WELL SPRINKLED ROADS - By Stage to the Big Trees

“At 8:40 A.M. we left San Francisco on the train for Santa Clara. The route is a pleasant one, especially during this time of the year. Stacks of hay and grain dot the many fields that lie on each side of the track. San Mateo, Belmont and Redwood City, and other places, are situated in close proximity to this Southern thoroughfare. The county-seats of many of the financial magnates of the State are on this route. These few wealthy beautifiers of the fields and hills of this portion of California are but the pioneers of others who will soon follow, and devote a part of their enormous incomes derived from products of our soil to the beautifying of our lands. On arriving at Santa Clara we were pleased to find that there were but eight fellow-passengers to go over the mountains in the large Concord coach.”

“A little skirmishing enabled us to secure outside seats. On the inside, one gets much dust and no view; but on the outside there is no dust and a fine view of the scenery. Santa Clara valley is dotted with stacks and covered with standing grain. Reapers, headers, horse and steam power threshers, are busy in getting the vast abundance ready for market. No wonder at the immense amount of tonnage coming to San Francisco to carry off our grain … On reaching the Seven Mile House, we observed a large orchard. The driver informed us that this orchard contained twenty thousand almond trees … A few miles more and we reached Los Gatos. The large woolen mills once here were swept away by fire a few months ago… In ten minutes’ traveling we met the stage from Santa Cruz."

Santa Cruz Sentinel, August 20, 2000

“We cheered each other, and each hurried on its way. At one o’clock, two hours after leaving Santa Clara, we arrived at Lexington, where we lunched, and changed our four tired horses for six fresh ones. From Los Gatos to Lexington we found the road sprinkled – a solid, compact road, free from dust… One mile from Lexington is found the fir and redwood trees. These trees become more numerous as we go farther up the mountains. As we near the summit the valleys and the bay are a pleasing contrast with the elevations we are now ascending. Teams loaded with shingles, posts and shakes, are met at intervals awaiting our coming giving us the right of way. As we pass, they move on, clouds of dust sweeping down the canyons enveloping the trees and the drivers. We reached the summit, twenty-one hundred and eighty feet above the ocean, at two o’clock. The change of scenery here is peculiarly grand. On the eastern slopes of the mountains the timber has nearly all been hewn out, but on the western side the mountain tops and canyons are thickly timbered. The fir and redwood vary in size from mere twigs to trees of immense size.”

New Guide to the Pacific Coast, 1894

“The fragrant odors, the thousands of hazel bushes, the fir and redwood trees, the abrupt mountains, the winding streams, Monterey Bay, old ocean, and the town of Santa Cruz, combine make this an enjoyable point. Bierstadt here pitched his tent and sketched the Santa Cruz mountains. The scene here impressed upon our minds formed a picture that art cannot excel. The driver acts as guide, and gives information about all points of note, as if he were speaking of them for the first time. From the summit we are driven alternately down and up the terraces which mark the mountain sides. More curves do not exist in any road in any road in the world than this one possesses, except, perhaps, the ones in Mexico leading inland from Mazatlan. We saw a large wild-cat, which politely gave us the road, its apology for a tail waving adieu as it turned a curve. Numerous gray squirrels high in the tops of the redwoods, chipmonks, doves and quails are very plentiful. The trip down the mountain is one to be remembered. Santa Cruz at least is reached. Tanneries, planning-mills, lime-kilns and powder works made everything brisk.  Everywhere one’s eyes see something to wonder at. The timber here is plentiful, and grows to an immense size, years hence this timber will be hewn down and turned to account, and one of the glories of Santa Cruz will have gone… Away from Santa Cruz in the various canyons are numerous places of resort. These localities afford much pleasure. Especially so did our party find the Big trees and the Magnetic Springs. The Big Trees are situated eight miles from Santa Cruz. The road leading to them is through valleys and canyons heavily timbered. The powder works, saw mills, tanneries and lime-kilns, are principally located on this route. The mountain ravines furnish abundance of water; this is utilized by the mills, and is used to sprinkle the road, which makes the drive a pleasant one.”

Sources: "Notes by a Tourist - The Trip to Santa Cruz Across the Mountains," Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel, August 8, 1874; New Guide to the Pacific Coast, Santa Fé Route : California, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois, 1894 by Charles A. Higgins; Santa Cruz County: Resources, Advantages, Objects of Interest, 1887 by Isabel Hammel Raymond.