A History of The Paradise Park Site
Compiled by
THOMAS L. REEDY and ALICE M. REEDY
AUTHORIZED BY the BOARD OF DIRECTORS of THE PARADISE PARK MASONIC CLUB
· Roy H. Hursh, President
· Rob't W. deMartin, Vice-President
· Thomas L. Reedy, Treasurer
· Chester A. Johnson, Director
· Lewis M. Hawkins, Director
· Claude E. Nelson, Secretary-Manager
First Printing 1967
Second Printing 1974
Foreword
The purpose of this history is to preserve for present and future members of THE PARADISE PARK MASONIC CLUB the history of all of the activities that have taken place here in this beautiful grove since the coming of the first white men.
Frequently throughout these pages the area is referred to as "our" Paradise Park for surely one of the deepest pleasures related to membership in THE PARADISE PARK MASONIC CLUB is the fraternal spirit that prevails here. Together we have come into possession of a wonderful heritage, and it is with a feeling of gratitude that we trace the history of all the events that preceded "our" entrance upon the scene.
The sources of our information are listed on the final page of this simple document.
Coming of the First White Men
For many hundreds of years, the beautiful spot that we now call PARADISE PARK was known only to the Indians who fished in the clear running stream and hunted the deer through these green forests. Wild animals found sanctuary in the groves and thickets.
Then in the year 1769 a band of Spanish explorers came into the Santa Cruz area and camped at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River. One of these men, a Catholic priest named Father Crespi, wrote in his diary under the date of October 10, 1769, these words: "After going three miles over plains and extensive hills well-covered with high trees of a red-colored wood, trees not known to us, we gave it a name for its color "redwood" (Palo Colorado).
Since Father Crespi speaks of walking three miles from the camp site at the mouth of the river and of coming into the groves of redwood trees, we feel it safe to assume that he was one of the first white men ever to see what we now call PARADISE PARK.
One week later, October 17, 1769, Gaspar de Portola came to the campsite at the mouth of the river. Upon viewing that stream for the first time he named it the San Lorenzo in honor of St. Laurence, October 17th being his day according to the Catholic calendar.
After seeing these majestic forests nurtured by the rich soil and ocean fogs, and tracing the course of our beautiful, murmuring stream, these explorers must have felt, as we do, that they, had found a paradise -- surely one of the most inviting spots on the entire Pacific Coast.
Establishment of the Mission
On August 28, 1791, Santa Cruz Mission was established on a little hill a mile back from the mouth of the river. The Catholic Church now stands on the site where this mission was founded. Under the direction of the Franciscan Fathers, a pear orchard and some olive trees were planted. Corn, beans and other vegetables were grown and tended by the Indians of the mission on land which is now the Santa Cruz business district. The hills and forests adjacent to the mission were regarded as mission property and this claim doubtless included PARADISE PARK.
Canada del Rincon Land Grant
In 1797 the Spanish government, working through Viceroy Branciforte of Mexico City, established a village (pueblo) called Villa Branciforte on the spot where Branciforte School now stands. From the Spanish colony two great family names emerged, namely, Castro and Rodriguez. Within a period of fifty years, these two families controlled a quarter of a million acres of what is now Santa Cruz County.
When Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1810, the Santa Cruz mission community was merged with that of the Villa Branciforte. The Mexican Government then began to issue land Grants. The one of particular interest to us was the Canada del Rincon grant because Paradise Park was included in it. The grant was issued to a French lumberman and millwright named Pierre Sainsevain.
Early Day Sawmills
Sainsevain established a mill on the banks of the San Lorenzo in what is now Paradise Park. It was crude, indeed, compared to modern sawmills, but favorable lumbering conditions, coupled with the demand created by the growing communities along the coast, made it a successful enterprise. The nearby Santa Cruz harbor made it possible to ship the lumber to San Francisco and other coastal points.
Trees up to 10 feet in diameter and three hundred feet in height were felled by these early day lumbermen. The logs were then halved and even quartered by the use of a blasting powder that had been shipped around the horn from the East Coast. Oxen were used to draw the huge timbers to the mill.
During the early part of the American era, about 1856, Sainsevain traded the land of the Canada del Rincon grant to two Americans named Davis and Jordan in exchange for the Steamer Santa Cruz which was valued at $150,000.
