PATCHEN Christmas Tree Farms

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Patchen California

Patchen, California is one of five “Ghost Towns of the Santa Cruz Mountains” ^[I]Currently out of print but try; https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Towns-Santa-Cruz-Mountains/dp/0944220126 which grew and flourished during the last half of the nineteenth century. Alma and Lexington are buried under tons of silt and millions of gallons of water in the Lexington Reservoir. The other two ( Laurel and Wrights Station ) are mostly forgotten and only accessible to the ardent explorer. Patchen was a vibrant center of activity and local culture for over a century. During the 1940’s the town was bypassed and isolated by the construction of Highway 17 but since the late 1960’s it has come alive again as a Christmas Tree ranch, preserving much of the charm and character of its nineteenth century heritage.

Patchen was once a thriving community; you need only to close your eyes and draw a deep breath of clean mountain air to recall it.

Ancient History

It is hard to find an area in the Santa Cruz Mountains that has not been affected by a landslide sometime in the past. One such “Lobe” ^[II]“Lobes” are bulges in the ground surface where the landslide mass mounds up at the toe of the landslide. With time, tension gashes fill with soil, the scarp erodes back, and vegetation … Continue reading created by an ancient slide characterizes the roughly one square mile around Patchen.

Click on the image to the left for Santa Clara County slides or to the right for the Patchen Lobe.

The Early Days

The first written record of this area was left by Spanish explorers in the mid-1700’s. According to one padre in Santa Cruz; “The adjacent mountains were wild and rugged, the canyons deep and dark with the shadows of the forest. Coyotes broke the stillness with their dismal howls and herds of deer slacked their thirst in the clear waters of the San Lorenzo. Grizzly bears were numerous, prowling about in herds like hogs on a farm.”^[III]A Howling Wilderness, Payne, 1978

This 1876 map from the David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford University includes a plat of Los Gatos, and another of Lexington, plus the name Patchen in the lower right corner, indicating that there were a number of buildings here at that time.

A closer look at the immediate area around Patchen reveals many of the names familiar to us today, like “Moody”, “Fowler”, and “Schulthies”. ^[IV]Most likely misspelled on the map to accommodate an English pronunciation of “Schultheiss” from the German. The number below each name indicates the number of acres owned by each. Note the name “PATCHEN” near the center followed by the letters “P.O.”, indicating Post Office. The road leading southwest from Patchen, labeled St. Cruz Rd. is today known as Mt. Charlie Road. The road leading southeast, labeled Soquel Road is now known as Old Santa Cruz Hwy. This well known 1866 photo , which hangs in the Scotts Valley branch of Wells Fargo and other spots around the area is believed to have been taken from near that intersection (looking north toward the town of Patchen).

In the early part of the 20th Century the surrounding acreage was owned by the Laddicks and then by the Castors. The details of their holdings require further investigation but it is clear from the red overlay of a Santa Clara County Engineering Report in this image that at least four buildings existed here at the time the “County Road” was paved around 1914.

We know from the actual personal account of Alquist Norman Fenn that he stayed here at the age of 11 years, with “The Widow Laddick”, in a small house attached to the main “Laddick House”.  Fenn visited us in 2014 at the age of 102, and reminisced about his experience in that house in 1923, while he finished the school year in the school house a half mile south of here.

We also know that Claude Castor lived in the same house until he died on November 23, 1969, a few months after we bought the property adjoining it on the south.

We bought the property with the “Castor Barn” and the remaining foundation of the “Laddick House” in 1973 from Claude’s daughter, Thelma Vanderpool, for $30,500.

 

“Mountain Charley”

The United States took possession of California in 1846 and among the pioneers of the 1850’s came the earliest known permanent white settler; Charles Henry “Mountain Charley” McKiernan. In the 1850’s and 1860s McKiernan built roads throughout his property on the summit and operated a toll road down an old Indian trail near here. You might have driven down Mountain Charley Road to get to Patchen today.

McKiernan settled near the lagoon about one mile south of here in 1850. At least portions of his cabin remains to this day.

Much lore exists about Charley, particularly about what happened to him about five miles southwest of here on May 8, 1854. Some are most likely based in fact – others maybe not so much.

 

 

One account can be seen on a monument erected by the Clampers a short distance off Hwy 17 to the west on Summit Road.

From the time of the accident until the end of his life he wore large brimmed hats, pulled down to his eyebrows, to hide the scars.

The last reported sighting of a Grizzly in the Santa Cruz Mountains was in November 1885 near Bonny Doon, but McKiernan lived until January 16, 1892.

