Stephen Payne
The Loma Prieta Museum is thrilled to announce that local author and historian Stephen Payne has published a second printing of his historical book A Howling Wilderness: The Summit Road Area of the Santa Cruz Mountains 1850-1906. The 2024 version will include new back cover artwork and a few corrections to the text. The last edition of this book was released 46 years ago in 1978. Topics that A Howling Wilderness covers include local mountain history from 1850 to 1906 as related to transportation, culture, pioneering families, logging, farming, education, religion, journalism, and nearby communities, some of which are now ghost towns.
Meet Thomas Sutfin
History Speaker 10/23
Thomas Sutfin, of Soquel, is a consulting forester. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in forest management from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Forestry degree from Oregon State University. He is a California-licensed registered professional forester. Thomas was the first Forest Manager of the Soquel Demonstration State Forest (SDSF) from 1990 to 2009. Previously, he worked on the Jackson Demonstration State Forest as Timber Sale Officer from 1983 to 1985 and as Assistant Forest Manager from 1985 to 1990. In 2009, he left CAL FIRE after 30 years of service.
LPM Volunteer
Nancy Cole has been a Santa Cruz Mountain resident for over 35 years, having discovered the area through the Summit Riders horseman’s group over 50 years ago. Nancy’s initial experiences were riding horses from property to property to visit, do brunches, lunches, dinners and overnight camping with the horses. She fell in love with the mountains from the very first of her many adventures. Nancy’s long career as a realtor specializing in mountain properties has spanned 45 years. Her work exposed her to many superb mountain people who were experts in their field, many self taught. Wells, septics, roads, grading, geology, all the many trades that sustain mountain living.
What's in a Name?
By Debra Staab
Happy summer! It’s time to have fun with the history of some local names. How many do you recognize? Do you know their origins? Browns Summit Today, the intersection of Bear Creek Road and Skyline Boulevard is known as Bear Creek Summit. Records show, however, that this junction used to be called Browns Summit. It’s likely the area was named after Gustave Brown, an immigrant from Bavaria. Brown was a fruit farmer around 1875 and was on the Santa Cruz County voter’s register in 1876. Camp Loma Camp Loma is an agriculturally oriented youth camp located just south of Highland Way in Skyland. The name derives from Loma Prieta, a nearby mountain that peaks at 3,790 feet.
The Cats Roadhouse
By Debra Staab
Located on the outskirts, just a mile south of Los Gatos town at 17533 Santa Cruz Highway, sits a rustic two-story structure covered in brown shake with brick trim along the bottom sporting multiple signs. As you enter the parking lot a large billboard tells us that this is The Cats and that it is a “BITES BUBBLY PIT STOP” with “BBQ*BAR*BEATS nite” and a “$29.95 BBQ BUFFET FRI-SUN 11-3PM”. On the roof near the center of the building, the word “CATS” is spelled out in large red capital letters. Below that, over the entrance flanked on both sides by small white cement wildcats (bobcats) mounted on brick pedestals, “THE CATS” appears in large white capital letters enclosed in tall thin cat silhouettes. Below the five second-story windows trimmed in red, we see more signs in white capitals - on the left “TAVERN” and on the right “SALOON”, “WINE”, and “SPIRIT”. Between the front brick pedestals sits one more sign that reads “WELCOME TO THE SALOON, RESTAURANT & TAVERN”.
.png)