A Mr. Ben Whipple is mentioned in early historical documents as having owned and operated the Sainsevain mill at one time. The mill was also known as the Jordan Mill.
Big Tree Road
Sainsevain developed a primitive road leading from Santa Cruz to his mill site. This road later became one of the links in the highway to be known as BIG TREE ROAD. The road was extended to serve the Cowell lime kilns at Rincon. An early issue of the Santa Cruz Sentinel speaks of Stanley and Eben Bennett taking a $6,000 contract with the County of Santa Cruz to link this road with the one coming south from Felton.
As a plan for financing the development and improvement of this scenic route, it was decided to charge toll for the use of the road. The old toll house may still be seen a few miles north of Paradise Park on Highway No. 9.
In an issue of the SENTINEL published in 1884, there was a rather effusively worded article entitled BIG TREE ROAD. In part it reads as follows: "Leaving Santa Cruz early in the morning, one soon finds himself amidst foliage, which in some places entirely covers the road, forming a cool, shady bower. Such a spot will be found where you enter Sycamore Flat about a half mile from town. The shady canopy lures the traveler to stop by the wayside.
"Passing on we soon come to the California Powder Works and one sees on the left bank the large new warehouse. A track leads from this brick building to the works and also to the tracks of the South Pacific Coast Railway. (The history of this powder works is soon to follow in this account as it was located in our Paradise Park.)
"On leaving this crossing the road changes and becomes quite rough. The powder plant is on our right far below the road. It is located in a deep pocket seemingly scooped out of the hills. High above, across the canyon, looms the mansion on the hill, home of Mr. Bernard Peyton, superintendent of the powder works . . . . . . . The Jordan sawmill has disappeared."
The San Lorenzo Paper Mill
The item quoted above speaks of the powder works that was located in what is now Paradise Park. However, before the establishment of the powder works in this location, another industry operated here.
Great credit must be given to these daring, young pioneers of industry who helped in the development and settling of the West Coast. At this point we wish to honor Henry Van Valkenburgh, founder of the San Lorenzo Paper Mill.
As early as 1854 Van Valkenburgh, then in his 20s, was in San Francisco working for an express and banking business called Adams & Company. In March of 1855 he established his own gold dust office and soon was doing a thriving business as a bullion broker for the miners who were pouring into San Francisco with their "pay dirt."
There were many scarce commodities in the San Francisco of those gold rush days, and as a result, prices were outrageously high. One of these scarce and costly items was ordinary wrapping paper, particularly butcher paper.
Foods and dry goods items of all sorts were shipped to the retailers in containers such as barrels and boxes that held several hundred pounds. Nothing came neatly packaged in small quantities for the retail trade as is the case today. The cost of paper in which to wrap these commodities for the consumer was prohibitive since it was manufactured on the East Coast and had to be shipped "around the Horn" to the San Francisco merchants.
Henry Van Valkenburgh saw in this paper shortage a fine business opportunity and, being young, ambitious and hardworking, he decided to capitalize on it.
The requisites for the manufacture of paper were an adequate supply of straw, lime and water power. A large supply of lumber for buildings and wood for fuel were also necessary. Quick and cheap transport of the paper to the San Francisco market was also a factor in choosing a location.
Young Henry Van Valkenburgh explored the country within a 100 mile radius of San Francisco looking for a suitable site for his paper mill. The spot meeting all of his requirements was found on the banks of the San Lorenzo River in the midst of our beautiful redwood grove at the foot of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Beautiful Monterey Bay and the blue Pacific would provide the waterway for schooners to carry his product to San Francisco, a distance of 75 miles.
The town of Santa Cruz was then doing a thriving business in leather, lumber and lime which satisfied two more of Henry's list of requirements. The wide, fertile valleys nearby that now are planted to berries, orchards and truck gardens were then planted to wheat. The straw from this wheat would provide one of the essential ingredients for the manufacture of paper.
Paper Mill Built In 1860
On August 30, 1860, a San Francisco newspaper called the DAILY ALTA CALIFORNIA gave the first-person account of a trip to Santa Cruz where the writer met young Henry Van Valkenburgh and learned that his paper mill was to commence operation in October of that year. The writer visited the nearly completed paper mill and learned many interesting facts about it from the eager young owner.
Briefly stated, the facts were that the mill would produce fifty tons of straw paper a month which was sorely, needed by the hard-put merchants of San Francisco who were paying $100.00 per ton for Eastern paper delivered to the wharf in San Francisco.
