Patchen, California
Encyclopedia
Patchen, California, is a ghost town on the Old Santa Cruz Highway, east of State Route 17 in the Santa Cruz Mountains
in Santa Clara County
.
and McKiernan hit the bear but only dazed it. Not having time to reload his gun, McKiernan hit the bear over the head with his rifle until it broke. The enraged bear rose up and made a snap at Charley, catching him over the left eye and forehead, crushing his skull and tearing out a piece about five by three inches. Three San Jose doctors crafted a silver plate from two Mexican pesos and patched the hole in Charley's head without the benefit of anesthetics. Grizzly bears were reportedly hunted into extinction in California; the last reported sighting of a grizzly in the Santa Cruz Mountains was in November 1885 near Bonny Doon
. McKiernan lived until January 16, 1892.
Directly across the road from the town's site is California Historical Site marker #448 commemorating the town and the legend of "Mountain Charley." This was the first settlement in the area and centered around the Post Office, called Patchen.
The origins of the name Patchen may go back to ancient times in what is now Patching Parish in Sussex, England. People by the name Patching, Patchen, and Patchin have been listed in that area since the 800 A.D. In 1634, Joseph Patching came to the U.S. and most of the Patchens in America can be traced to him. The name reached the San Francisco Bay Area
by way of a famous race horse named "George M. Patchen" and his son, "Smith Patchen," nicknamed "California Patchen," because of his good showing in California in 1862 and again in 1867 in San Jose, San Francisco, and Sacramento.
The post office name appears on government records as having been established at Patchen on March 28, 1872. The post office operated until November 30, 1929. One of the first postmasters was D.C. Feely; in 1885, he represented Patchen at the American Exposition at New Orleans. Feely took a polished wood collection, a soil sample from his farm, and a large exhibit of fresh fruit provided by the local fruit growers.
The Feely Ranch, located about a quarter mile north of Patchen, was a favored vacation spot of writer Jack London
(1876- 1916). London wrote some of his works while vacationing at the ranch. The area is still identified on the official Santa Clara County Assessor's map as "Call of the Wild
" (the name of Jack London's famous early novel) and there is a road by the same name north of Patchen.
The Edgemont Hotel was located in Patchen and operated by Mr. and Mrs. L.N. Scott. It was located in the flat area near the road, about where the main parking lot for the Christmas tree farm is today.
In 1855, the California Stage Company was awarded the United States mail contract from San Jose
to Santa Cruz
and Patchen became the place to change horses. One of the most famous drivers on the mountain route was Charley Parkhurst
, who drove over the mountain roads about 1868. Like other stage drivers, Parkhurst wore a heavy muffler, gloves, a buffalo skin coat and cap. Also, like other drivers, Parkhurst had a sharp throaty whistle, used like a horn to warn others that the stage was just around the corner. For these reasons "Charley" was able to hide her identity until her death.
The stage was held up at Patchen on the afternoon of April 1, 1874. After the second robbery in the same area on April 28, 1874 the culprits were captured and sent off to the state prison at San Quentin
with the help of "Mountain Charley" and the local posse.
From the 1880s to the early 1900s vacationers, going into the mountains to places such as the Edgemont Hotel in Patchen or to Santa Cruz, filled the roads with horses and wagons.
A narrow gauge railroad opened in 1880 from Los Gatos, along the Los Gatos Creek, to Wright's Station
about a mile east of Patchen. From Wright's Station it went through a two mile long tunnel to Laurel
, then through other tunnels to Scotts Valley
and Santa Cruz. The Southern Pacific bought the railroad around 1900.
At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, the most disastrous earthquake in California history shook the area. Roads were blocked by landslides, bridges were broken, houses and hotels were shaken to the ground, and the railroad was destroyed. Shifts in the nearby San Andreas Fault
caused significant offsets and fissures, especially in Wrights
. The railroad was rebuilt and continued to operate until early 1940, when severe storms blocked the route. Southern Pacific considered rebuilding the railroad again, then decided to abandon it. The same year State Route 17 was completed and bypassed Patchen, contributing to its decline.
In 1949, one of the three buildings which remained from the original town of Patchen was torn down by Paul Von Ahnen, who used its hand-hewn timbers to build his house, across the road from the present Christmas tree farm. The building had been the old stage station, built in the 1870s.
On December 29, 1957, fire destroyed the building which had been erected by Joseph Fowler in 1876 as the post office. Fowler had kept the office in his home for the four years prior to that time. The chimney of the old post office stood until 5:04 p.m. on October 17, 1989, when the Loma Prieta earthquake brought it crashing to the ground after more than one hundred years.
