Rincon de San Pedro Regalado (now the area north of Mission Hill, from Costplus to Costo).
FILIPE ARANA (1814-1859): With Jose overseeing his San Pedro Regaldo farm, his eldest son Filipe Arana took over operations of the Arana Gulch farm. His wife was Esperanza Amaya, but Gabino and Ramon are the only known names of their children. In 1859, a few weeks after the birth of Filipe’s ninth child, Filipe was hauling lumber near Waddell’s mill at the north county line near Ano Noevo Point. In a freak accident, Filipe fell under the wagon, which ran over his chest. He died 12 hours later.
MARCOS ARANA (1828-1903): Jose’s brother Marcos Arana had a farm halfway between Branciforte Grammar School and Morrissay Boulevard, and also worked as a teamster. His children were Mrs. Alta Garcia Alarcon, Mrs. Sonona Bravo, Joseph E. Arana, and Daniel Arana. In 1876, Marcos stole two harnesses and a plow from J. Gilbert of Branciforte, and was caught with them when he was tracked to Salinas. The case didn’t come to trial until 1879, when he was fined the cost of the items, $25. He moved to Monterey Co. in 1878, where his wife died in 1892. In 1894, he returned to Santa Cruz and lived with his daughter, Mrs. C.D. Alarcon, at her 95 Garfield St. home (now site of the County Government Center and San Lorenzo Park).
MARIA ARANA: Jose’s daughter Maria Arana married Francisco Barra in 1852. Then in 1861 Barra disappeared, and not until two years leter did the river reveal his shallow grave. He had been murdered on his way to town.
LIVE OAK: In 1823, soldier/statesman Sebastian Rodriguez took an interest in ranching Bolsa del Pajaro (the “Bird’s Nest”) in the Watsonville area, and was later joined by his brother Alejandro. Both served another shift in the military, then Sebastian and Alejandro retired to Bolsa del Pajaro in 1831, and in 1835 Sebastian became Commissioner of Branciforte, with Alejandro as Alcalde (judge-mayor). Alejandro hoped Pajaro would be confirmed as a joint-grant, but when Mexico granted it exclusively to Sebastian, Alejandro settled Rancho Encinalitos in 1836, which means “Little Live Oaks.” Alejandro never bothered to file a formal claim for Encinalitos, because of his obsession to be granted part of Bolsa del Pajaro, an obsession his relatives carried on in the courts long after his death, up into the 1860s.
RODRIGUEZ ADOBE: Branciforte native Jose de la Cruz Rodriguez was the son of Roman Rodriguez. Jose became the owner of 210 acres between Arana Gulch and 17th Avenue, Capitola Road and Soquel Drive. In 1855 he built his adobe home on Paul Sweet Road at what is now Oakwood Cemetery. A few of Jose Arana’s children married into the Rodriguez family, such as Juan (John) Arana who married Santa Rodriguez. Sheriff John Porter squatted on the Rodriguez land, and gained title in 1860, which forced Jose to pay Porter $3,000 to get his land back. The Rodriguez barn stood at the northwest corner of 7th Avenue and Capitola Road, and in the 20th Century was a popular place for dances. In 1956, the Rodriguez adobe was torn down to make way for more graves in Oakwood Cemetery.
PAUL SWEET: Upper Arana Gulch turns into a canyon between the foothills of De Laveaga Park bluff and the Chaminade hill. This canyon was known as Sweet Gulch. It was named for New England sailor Paul Sweet, who came to Santa Cruz in 1842, working first as a logger for Isaac Graham at his Zayante sawmill, then Sweet established California’s first tannery in Scotts Valley in 1843. In 1849, Sweet bought the upper Arana Gulch from the Rodriguez family, which became his Sweet Gulch Farm. Sweet fought in the Bear Flag Revolt in 1846, and while in Southern California, married an Indian from Santa Barbara. They raised a family in Sweet Gulch, and and she nursed him in his later infirmity, before he died in 1890. Buried at his farm, Sweet was the first grave in what later became the Oakwood Cemetery area.