The writer gave an interesting description of the use of lime in the papermaking process. "Alternate layers of straw and slacked lime are placed in the bleaching tub and then the mass is boiled for twelve or fifteen hours with hot steam. This process softens the straw, bleaches it and prepares it to be cut up."
Regarding the mill's construction and dimensions, he states that "it was thirty-five by one hundred feet on the ground. Part of it is one story high and part two stories high. Two water wheels each twenty feet in diameter were to provide power to drive the machinery.
On August 31, 1860, the Santa Cruz newspaper, the PACIFIC SENTINEL, also published an article about the new paper mill in its editorial section. This article dealt with the sound economic reasons for encouraging and patronizing industries within California so that "the immense amount of treasures shipped by every steamer would be materially reduced and the money retained here to give employment and homes to thousands." The editor spoke of Santa Cruz's "delicious climate, cheapness of living and abundance of power."
In his article the editor states that the location of the paper mill "is about a mile and a half above town on the San Lorenzo Creek." He described the four paper machines which ,Were to be used and gave an interesting account of the construction of the dam which "is being built by Mr. Ward and is said to be similar in many respects to the one erected by the same gentleman for Colonel Fremont on the Merced River in Mariposa County. The flume will be 3,460 feet in length."
250,000 feet of lumber were to be used in the construction of the paper mill building and its adjacent buildings.
The November 29,1860, issue of the PACIFIC SENTINEL reported, "The present great novelty in Santa Cruz, our new manufacturing enterprise, is progressing fiiiel3-. The works are entirely completed and the mill has commenced the manufacture of paper. We understand that the first ream will be turned out today."
On December 27th of the same year, the newspaper product was described as "a good strong article of wrapping paper." The following month the issue of January 3, 1861, spoke of the paper mill dam as "a fine piece of workmanship, and apparently as permanent as the hills on either side." In the light of subsequent happenings weather wise this statement proved to be untrue, but more of that later.
It copiously praised the young and dynamic Van Valkenburgh in these words: "The gentlemanly proprietor (who, by the way, has our warmest regards for many acts of courtesy) is one of those persevering and energetic men who speedily consummate what they undertake."
This glowing praise would indicate that young Henry made a favorable impression on the small community of Santa Cruz which in the year 1860 had a population of 800 persons. The total number of residents in the entire county in that year was 6,000.
A few pertinent facts about the SAN LORENZO PAPER MILL, are to be found in the July 23, 1861, issue of the DAILY ALTA CALIFORNIA. In discussing the location, dimensions and type of construction of the mill, we find that "the flume crosses the stream in one place on a trelliswork bridge of a single span of 68 feet."
The dimensions of the dam were given as "17 feet in height, 180 feet long, with a timber apron 20 feet long, with the butts lying downstream and the brush up, closely filled with gravel, making it completely watertight and capable of resisting all freshets."
The millwright who built the paper mill was S. L. James of Santa Cruz.
Paper Mill Holding Increased
Henry Van Valkenburgh was soon doing business in a big way. A deed dated December 31, 1800, indicates his purchase from Isaac Davis and Albion P. Jordan, both of the city and county of San Francisco, for $1,100 a portion of Rancho Canada de] Rincon, "commencing at a redwood tree five feet in diameter on the west bank of the River San Lorenzo about thirty feet below the tall race or tunnel leading from the San Lorenzo Paper Mills thence north . . . and the right to overflow and flood the adjacent lands so far as be necessary for the purposes of carrying on the business of the San Lorenzo Paper Mills." The paper mill property was gradually increased to about thirty-four acres comprised of what is now Section Six of Paradise Park and extending south to include a portion of Sycamore Flat.
Paper Mill Damaged By Flood
The winter of 1860-1861 was a very severe one. In February of that winter the dam of a sawmill, located on the San Lorenzo River eight miles from town, gave way. The resulting wall of water descended upon the paper mill apron and all but destroyed it completely.
Henry Van Valkenburgh quickly repaired the damage and the work of the mill continued until July of 1861 when work was temporarily halted due to the breaking of the flume.
The winter of 1861-1862 proved to be even more disastrous. Flooding occurred throughout the State of California and once again the paper mill was severely damaged. Added to this was the even greater tragedy of the accidental death of Henry Van Valkenburgh who inadvertently stepped into the path of a tree being felled by woodsmen and was crushed to death.
