Tidal Exchange NEWSLETTER OF THE ELKHORN SLOUGH FOUNDATION
WINTER 2015
Inset photos courtesy of Diane Porter Cooley
�� these �alls could tal� As she strolls through the gardens of her childhood home, Diane Porter Cooley reflects on growing up on a ranch that embodies the rich history of California. In 1850, a young man from Massachusetts named John T. Porter sailed around Cape Horn through the Golden Gate, looking for opportunity in the golden West. He made a name for himself on the central coast of California and, in 1859, was appointed customs officer for the Port of Monterey by President Lincoln, an office Porter held through 1865. In 1864, Porter purchased a sizable portion of the Rancho Bolsa de San Cayetano land grant from the family of Mariano Vallejo. When Porter established the Bank of Watsonville, he and his family moved into the landmark Porter-Vallejo Mansion, on the northern part of the rancho near Pajaro. Toward the other end of his property, near the community of Las Lomas and the northeastern reaches of the slough, Porter held a productive dairy ranch — part of the early Elkhorn Slough dairy boom.
(top) On the porch overlooking the slough, Diane Porter Cooley and ESF Executive Director Mark Silberstein discuss the history of Porter Ranch House; (above) Double rainbow,1970; (left) baby Diane, held by her aunt, 1928.
The dairyman’s cottage and surrounding lands eventually became the home of John T. Porter’s grandson and his family — Tom and Bernice Porter, and their daughter Diane. Beginning in the 1970s, the Porter family donated more than 300 acres of Porter Ranch for conservation. “This land was the dairy, which was very beautifully situated near the uplands where the cattle could graze in the spring, summer and fall. When freshwater flooding the lowlands receded, they could move the cattle down to the green marshy grasslands,” says Diane Porter Cooley. Continued on page 4
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