The barn, the last remaining building, was disassembled and reassembled on a new foundation in 1985 and is in the process of restoration by the current owner.
The huge concrete reservoir located on the property was fed by springs and used as the water supply for the town.
The land where the town once stood was purchased, piece by piece, during the late 1960s and early 1970s by the current owner and converted to a Christmas tree farm to preserve it from development.
Owner Jim Beck started buying little pieces of land in the 1960s. He told the Saratoga News that his "original motivation was because there was a lot of explosive growth in the mountains and I didn't want to see all that development going on around me. I considered growing wine grapes or kiwis, but I decided on Christmas trees. This is like an overgrown hobby for me."
A frequent danger in the Santa Cruz Mountains is forest fires. In the mid-1980s, a forest fire came so close to the farm that the trees were threatened. Beck rewarded the firefighters who put the fire out with free Christmas trees for life.
Santa Cruz Mountains
The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central California, United States. They form a ridge along the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco, separating the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, and continuing south,...
in Santa Clara County
Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County is a county located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 it had a population of 1,781,642. The county seat is San Jose. The highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County is also known as Silicon Valley...
.
History
California became an American territory in 1846. The earliest known permanent white settler in what became Patchen was Charles Henry "Mountain Charley" McKiernan. In the 1850s and 1860s, McKiernan built roads throughout his property on the summit of the mountains and operated a toll road down an old Indian trail near the site. In 1850, McKiernan settled near the lagoon about one mile south in 1850. On May 8, 1854, McKiernan and John Taylor, a neighbor, were hunting with Taylor's dog. They both shot at a grizzly bearGrizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
and McKiernan hit the bear but only dazed it. Not having time to reload his gun, McKiernan hit the bear over the head with his rifle until it broke. The enraged bear rose up and made a snap at Charley, catching him over the left eye and forehead, crushing his skull and tearing out a piece about five by three inches. Three San Jose doctors crafted a silver plate from two Mexican pesos and patched the hole in Charley's head without the benefit of anesthetics. Grizzly bears were reportedly hunted into extinction in California; the last reported sighting of a grizzly in the Santa Cruz Mountains was in November 1885 near Bonny Doon
Bonny Doon, California
Bonny Doon is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California. Bonny Doon sits at an elevation of . The 2010 United States census reported Bonny Doon's population was 2,678....
. McKiernan lived until January 16, 1892.
Directly across the road from the town's site is California Historical Site marker #448 commemorating the town and the legend of "Mountain Charley." This was the first settlement in the area and centered around the Post Office, called Patchen.
The origins of the name Patchen may go back to ancient times in what is now Patching Parish in Sussex, England. People by the name Patching, Patchen, and Patchin have been listed in that area since the 800 A.D. In 1634, Joseph Patching came to the U.S. and most of the Patchens in America can be traced to him. The name reached the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
by way of a famous race horse named "George M. Patchen" and his son, "Smith Patchen," nicknamed "California Patchen," because of his good showing in California in 1862 and again in 1867 in San Jose, San Francisco, and Sacramento.
The post office name appears on government records as having been established at Patchen on March 28, 1872. The post office operated until November 30, 1929. One of the first postmasters was D.C. Feely; in 1885, he represented Patchen at the American Exposition at New Orleans. Feely took a polished wood collection, a soil sample from his farm, and a large exhibit of fresh fruit provided by the local fruit growers.
The Feely Ranch, located about a quarter mile north of Patchen, was a favored vacation spot of writer Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
(1876- 1916). London wrote some of his works while vacationing at the ranch. The area is still identified on the official Santa Clara County Assessor's map as "Call of the Wild
Call Of The Wild
-Track listing:All songs written by Ted Nugent, except where indicated:#"Call of the Wild" – 4:51#"Sweet Revenge" – 4:06#"Pony Express" – 5:21#"Ain't It the Truth" – 4:57#"Renegade" – 3:33...
" (the name of Jack London's famous early novel) and there is a road by the same name north of Patchen.
The Edgemont Hotel was located in Patchen and operated by Mr. and Mrs. L.N. Scott. It was located in the flat area near the road, about where the main parking lot for the Christmas tree farm is today.