The loss of leadership occasioned by the accidental death of the vital, young industrial pioneer, Henry Van Valkenburgh, coupled with the extensive flood damage necessitated the sale of the paper mill.
Florence Donnelly in her article entitled, THE SAN LORENZO PAPER MILL, WHERE THE REDWOODS MEET THE SEA, speaks of talking to a member of an early California family who had resided at Knight's Ferry as a child. She could remember hearing her grandmother sing a ballad about the great flood of the winter of 1861-'62. The words of the ballad should be of interest to our readers:
"Attention all good people pray,
And listen to me what I say,
I'll try to tell you all the news,
About the flood at Santa Cruz.
I then arose with all my might,
And went down to see the sight,
Of all the sights upon that day,
The paper mill dam had washed away!"
Notice of the sale of the paper mill property was given in the PACIFIC SENTINEL dated May 23, 1862, "This concern was sold by the sheriff yesterday under an order of foreclosure. The purchaser was Mr. M. A. Cohen. We learn that repairs to the mill and the flume will be commenced immediately and that the mill will soon again be in full operation."
John Sime Purchases The Paper Mill
An item in the SACRAMENTO DAILY UNION attests to the fact that the paper mill was again in operation in May of 1866. It was subsequently sold to a Mr. John Sime who had already made a name for himself in the annals of California history by serving in the California State Assembly for several years beginning in 18S2. In 1856 he had become the head of a successful banking house known as John Sime & Co. of San Francisco. In 1860 his bank was at the corner of Clay and Commercial Streets. In FINANCIAL CALIFORNIA by Armstrong, LeRoy and J. 0. Denny, a great tribute is paid to John Sime for his honesty and sincerity.
The Coming of the California Powder Mill
Through John Sime's enthusiasm for the beauty and the possibilities of the lovely San Lorenzo River Valley, he acquired as his near neighbor on the banks of the San Lorenzo the pioneer CALIFORNIA POWDER W0RKS which was incorporated on December 28, 1861, with John H. Baird as its first president.
The site chosen for the powder mill was about half a mile above the paper mill in what is now the upper part of Paradise Park.
Until the time of the Civil War, blasting powder was shipped to California form the East Coast and from Europe. The shortage created by military orders soon sent the price of powder skyrocketing to $12-$13 a keg, and soon the shipment of powder by sea was strictly forbidden by the United States government to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Confederacy.
The demand for powder in mining operations as well as in the construction of the proposed transcontinental railway made it imperative that a powder manufacturing plant be established in California. Mr. John H. Baird and his associates seized upon this opportunity and, through the enthusiastic urging of John Sime, chose our Paradise Park site for its location.
John Sime became a stockholder in the Powder Works and was entrusted with its construction. A million dollars was invested in the plant by the time it was fully equipped.
The Story of Powder Making
Powder making was started in May of 1864 and in 1865 an output of 150,000 twenty-five pound kegs was recorded. The Powder Works was Santa Cruz' principal industry for a number of years, employing from 150 to 275 workmen.
The location chosen for the Powder Works proved to be ideal. It is far enough from the town of Santa Cruz that the inevitable explosions did not damage the community. The types of wood necessary for the enterprise were available-oak for barrel staves, hazel bushes for hoops; madrone, alder and oak for charcoal.
Ships entering the nearby harbor brought nitre from Chile which is another essential ingredient used in the manufacture of powder. In close proximity to the powder mill wharf, a large warehouse was constructed on Beach Hill.
THE SACRAMENTO DAILY UNION in its issue of December 1, 1866, printed an article which they were quoting from the SAN JOSE MERCURY:
"The place is naturally fitted for such dangerous business, on one side along which the stream runs, the hills are steep and rugged, rising to a height of several hundred feet . . . The water used for driving the machinery is brought in a flume from a point about a mile above, 1400 feet of the way being through a spur of the mountain. The various departments of powder making, and there are many, are carried on in separate buildings situated from one hundred to five hundred feet apart, and connected with each other by narrow railways and plank foot-walks. Looking over the valley the place has the appearance of a rural village embowered among the trees."
This same article goes on to give a detailed description of the San Lorenzo Paper Mill that was still in operation adjoining the property of the Powder Works.