TREVATHAN HILL: The fear of foreigners in Spanish days were hardly put to rest, when the first Anglos to settle in Branciforte were pirates! William Trevathan was not a pirate, but arrived with Julian Wilson, William Atchison and Billy Buckle, who served in Lord Cochrane’s privateer army. The pirates jumped ship in Monterey, and joined Trevathan in moving to Branciforte in 1824. Yet far from making pests of themselves, they converted to Catholicism, married, and settled down. Trevathan married Antonia Perez, and had a ranch on the north-west bluff overlooking Arana Gulch. For that reason, the east entrance to town was called Trevathan Hill, and his name remains on a local street.
HOLY CROSS CEMETERY: The Catholic Church had outgrown its tiny old Mission Cemetery on Mission Hill, making multiple burials in some of the graves. When they built the new Catholic Church they converted the old Arana Bluff east of Arana Gulch into the new cemetery. Most of the graves were moved to the more spacious setting, including a section for the Mission Indians.
JUAN ARANA: Jose Arana’s son Juan (known as John in American days), was a saddle-maker. He married Santa Rodriguez, and had 11 children, three of whom died in childbirth. Those who survived were: Elvira, who married Joseph Tait. John Arana Jr., who settled in Watsonville. Claudina (b. Santa Cruz Feb. 7, 1874, d. San Francisco June 21, 1959), who married Aptos-native Urban Cordova in the mission church in 1866. Mary (called May), married Michael Meehan, whose children were Eddie, and Mary Ellen Michael. Alonzo Arana who remained in Santa Cruz. Sarah (Mrs. L.A. Miller), lived in San Francisco, as did her brother, Eddie Arana. And Manuel (Mel) Arana, who died in 1941.
DESPERADO: On Feb. 8, 1865, Juan Arana was attending a fandango at the Perez Tavern (site of today’s San Lorenzo Park playground), when to everyone’s surprise and thrill, the desperado Faustino Lorenzana came out of hiding to attend. He sometimes rode with his more famous outlaw cousin Tuburcio Vasquez, whom some viewed as a Jesse James style folk hero, and champion of Spaniards cheated out of their land by Yankees. Lorenzana was accompanied by his 18-year-old nephew Pedro, and Juan Arana’s 18-year-old nephew Jose Rodriguez.
TROUBLE: Arana was outraged to see his handsome, intelligent nephew associated with these criminals, and demanded Rodriguez leave the gang. Arana told him Lorenzana was no champion of the downtrodden, as his gang robbed & killed Spaniards as often as Anglos. The body of Arana’s brother-in-law, Francisco Barra (Rodriguez’ own uncle), had been found less than two years earlier killed by highway-men, so Arana said Rodriguez insulted his aunt by joining this gang. Publicly humiliated, Lorenzana began punching Arana, but stopped when Arana drew a knife. Lorenzana left vowing revenge.
NOTORIOUS GULCH: The only entrance to town from the east was through Arana Gulch, but it was a notorious pass through a gnarled oak forest, which was an impassible bog in winter, and only less difficult in summer. A rickety wooden bridge was built by 1860 (later replaced in 1890 and 1935). In the fog, rain, or gloom of night, it was dreary and forbidding. Here Faustino Lorenzana, Pedro Lorenzana, and Jose Rodriguez hid, intending to murder Arana in an ambush when he returned home.
JACK SLOAN: Two horsemen approached at 8:30 PM, who turned out to be Jack Sloan and his brother-in-law, Towne, returning to Sloan’s 7th Avenue farm. The two would have passed by without noticing the deperados, but Sloan’s horse spooked, and the men in hiding were discovered. When asked what they were doing there, one of the gang cursed and fired his pistol. The sound of the gun frightened the Sloan horses, which bolted, carrying the riders wildly out of the Gulch. They regained control of their horses where the turn-off to Holy Cross Cemetery is. Sloan was in such a rage, that he ignored the pleas of his companion, and rode back into the gulch. When Lorenzana drew his gun, Sloan beat him with a coiled laureate. Rodriguez shot Sloan twice, but both shots were flesh wounds. Sloan fell off his horse, then Lorenzana approached, and fired the fatal bullet. The men fled, and in the ensuing search, Pedro was found by a mob and lynched. Ironically, this silenced the only witness against Rodriguez, and Rodriguez was found not guilty for lack of evidence.
