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Patchen | |
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 California Historic Marker 448, for Patchen, California. | |
| Coordinates: 37°08′54″N121°58′28″W / 37.14833°N 121.97444°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Santa Clara County |
| Reference no. | 448 [1] |
Patchen is a ghost town in the Santa Cruz Mountains, in Santa Clara County, California. It is located along the old Santa Cruz Highway.
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 on Native American trail nearby. In 1850, McKiernan settled near a lagoon about one mile south of his previous residence. On May 8, 1854, when hunting with John Taylor, McKiernan was attacked by a grizzly bear. Unable to reload his rifle, McKiernan bludgeoned the bear with his rifle until the weapon broke. In the attack, however, McKiernan's skull was injured, and he sustained damage to his left eye and forehead. Three San Jose doctors crafted a silver plate from two Mexican pesos and patched the wound, and did so without the use of anesthetics. McKiernan died on January 16, 1892. His legacy is commemorated on California Historical Landmark #448.
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 racehorse named George M. Patchen and his son, Smith Patchen, nicknamed California Patchen, because of his good showing in California in 1862 and 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, and continued to operate 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 Edgemont Hotel was located in Patchen and operated by Mr. and Mrs. L.N. Scott. Today, it is a parking lot for the Christmas Tree Farm.
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 around 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 robbed at Patchen on the afternoon of April 1, 1874. After another 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.
The narrow gauge South Pacific Coast Railroad 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. [2]
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 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. [3]
Nearby the town's site is Patchen Pass, the highest point on Highway 17, with an elevation of 1,814 feet (553 m) above sea level. [4] This pass is sometimes covered for hours or even days with snow. The pass is located at latitude 37°08'39"N, longitude 121°59'05"W; decimal degrees: latitude 37.14411, longitude -121.98468. [5]
Los Gatos is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Los Gatos is part of Silicon Valley, with several high technology companies maintaining a presence there. Notably, Netflix, the streaming service and content creator, is headquartered in Los Gatos and has developed a large presence in the area.
Charley Darkey Parkhurst also known as "One-Eyed Charley" or "Six-Horse Charley", was a female American stagecoach driver, farmer and rancher in California. Raised in New England, Parkhurst ran away as a youth, taking the name Charley. Now presenting as a man, he started work as a stable hand and learned to handle horses, including to drive coaches drawn by multiple horses. He worked in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, traveling to Georgia for associated work.
State Route 17 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that runs from State Route 1 in Santa Cruz to I-280 and I-880 in San Jose. SR 17, a freeway and expressway, carries substantial commuter and vacation traffic through the Santa Cruz Mountains at Patchen Pass between Santa Cruz and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway is operated as a seasonal tourist attraction in Northern California, also referred to as the "Beach Train". Its partner line, the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad, is a heritage railroad.
Vasona Lake County Park is a park located in Los Gatos, California and part of the Santa Clara County Parks system. Vasona Park surrounds the Vasona Reservoir. Adjacent to the park are the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad, a ridable miniature railway, and the W.E. "Bill" Mason Carousel at the Oak Meadow Park.
Redwood Estates is a rural unincorporated community along State Route 17 in the coastal Santa Cruz Mountains in Los Gatos, California, United States. The Census Bureau includes it in a census-designated place named Lexington Hills. It lies inside the confines of Santa Clara County. The area is about eight miles from downtown Los Gatos and nine miles from the Santa Cruz County community of Scotts Valley.
The South Pacific Coast Railroad (SPC) was a 3 ft narrow gauge steam railroad running between Santa Cruz, California, and Alameda, with a ferry connection in Alameda to San Francisco. The railroad was created as the Santa Clara Valley Railroad, founded by local strawberry growers as a way to get their crops to market in San Francisco and provide an alternative to the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1876, James Graham Fair, a Comstock Lode silver baron, bought the line and extended it into the Santa Cruz Mountains to capture the significant lumber traffic coming out of the redwood forests. The narrow-gauge line was originally laid with 52-pound-per-yard (26 kg/m) rail on 8-foot (2.44 m) redwood ties; and was later acquired by the Southern Pacific and converted to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge.
Purissima is a ghost town in southwestern San Mateo County, California, United States, near the junction of State Route 1 and Verde Road. Purísima means "purest" in Spanish and is most commonly used in Spanish to refer to La Purísima Concepción of the Virgin Mary. Purissima is the name of the town used as the setting for Ross Macdonald's 1958 crime fiction novel 'The Doomsters'.
Lexington Reservoir is an artificial lake on the Los Gatos Creek near Los Gatos, California. The James J. Lenihan Dam, a 195 ft (59 m) high, 1,000 ft (300 m) thick earthen dam, forms the third-largest reservoir in Santa Clara County.
Wrights, California is a ghost town in unincorporated west Santa Clara County, California. It is located near Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains, on the north bank of Los Gatos Creek, east of State Route 17.
Laurel is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is in a valley at an elevation of 900 feet (270 m) above sea level.
Lexington, California, is a ghost town in Santa Clara County, now submerged by the Lexington Reservoir. Originally located along Los Gatos Creek, the town was 550 feet above sea level.
Alma is a ghost town and drowned town in Santa Clara County in California, United States. It lies beneath the waters of the Lexington Reservoir above Los Gatos. The location is latitude 37.18N and longitude 121.98W. It was 551 feet above sea level.
Glenwood, California, is an unincorporated area of Santa Cruz County. It is located at coordinates 37°6′29″N121°59′8″W, and is 891 feet above sea level.
Clems, California is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County with an elevation of 790 feet. It is located a latitude 37055N, longitude 1215947W; decimal degrees: latitude 37.09806, longitude -121.99639.
Patchen Pass is a low mountain pass through the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, connecting the Santa Clara Valley to Santa Cruz and the Pacific coast. California State Route 17 traverses the pass at the Santa Clara–Santa Cruz county line, just south where the highway intersects with California State Route 35.
Charles Henry McKiernan, known popularly as "Mountain Charley," was one of the first Euro-American settlers in the Santa Cruz Mountains region of California. McKiernan was a hunter, rancher, teamster, road-builder and stage-line operator. His personal motto was allegedly: "Right wrongs nobody." Part of McKiernan's local fame was due to his disfigurement by a grizzly bear. As a consequence, "it was said of McKiernan that no grizzly would argue with him over the right-of-way on a trail, a typical tall tale that in no way detracted from McKiernan's sterling reputation."
The Swanton Pacific Railroad Society operated an historic one-third scale, 19 in gauge, railroad at Swanton Pacific Ranch in Davenport, California, 15 miles (24 km) north of Santa Cruz, California. The one-mile (1.6 km)-long railroad lies along the Ocean Shore Railroad right-of-way that was to run from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. The scenic trip, through a valley in the coastal mountains, crosses Scott Creek on the Ed Carnegie Bridge, passes a Christmas tree farm, and ends at a wye where passengers observe railroad operations that turn the locomotive.
The Suntan Special was a summer excursion train service operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, California, from 1927 to 1959.
Municipalities and communities of Santa Clara County, California, United States | ||
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| Cities and towns |  | |
| CDPs | ||
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| CCDs | ||
| Ghost towns | ||