Paper Mill Purchased by California Powder Works
In October of 1867 disaster again overtook the San Lorenzo Paper Mill. THE SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL of October 5th gives an account of an extensive fire of incendiary origin which caused $10,000 worth of damage in spite of the heroic efforts of the paper mill crew, the powder mill crew and the townspeople to bring it under control. "The paper mill had just commenced running after the accidents of flood and delay for repairs. The dam which was washed away last winter cost $15,000 and the new flume, just built, nearly, as much more, so that an expenditure of $30,000 has been entailed in these items alone within a brief period of time."
In 1869 the Central Pacific Railroad was completed and the State of California was linked to the east by trans-continental railroad. For the west this was a period of great prosperity. The California Powder Works began to flourish but the days of the San Lorenzo Paper Mill were nearly at an end.
On October 13, 1871, John Sime died following a brief illness. He was fifty-four years of age. The paper mill property was sold to John Baird, the president of the California Powder Company, by the administrators of Sime's estate. The deed reads: "for $20,000 in United States gold coin certain portion of Rancho Canada del Rincon, containing 34 acres of land, more or less, and known as the San Lorenzo Paper Mills property with the improvements thereon consisting of a paper mill with machinery, boilers, engines, steam pipes, vats, reservoirs and other machinery belonging to, or connected with said paper mill, to J. H. Baird."
The Powder Works expanded its plant and erected new, buildings on the property formerly owned by the San Lorenzo Paper Mill, the area that is now Section Six of Paradise Park.
The manufacture of black powder by the California Powder Works at the Paradise Park site began in 1864 and continued for fifty years, terminating in 1914.
Powder Making Process
The process of manufacturing blasting powder and fuse powder is a simple one, the ingredients being pulverized charcoal made from the wood of alder, willow or madrone trees which was mixed in proper proportions with sulphur and nitrate of potash, also known as saltpeter. The two latter ingredients were imported, the wood for the charcoal was found in the area. After proper amounts of each of these ingredient had been combined, they were put into wheel houses for further mixing. These wheel houses' construction so that, in case of an explosion, they would be blown off, thus releasing the force of the explosion upward and out toward the hill.
The cement walls of the eight wheel houses that operated here have all been incorporated into the walls of Paradise Park homes except one which may be seen still standing, just as it was originally constructed on York Avenue.
After the ingredients were run in the wheel house for several hours, they became so thoroughly mixed and completely pulverized that they were ready for the next phase of the operation.
The mixture was taken from the wheel house to the press house where it was placed under a tremendous amount of hydraulic pressure from which it emerged in slabs of approximately 1-1/4 x 24 x30 inches in size.
The slabs were then taken to the corning mill where they were ground into pellets of various sizes up to the size of a garden pea. These pellets went on to the glaze mill which was a revolving cylinder. There they were coated with graphite to keep them from sticking together and "setting up." The product was then ready to be put into kegs and marketed.
The kegs were made here on the grounds in a keg shop that stood near the end of the covered bridge where the memorial plaque has been erected. In the beginning the kegs were made of wooden staves, probably oak, later metal kegs were made here.
Early Day Means of Transportation and Power
In the early days of the powder company, all freight to and from Santa Cruz was carried by ships. To handle this shipping the company built its own wharf in Santa Cruz harbor. All incoming and outgoing freight had to be hauled in horse-drawn wagons for a distance of between three and four miles. Later a narrow gauge railroad was built from Oakland to Santa Cruz and still later Santa Cruz was connected with the main San Francisco-Los Angeles line by a broad gauge link about twenty miles long. After the completion of these railways, ship transportation to and from the town almost ceased to exist.
The narrow gauge railroad from Oakland came down the San Lorenzo Valley but was much higher than the land on which the mills were built. A tram line zig-zagging up the side of the hill to the west of what is now Section Six was built to connect with the railroad. The cars came down the hill by force of gravity but outgoing freight had to be pulled up the hill by horses.
During most of the years that the mills were in operation, water was the source of power. In some places water wheels drove electric generators; in others the wheels were directly connected to the mills. In times of low water there was not enough water power to run the plant so steam engines were used as auxiliary power. This condition existed until about 1908 when a large landslide came down into the San Lorenzo River and diverted the flow of water away from the company's intake dam, thus cutting off water from the water wheels. After that the company purchased electricity and the use of steam boilers was discontinued except as a means of producing heat for the buildings.