FRIGHT: Sloan’s funeral was one of the largest in the county to that date. Then in 1895, a terrified mother and daughter drove their wagon into Santa Cruz at full gallop. They said they’d stopped at the bottom of Arana Gulch when a tall thin man appeared walking out of the woods, to cross the road. He wore a broad-brimmed hat and long overcoat, but as he crossed in front of their wagon, he disappeared before their eyes! Tom Sweeney cried, “That’s exactly how Jack Sloan looked when he was murdered in the gulch!” Other sightings were reported in 1917, 1934, and 1952. Even recently, a couple who live in Arana Gulch said one evening they noticed the spector of a man floating across their creekside deck.
ENDINGS: Jack Sloan never realized he had saved the life of Juan Arana, and Arana no longer felt safe in Arana Gulch. So Juan moved to Soquel after the Civil War, only to be attacked there in 1866 by Jose Ramos. Juan left his father Jose in charge of the Arana Gulch farm, and it was there that Jose Arana, pioneer and patriarch, died of natural causes March 1, 1868. Juan eventually retired to San Luis Obispo in 1894, seeking relief for his poor health.
HAGEMANN GULCH: Frederick Hagemann of Hanover, Germany, settled in Santa Cruz in 1866 as a partner in Claus Spreckels’ brewery. Hagemann’s 110 acre ranch was laid out on a peninsula above Arana Gulch, with Hagemann Gulch in the middle. He called his property “Live Oak Ranch,” the first to use the English translation of Rancho Encinalitos. As his ranch prospered, Hagemann’s original simple cottage became elaborately remodeled in 1885 into a gingerbread castle with fantasy minarets. It is today owned by Mrs. Gunn, and has quite beautiful interiors. The same architect also built him the Hagemann Hotel on Pacific Avenue in 1892. Frederick died in 1901.
DE LAVEAGA: Jose Vicente de Laveaga was a wealthy, well educated Mexican, who had spent summers in Santa Cruz since the 1870s, and eventually purchased a 565 acre forested estate in 1887, a portion of which bordered north Arana Gulch. This avid horseman seemed quite aloof and dignified, seldom responding to people as he passed by. Then it was learned he was deaf, and far from feeling superior, he developed a strong empathy for the helpless, the afflicted, and animals.
WILL: This lifelong bachelor found it hard to make friends, yet when he died, many came forward to tell how his quiet charity had been a godsend, and it was soon learned how much he had given in secret to so many needy individuals and groups. He left De Laveaga Heights to Santa Cruz as a park, with the stipulation that part be set aside as an asylum for invalids. However, a lawsuit by his relatives said California law forbids give over a third of an estate to charity, so Santa Cruz got its park, but not its asylum.
PARK: The trolley was extended to the park entrance, which then was on Pacheco Street. An arched entrance gate had lanterns on pillars and flower-planted row-boats. His memorial was a Rose Pergola made of rustic logs, onion domes, and a fountain. It sat prominently on Rosario ridge, named after his birthplace in Mexico.
MOVIES: Around World War I, three movie studios were established in the park, with movies filmed on outdoor stages where the public could watch from behind a wire fence. A zoo was built at the park to house the animals used in filming. These included bears, herds of buffalo, and white elk. The studios left in the early 1920s, but the zoo survived until the Depression made feeding them a burden, and they were disbursed in 1933. The zoo and later the animal shelter reflected De Laveaga’s affection for animals.
MODERN IMPROVEMENTS: A golf course and Frisbee range were installed in the 1960s and 1970s, the latter including the highest point in De Laveaga Park, which he named La Corona, “The Crown.” In 1974, the Stroke Club converted he old Navy Reserve building at the park into the Cabrillo College Stroke Center, unwittingly fulfilling De Laveaga’s dream for his park, of a facility serving the disabled.
WOODS LAGOON: John Woods was born in Ohio in 1818, and came west with the Gold Rush of 1848. He soon settled in Santa Cruz, working first at Bennett’s Sawmill on Love Creek (Ben Lomond), before establishing a farm at today’s Seabright in 1849. Wood’s Lagoon became a popular boating and swimming pond.
