GOOD NEWS ABOUT FALL CREEK

Author's Personal Collection

At Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, some trails in the lower portion of the Fall Creek Unit are open to the public as of November 14th. The parking lot off of Felton Empire Road is also open.

CLOSED TRAILS (marked red on map)

Lost Empire,  Pine Flat,  Sunlit,  Tan Oak,  Big Ben, Ridge,  S-Cape,  North Fall Creek (between Cape Horn Trail and Big Ben Trail)

OPEN TRAILS

Bennett Creek,  High School,  Kiln Fire Road,  South Fork,  Truck,  North Fall Creek (between Cape Horn trail and Bennett Creek Trail)

All trails in red are closed for the winter.  Depending on debris flow this winter, the park may have to reevaluate closing more of the park. 

 A Little History of Lime at Fall Creek

In the 19th century lime was an essential ingredient in the making of mortar and plaster. Limestone found in the Santa Cruz Mountains was considered some of the purest in the nation, and the mortar made with it helped build and rebuild San Francisco. Limestone was reduced by heating it in stone kilns that were kept at temperatures up to two thousand degrees Fahrenheit. As early as the mid-1870s, the lime industry near Felton employed about one hundred men.

California State Parks exhibit panel showing the historic location of the IXL Lime Works in Fall Creek

In the 1870s, Henry Cowell bought into the IXL Lime Company located along Fall Creek. In 1900, he became sole owner of the kilns, which continued to operate until 1919. During their peak in the 1890s, these kilns produced fifty thousand barrels of lime per year. The combined limekilns of the Santa Cruz Mountains annually produced approximately 150,000 barrels of lime using as much as twenty thousand cords of wood, further decimating the old-growth forests. 

Author's Personal Collection

Thanks to the S.H. Cowell Foundation, remnants of the kilns became part of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in 1972.