Smokeless Gun Powder
A later and more successful type of cannon powder, also produced here, was a nitro-cotton type of smokeless powder. The California Powder Works was the first company to produce this type of powder on the Pacific Coast. Many experiments were made with this smokeless powder here on these grounds. Nitro Glycerin was used in the manufacture of this powder, and this ingredient was brought here from Hercules, a distance of about ninety miles.
Two cannons were used to test this smokeless powder. According to local legend, these cannon were salvaged from the U.S.S. Maine after she was sunk in Havana Harbor in February of 1898, but this story seems to be discounted by the fact that the SENTINEL dated October 4, 1895, carried a picture of the powder works cannons.
The California Powder Works was one of the two in America that manufactured smokeless gun powder for the government during the Spanish American War. The worst explosion in the history of the plant occurred on April 26, 1898, just at the beginning of that war. It happened across the covered bridge on Eagle Creek. This terrific explosion took thirteen lives and injured fifteen other workmen. Cries of, "The Spanish are bombing us!" were heard along Pacific Avenue When the overwhelming roar of that fatal blast reverberated through the town. There was a suspicion of sabotage, and for a time a military guard was posted around the powder mill.
Aristocratic Colonel Bernard Peyton came as superintendent of the Powder Works about that time. He took a very active place in community life. He was county supervisor from San Lorenzo district. He and his son W. C. Peyton built fine homes on the hill east of the river. W.C. Peyton married a member of the DuPont family.
Memories
We are fortunate to have living in Santa Cruz Mr. Edward T. Rountree who is one of the few, if not the only, surviving man who was employed here in the California Powder Works plant that occupied our Paradise Park site and who moved with it to the Hercules plant. He remained an employee of the Hercules Company for forty-seven years, most of which were spent at their plant in Bacchus, Utah.
At seven years of age Edward lived with his parents in the house that faces the office across Keystone Avenue. Most of us know this house as the Chevalier home. Edward's father was an employee of the Powder Works beginning in 1903. Edward went to work for the company when he was eighteen years old. He remembers many interesting facts about what went on here in our grove in the early days. Some of his personal recollections follow. Of special interest to us is his knowledge of the location of the various buildings housing the manufacturing operation.
The Victorian type home that is now being used as the office building for The Paradise Park Masonic Club was far from new when the Rountrees came here in 1903. Within Edward's memory the only superintendent who occupied it was Mr. J. S. Eich. Several different Assistant Superintendents lived there at various times.
The railroad track crossed right where the entrance gate is now. It connected with S.P. at the top of the hill west of the gate.
The nitrate of soda storehouse was on the hill across the highway and adjacent to the railroad.
The remains of the kilns where the charcoal was made may still be seen across the bridge over near the back gate.
The corning mill stood where our picnic grounds are now.
Fifteen horses were kept in a stable near the social hall. These were heavy draft horses used for hauling freight.
The office, the machine shop and the keg shop were all located near the end of the bridge where we now see the memorial plaque.
The narrow gauge railroad track which served the Powder Works continued all the way to the far end of the park where the cannons for testing the smokeless powder were mounted; a spur of the track also crossed the bridge.
The house now occupied by Mrs. Erbentraut, located at the stop sign just at the north end of Section Six, was originally a powder magazine, the largest and best constructed one the company had.
The original village that provided homes for some of the powder mill workers was located in the extreme upper end of the park. At one time there was a school for the children in powder mill flat. One of the young ladies who came from the East to teach in this school brought her widowed mother her. The mother married Judge Storey of Santa Cruz and he sent the young lady, now his stepdaughter, east to study art. There she met and married a Heath, an artist of some note. Both returned to Santa Cruz, established a studio in their large Victorian home on Beach Hill and continued their very successful careers as artists for many years.
At one time the children from the powder mill village went to Grant School which was a logical arrangement because they could cross the bridge and go down the road on the east side of the river. Some, if not all, of them walked unless their parents transported them in horse-drawn buggies.
After the powder works village was moved to its final location in the area where the Park office now stands, a horse-drawn bus that brought workmen out from the town in the mornings took the children to Mission Hill School on its return trip to town. The process was reversed in the evening. Mission Hill School was then located where the Santa Cruz City School's Office now stands.