In the 1870s, Camp Capitola manager S.A. Hall, tried to repeat the formula for that resort by creating Camp Marina on Wood’s Farm, renaming the lagoon “Lake Marina,” but the name’s didn’t take. Only the name of the trotting track around the park survives, known as the Marine Parade. When F.M. Mott purchased the land in 1884, he named it “Seabright” after his fond memories of the Sea Bright resort in New Jersey. Woods died Oct. 11, 1887.
SEABRIGHT: Seabright started as a camp for friends and relatives, to a religious retreat for Transcendentalists, and finally an independent village. It had its own depot, its own downtown (which still exists today), its own post office in 1899, and its own Carnegie Library, which today houses the Natural History Museum. It was nicknamed “Ladiesville,” because when the tourists went home in the winter, the town was mostly women. They couldn’t vote, but made their feelings known in favor of annexing Seabright to Santa Cruz in 1904.
SCHOLL MARR CASTLE: The Seabright Bathhouse stood across the street from the library, owned by Louis Scholl, who received the Carnegie Medal for Bravery by saving 23 people from drowning off Seabright Beach. Scholl converted the bathhouse into “Scholl Marr Castle” in 1928, which was Louis Scholl’s surprise for his invalid wife, who always dreamed of owning a castle by the sea. It was run as beach rentals, and a supper club upstairs, until it was demolish in 1965.
SEABRIGHT CANNERY: When a canning plant was proposed for Santa Cruz before World War II, opposition to bringing its smell and smoke into the downtown area, resulted in the cannery being built on the outskirts of the city limits in Seabright, overlooking Wood’s Lagoon. It was hidden from view behind a wall of cypress trees. This gave the city the benefit of its taxes and jobs, without having to look at it. The cannery was run under the Portola label, which for a time was quite widely known.
TWIN LAKES: The Baptists established their state camp and conference grounds on the peninsula between these Wood’s Lagoon and Schwan Lake in 1890, giving their religious retreat the name of Twin Lakes. It’s resort hotel was named the Hotel Surf, because the Santa Cruz Surf newspaper had been such a strong advocate of the resort and hotel. But its finest landmark was the Queen Anne-style Baptist church, with its enormous round tower. It was torn down in the 1960s to build a larger modern church, although the round tower seemed a nicer landmark than what looks like a hypodermic steeple.
VENETIAN VILLAGE: In 1905, looking for a permanent site for the Santa Cruz Venetian Water Carnivals, a Methodist Syndicate purchased the portion of Woods Lagoon where the Crow’s Nest is, which at the time formed a peninsula into the lagoon. Here they hoped to establish Venetian Village as a beachfront amusement park, with gondola-rentals for Wood’s Lagoon. But after the 1906 earthquake, the project died as funding dried up. However for decades after, Twin Lakes Beach was still noted on maps as Venice Beach.
TROLLEY: In 1904, the Eastside trolley line was extended down to Capitola, running along Twin Lakes Beach on an elevated trestle. Besides sightseeing and mass transit, the trolley served as a school bus for children along the line. And many remember riding to school in a winter storm, when the beach disappeared under high tide, and the waves beat against the sides of the elevated trestle. The extension of the trolley line to Capitola in 1904, was accompanied by the linking of several roads along the coast into a new boulevard called East Cliff Drive. This ran along the mouth of Wood’s Lagoon.
BACKYARD INDUSTRIES: During the 1890s Depression, large industries closed, dumping large numbers of unemployed suddenly on a community. Santa Cruz began looking for a different model, where small ranchettes and backyard farms could sell to central co–ops, so the failure of any single farmer wouldn’t effect the industry as a whole.
FLOWERS: One of these was the flower bulb industry, which centered in the Santa Cruz to Capitola area. A number of horticultural pioneers congregated in this area, such as the Leedham, Thrift, Butler, the Veterli Bros., Rynalt, and Antonelli Bros., who developed local varieties of dahlias, pelargoniums, fresias, delphiniums, primrose, and begonia. Around World War I, a stem nematode infestation led to the quarantine of Holland bulbs, which turned Santa Cruz County into the “Bulb Capital of the Pacific,” and “Begonia Capital of the World.”