In 1855, the California Stage Company was awarded the United States mail contract from San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
to Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
and Patchen became the place to change horses. One of the most famous drivers on the mountain route was Charley Parkhurst
Charley Parkhurst
Charley Darkey Parkhurst, often Charlie/Charlene/Charlotte or Parkurst, born Mary Parkhurst , was an American stagecoach driver and early California settler...
, who drove over the mountain roads about 1868. Like other stage drivers, Parkhurst wore a heavy muffler, gloves, a buffalo skin coat and cap. Also, like other drivers, Parkhurst had a sharp throaty whistle, used like a horn to warn others that the stage was just around the corner. For these reasons "Charley" was able to hide her identity until her death.
The stage was held up at Patchen on the afternoon of April 1, 1874. After the second robbery in the same area on April 28, 1874 the culprits were captured and sent off to the state prison at San Quentin
San Quentin, California
San Quentin is a small unincorporated community in Marin County, California. It is located west of Point San Quentin, at an elevation of 30 feet ....
with the help of "Mountain Charley" and the local posse.
From the 1880s to the early 1900s vacationers, going into the mountains to places such as the Edgemont Hotel in Patchen or to Santa Cruz, filled the roads with horses and wagons.
A narrow gauge railroad opened in 1880 from Los Gatos, along the Los Gatos Creek, to Wright's Station
Wrights, California
Wrights, California is a locale in Santa Clara County, California in the Santa Cruz Mountains, at , near Summit Road, east of State Route 17. It is located on the north bank of Los Gatos Creek....
about a mile east of Patchen. From Wright's Station it went through a two mile long tunnel to Laurel
Laurel, California
Laurel is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The exact location of Laurel is latitude 370700N, longitude 1215755W; the decimal degrees are latitude 37.11667, longitude -121.96528...
, then through other tunnels to Scotts Valley
Scotts Valley, California
Scotts Valley is a small city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, about thirty miles south of downtown San Jose and six miles north of Monterey Bay, in the upland slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 11,580...
and Santa Cruz. The Southern Pacific bought the railroad around 1900.
At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, the most disastrous earthquake in California history shook the area. Roads were blocked by landslides, bridges were broken, houses and hotels were shaken to the ground, and the railroad was destroyed. Shifts in the nearby San Andreas Fault
San Andreas Fault
The San Andreas Fault is a continental strike-slip fault that runs a length of roughly through California in the United States. The fault's motion is right-lateral strike-slip...
caused significant offsets and fissures, especially in Wrights
Wrights, California
Wrights, California is a locale in Santa Clara County, California in the Santa Cruz Mountains, at , near Summit Road, east of State Route 17. It is located on the north bank of Los Gatos Creek....
. The railroad was rebuilt and continued to operate until early 1940, when severe storms blocked the route. Southern Pacific considered rebuilding the railroad again, then decided to abandon it. The same year State Route 17 was completed and bypassed Patchen, contributing to its decline.
In 1949, one of the three buildings which remained from the original town of Patchen was torn down by Paul Von Ahnen, who used its hand-hewn timbers to build his house, across the road from the present Christmas tree farm. The building had been the old stage station, built in the 1870s.
On December 29, 1957, fire destroyed the building which had been erected by Joseph Fowler in 1876 as the post office. Fowler had kept the office in his home for the four years prior to that time. The chimney of the old post office stood until 5:04 p.m. on October 17, 1989, when the Loma Prieta earthquake brought it crashing to the ground after more than one hundred years.
The barn, the last remaining building, was disassembled and reassembled on a new foundation in 1985 and is in the process of restoration by the current owner.
The huge concrete reservoir located on the property was fed by springs and used as the water supply for the town.
The land where the town once stood was purchased, piece by piece, during the late 1960s and early 1970s by the current owner and converted to a Christmas tree farm to preserve it from development.
Patchen Christmas Tree Farm
The Christmas tree farm on the site of Patchen is one of the few farms that produces Monterey pines. It also grows Sierra redwoods and the ever-popular Douglas firs. The farm preserves relics from Patchen's heyday, including the water supply reservoir, a historical landmark plaque, and remnants of a bar and hotel.Owner Jim Beck started buying little pieces of land in the 1960s. He told the Saratoga News that his "original motivation was because there was a lot of explosive growth in the mountains and I didn't want to see all that development going on around me. I considered growing wine grapes or kiwis, but I decided on Christmas trees. This is like an overgrown hobby for me."
A frequent danger in the Santa Cruz Mountains is forest fires. In the mid-1980s, a forest fire came so close to the farm that the trees were threatened. Beck rewarded the firefighters who put the fire out with free Christmas trees for life.