The starting wage for the powder mill workers at the turn of the century was 22 1/2c per hour. They worked six days a week and nine hours a day. The laborer's wage amounted to about $2.00 per day. There were no fringe benefits in those days and there was at least one instance when the company asked the Lodge to bear the burial expense of a workman who was killed on the job.
The Covered Bridge
Paradise Park's covered bridge is a gracious landmark of the past. It was built by the Pacific Bridge Company of San Francisco in 1872 to serve the California Powder Works. Except for nuts and bolts, no metal was used in the construction of the bridge. The type of truss used is known as the Warren truss which is merely a series of modified kingposts that appear to form the letter W. The Warren truss is simple and economical; however, larger parts are required than for other types, but any one of them can be removed and replaced easily without disrupting traffic. A disadvantage is the combination of compression (squeeze) and tension (pull) stresses on the web members at the center of the bridge.
In his book entitled COVERED BRIDGES OF THE WEST, which features a colored photograph of Paradise Park's bridge on its front cover, Kramer Adams says:
"There was an atmosphere of vitality and optimism that filled the air in the West's early days. It was captured by the bridge builders on rare occasions and handed down as a tangible clue to the young western character. The Paradise Park bridge is a spirited example.
"Its over-hanging portals seem to thrust out in defiance of the conventional. Except for metal fastenings, it was built entirely of local wood. That job was done so well that in more than ninety years of service, only the roof and floor decking, have been replaced.
(The reason for covering the bridge was primarily to protect the timbers which were made of Douglas fir taken from the area. A secondary reason was to keep the teams of horses from becoming frightened while crossing the river at such a height.)
Kramer Adams goes on to say: "The bridge bears the only remaining examples of the once popular diamond windows in its siding. It is also the only western span to be equipped with fire hoses at both ends and one of the three to have electric lights. A wooden curb marks a pedestrian walkway. Another fillip of bridge-building elegance is the center doorway leading to an observation platform perched above the San Lorenzo.
The Powder Works Moves Away
It is interesting to note the reasons for the removal of the California Powder Works from this community where it had operated from 1864 to 1914, a period of fifty years, during which time it was the principal industry in the Santa Cruz area. Two of the reasons were these:
The first reason was the gradual increase in popularity of another type of explosive the history, of which goes back to the year 1846 when an Italian named Sobrero discovered the explosive power of nitro-glycerin. This new substance was so powerful and so unpredictable that Sobrero himself was afraid of it, and he warned others against its use.
This warning went unheeded with the result that a Swedish chemist named Alfred Nobel mixed nitro-glycerin with other ingredients and called the resulting product dynamite which he patented in 1867 (just three years after the establishment of the California Powder Works). Nobel made a large fortune from his new product. Portions of that fortune are still being used to finance the world renowned Nobel Peace Prize.
This rival product was resisted by the old time black powder makers and its manufacture was not undertaken at the plant here. However, as its sale and use increased, the demands for black powder began slowly to decline.
Secondly, about 1850 the duPont Company started absorbing, by merger or purchase, most of the explosives companies throughout the United States. In line with this policy, duPont had bought control of the California Powder Works at some time before 1900, probably quite early in the history of the company. Finally, about 1906, the California Powder Works, as a company, was dissolved and this Santa Cruz plant became officially a part of the huge duPont empire. It is an interesting sidelight that Colonel Bernard Peyton's son had married into the duPont family.
Subsequently, under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the duPont Company, of which the California Powder Works was a part, was declared a monopoly and was ordered to disperse its interests. In this process the Santa Cruz plant came into the possession of the Hercules Powder Company, and operations at this Paradise Park site were discontinued. Part of the men and equipment were sent to the Hercules Powder Plant in Contra Costa County, and part were sent to the same company's plant in Bacchus, Utah.
The black powder line continued to operate at Hercules, California, until 1955, although that company's chief explosive product was dynamite made with nitro-glycerin as one of its essential ingredients.
Sources
Early Issues of the Following Daily Newspapers:
Pacific Sentinel (Now known as the Santa Cruz Sentinel)
The Daily Alta California (San Francisco)
Sacramento Daily Union
San Jose Mercury
San Lorenzo Paper Mill -- Where the Redwoods meet the Sea (by Ruth Donnelly)
Covered Bridges of the West (by Kramer Adams)
Memories of Edward T. Roundtree -- Member of a Pioneer Family