CHICKS: The companion industry was chickens and eggs. The De Laveaga Park area was called Chickenville, where the State Egg Laying Contest building stood. The Live Oak area east of Paul Sweet Road featured the adobe-style Mission Hatchery, with its “Quality Chicks Since 1906.” This was Chicken Alley along Chanticleer Avenue, producing entire ranchette subdivisions. Near the University, the Kalcar Quarry mined the grit needed for chicken feed. The Santa Cruz variety of chicken became popular around the country for producing more eggs and larger eggs per hen. After Petaluma, Santa Cruz was the “Queen City of Poultry.”
EASTGATE: From Morrissay to Arana Gulch is the Eastgate district. Its name came from a 1918 entry arch designed by William Weeks, with a neon Santa Cruz sign welcoming visitors to town. It stood at the top of Trevathan Hill. At one time, Eastgate was a well known area, with Eastgate Avenue, and a business district called “Eastgate Village.”
GOLD MINING: One of the Woods boys invented a method to extract gold from sand. When the Great Depression hit, his method became a popular passtime at the mouth of Wood’s Lagoon, up to World War II. As a result, the Seabright Bluff overlooking this beach was named Punta Del Oro (“Gold Point.”) Golfing champion Marion Hollins founded Pasatiempo Golf Course in 1932, then established her Pasatiempo Beach Club on Punta Del Oro. She helped establish Woods Lagoon as a bird sanctuary.
CHAMINADE: Chaminade was built in 1930 as a Catholic boy’s high school. It was run by the Marianist Brothers, who named the school after the 1817 founder of their French order, William Joseph Chaminade. This high school predated the University as the original “City on a Hill” campus, boasting some of the most beautiful school views around. In the late 1940s, the curriculum was change to a Novitiate for training boys for the priesthood. It closed in 1974, and in 1985, new owners converted it into the Chaminade Whitney Conference Center.
FISHING FLEET: There had been several failed attempts at establishing a protected yacht harbor in Santa Cruz. The San Lorenzo River mouth was proposed in the 1930s, and several other proposals involved massive break-waters sealing in the bay from Lighthouse Point to the San Lorenzo River mouth. In 1939, Neary Lagoon was considered for a yacht harbor, regarding West Cliff as a natural barrier against sand influx. Boats had been moored off the municipal pier until World War II, when davits were put on the wharf to raise the whole fleet out of the water. This was to prevent a Japanese invasion from gaining easy access to this fleet.
YACHT HARBOR: In 1963, Woods Lagoon was selected for the yacht harbor, and the lagoon was opened to the sea by constructing a jetty. Because beach sand migrates in a southerly direction around the bay, the jetty increased the size of Santa Cruz Main Beach, and Seabright Beach. It also depleted sand from other beaches, opening up new erosion patterns on Pleasure Point, and denuding Capitola Beach.
GLEN COOLEDGE BRIDGE: To replace the loss of the main road, East Cliff Drive, a new bridge was constructed at the upper end of the harbor in 1963, connecting Murray and Eaton Streets. It was named the Glen Cooledge Bridge, after a 1944 Felton man who was a popular State Assemblyman from 1953 until his death in 1962. Cooledge Drive at the University is also named for him. In only ten years, demand at the yacht harbor so greatly outstripped its 360 boat berths, that the harbor was extended north of Glen Cooledge Bridge in 1973, adding 560 berths.
DOMINICAN HOSPITAL: Judge Curtis H. Lindley seems the least likely person to start a dairy farm. Yet at the turn-of-the-century on what he called “Sweet Road,” he established Linwood Farm named for Judge Lindley. In 1904, Mary Jane Handley founded her “Hanley Institute of Hydrotherapy and Massage” at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. She had several nursing stations downtown, and established Hanley Hospital in 1905. She used hypnotism instead of anesthesia, and other experimental methods, some of which were proven in time. The hospital grew, and was given to the Dominican Sisters after her death. In 1965, Sisters Hospital on West Cliff Drive wanted to expand and modernize, so they bought the Linwood Farm and built Dominican Hospital, overlooking Oakwood Cemetery.
And this makes a fine place to end, which is after all the site of beginnings and endings. We have toured the length of Arana Gulch from the mountains to the sea.