 

 

 

State Registered Landmark #448

Directly across the road from the Christmas tree farm is California Historical Site marker #448, commemorating the town of Patchen and the legend of Mountain Charley. This was the first settlement in the Summit area and it was centered around the first Post Office in the area, called Patchen.

Visitors from around California and around the World often stop to read about Mountain Charley and Patchen. History enthusiasts are always welcome to walk though the Christmas trees and relive the days gone by.
 
 

The Patchen Name

In 300 B.C. there were people living in the area which is now known as Patching Parish in Sussex, England. People by the name Patching(en)(in) have been listed in that area since the 800’s 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 this 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

There are conflicting stories about the origin of the name for the Post Office and also its exact location from 1872 to 1876. Some accounts say it was first situated at the Fowler ranch, others indicate that it was in the house of a man named Shirley. The actual Post Office name appears on the government record as having been established at Patchen on March 28, 1872 where it operated until November 30, 1929 with a brief interruption in service between November 26, 1895 and April 29, 1897.

One of the first Post Masters 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.

Click on the picture for a close-up of the “Castor Barn” in the left-center and the smaller of the two “Laddick Houses” near the center of the frame behind the chimney of the Post Office – still standing in this 1973 photo. The main “Laddick House” had burned 15 years prior.  The inset shows the remains of the chimney after the 1989 earthquake and the bricks that fell that day.^[V]Many of them, original San Jose Sand Molds

“Call of the Wild”

The Feely Ranch, located about a quarter mile north of here, was a favored vacation spot of Jack London (1876 : 1916). It is often said that he wrote some of his best works while vacationing here. Incidentally London was also Secretary and Treasurer of the Communist Party of California during that same time period.

The area is still identified on the official Santa Clara County Assessor’s map as “Call of the Wild” and you will notice a road by the same name as you drive north from here.

The Edgemont Hotel

The Edgemont Hotel was located in Patchen and operated by Mr. and Mrs. L.N. Scott ^[VI]I was advised later that this might not be the proper honorific for the couple.  Some say it was located in the flat area near the road, about where our farm’s main parking lot is today. Other reports suggest it was actually 400 yards south from here on what was then called “The County Road” or “Soquel Road” (Old Santa Cruz Hwy).

Stage Coach Stop

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. A Livery Stable was built here in 1875 and this board, bearing the date is proudly displayed by Karl Von Ahnen, son of Paul, who located here in 1949.

At least two stage robberies took place around Patchen. On the afternoon of April 1, 1874, a masked man stepped out in front of the stage. After realizing that there was no cash box on the stage he relieved the passengers of all of their valuables, then allowed the stage to continue on to Patchen. After the second robbery in the same area on April 28,1874 the culprits were captured and sent off to San Quentin with the help of “Mountain Charlie” and several other brave members of the local posse.

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.

Turn of the Century

From the 1880’s to the early 1900’s vacationers, going into the mountains to places like the Edgemont Hotel in Patchen or to Santa Cruz, filled the roads with horses and wagons. At the height of the season as many as seventy-five teams would be waiting to travel over the grade to Santa Cruz, not unlike Hwy 17 today.

The narrow gauge railroad opened in 1880 from Los Gatos, along the Los Gatos Creek, to Wright’s Station about a mile east of here. From Wright’s Station it went through an over-one-mile long tunnel to Laurel, then through other tunnels to Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz.

At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906 an ominous rumbling announced the most disastrous earthquake in California history. Roads were blocked by landslides, bridges were broken, houses and hotels were shaken to the ground, and the railroad was destroyed.

The Ghost Town

In 1949 one of the three buildings that remained of 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 here. The building had been the old stage station (Livery Stable), built in the 1870s.

On Sunday, December 29, 1957 fire destroyed the building which had been erected by Joseph Fowler in 1876 as the post office. The two Sycamore trees next to the barn still bear the scars of that fire. Fowler is said to have 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., October 17, 1989 when the Loma Prieta Earthquake brought it crashing to the ground after more than one hundred years.

 

In the mid 1980s the “Castor Barn”, being the last remaining building, was disassembled to keep it from falling and reassembled on the foundation of the “Laddick House”, which had burned 30 years prior, along with the Post Office building. This restored barn now holds an office, a workshop & electronics lab, and the retail store of the Patchen California Christmas tree business.

The huge concrete reservoir located on the property was fed by springs and used as the water supply for the town. It, along with an occasional
ghost sighting, is one of the few remaining parts of the old town.

The land where the town once stood was purchased, piece by piece, during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s by the current owner and converted to a Christmas Tree Ranch to preserve it from development. You are invited to enjoy the scenery, the mountain air and the history and if you happen to purchase a Christmas Tree while you are here, we thank you for contributing to the preservation of this FAMOUS OLD GHOST TOWN.