Patchen, California
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Patchen is a
ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...
nestled in the
Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean from ...
, in
Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...
. It is located along the old Santa Cruz Highway.


History

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 The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...
. Unable to reload, McKiernan bludgeoned the bear with his rifle until the rifle broke. In the attack, the grizzly crushed McKiernan's skull and damaged his left eye and forehead. Three San Jose doctors crafted a silver plate from two
Mexican pesos The Mexican peso (symbol: $; code: MXN) is the currency of Mexico. Modern peso and dollar currencies have a common origin in the 16th–19th century Spanish dollar, most continuing to use its sign, "$". The current ISO 4217 code for the peso ...
and patched the wound without the use of anesthetics. McKiernan died on January 16, 1892. McKiernan's legacy is commemorated on
California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...
#448. The origins of the name Patchen may go back to ancient times in what is now Patching Parish in
Sussex, England Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English C ...
. 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 The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
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 New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
. 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 John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
(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. Today, it is now 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 Charley Darkey Parkhurst (born Charlotte Darkey Parkhurst; 1812 – December 18, 1879) also known as "One-Eyed Charley" or "Six-Horse Charley", was an American stagecoach driver, farmer and rancher in California. Raised female in New England, Pa ...
, 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 San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the o ...
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 A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
South Pacific Coast Railroad The South Pacific Coast Railroad (SPC) was a 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, founde ...
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 Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel (mus ...
, then through other tunnels to
Scotts Valley Scotts Valley is a small city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, about thirty miles (48 km) south of downtown San Jose and six miles (10 km) north of the city of Santa Cruz, in the upland slope of the Santa Cruz Mount ...
and Santa Cruz. The
Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
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 The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonics, tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is Fault (geology)#Strike-slip fau ...
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 Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
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
Douglas firs The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...
. 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 The ''Saratoga News'' is a local paper covering the city of Saratoga, California, in Santa Clara county. Published weekly on Tuesday, it has an estimated circulation of 13,240. Ownership and history The ''Saratoga News'' was founded in 1955 by ...
'' 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 The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean from ...
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.


Patchen Pass

Nearby the town's site is
Patchen Pass Patchen may refer to: People * Patchen Markell (born 1969), academic in political science *Kenneth Patchen (1911–1972), American poet and novelist * Miriam Patchen (1914–2000), wife and muse of Kenneth Patchen *David Patchen (fl. 2001–2016), ...
, the highest point on Highway 17, with an elevation of above sea level. 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.USGS, Patchen Pass (gap)
/ref>


References

{{Santa Clara County Ghost towns in the San Francisco Bay Area Former settlements in Santa Clara County, California California Historical Landmarks