THE PICNIC SEASON

Daily Morning Times, May 8, 1881

"May is the most beautiful month of all the year. It is then when Nature is seen at her best. The flowers are in bloom, the hills and valleys are covered with verdure, the air is balmy and redolent with perfume, and everything has a bright and smiling aspect. It is the month of all months for picnic excursions. The hills of the Santa Cruz range offer the most inviting spots for outdoor pleasure and recreation, and of all the localities the Big Tree Grove, near Felton, takes the palm for natural beauty and attractive surroundings. On next Thursday, the 12^th inst., a goodly part of the community of San Jose will take the morning train by the narrow-gauge route to spend the day at the Big Trees. The excursion will be under the management of Charles R. Bacon and Charles A. Bennett, two gentlemen who are eminently qualified for such an undertaking. The fare for the round trip is only $1.50 for adults and 75 cents for children (under 12 years of age). Those who prefer not to be encumbered with lunch baskets can obtain a good meal on the grounds for 50 cents. Parkman’s band has been engaged for the occasion. As it is necessary that the managers should know about how many will attend so as to have the necessary accommodations, those intending to go should purchase their tickets to-day. Tickets for sale at Wood & Brown’s, Guppy’s, Maddox’s, E.B. Lewis, and Fetherston and Willard’s cigar stores."

This Daily Morning Times advertisement announced a Big Trees Grove picnic opportunity for San Jose residents. Attendees arrived for the picnic over the South Pacific Coast Railroad which boasted that its passengers would see "… magnificent mountain scenery on the route … seen at its best [and] … unequalled on the coast." The picnic drew about 230 people who arrived aboard four full narrow-gauge rail cars. "The day was charming and everybody improved the occasion. Parkman’s band of 15 pieces accompanied the excursionists, and dancing was kept up all day." Though the picnickers all declared the day a success, the event was a financial failure for its organizers.

Not all excursions from San Jose ran smoothly. Earlier that same month the Unity Society of San Jose had a decidedly different experience. The Society brought three hundred attendees which unfortunately, included an array of drunks, hoodlums and rowdies and "… when the more drunken ones were refused liquor one of the toughest threatened to knock Major [John] Hooper [resort manager] down. Not a bottle would the Major allow filled over the bar. A gang of rowdies sat down to the dinner-table, and after eating to their fill eight of them failed to pay their bills, four of the number jumping the fence and running into the woods. By request the bar was closed for an hour.…[Then] the fighting commenced in earnest. It was curse, jaw, knock-down and haul off, the policemen who had accompanied this delectable crowd having all they could do."

After the subsequent successful Bacon and Bennett sponsored event, Hooper complimented the picnic organizers highly for the admirable way the arrangements had been carried out. Unlike the earlier Unity Society event, Bacon and Bennet ensured their picnic would remain peaceful.  

"Two policemen were taken along to preserve order, but as the result proved, there existed no need for their services. There were no persons in liquor, not the slightest disturbance occurred and a more orderly, respectable or better conducted excursion never went out of San Jose. If Messrs. Bacon and Bennett have made no money by the transaction, yet they can find some consolation in the fact that their excursion was heartily enjoyed by all."

Sources: “To the Big Trees,” Daily Morning Times [San Jose], May 10, 1881; “Big Tree Excursion,” Daily Morning Times [San Jose], May 13, 1881; and “At the Big Trees,” Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel, May 7, 1881.