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Kanchero Issue

VOL. IX, NO. 1

SUPPLEMENT, SPRING, 1963

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NOTICIA5 QUARTERLY BULLETIN OF THE SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Ride Roncheros!

By William K. Baxter It is early May in the beautiful back country of Santa Barbara County.

The first signs of brown tinge the blanket of green covering the oak-studded hills of the Santa Ynez as spring merges with early summer. Nervous chip munks sun themselves on the warm rocks; meadowlarks sing their short but distinctive solos in the fields.

Over a distant rise two horsemen appear, silhouetted against the blue sky. As they move forward another jjair is framed against the horizon. Within a few moments literally hundreds of horsemen come into view. The quiet valley becomes alive with the sounds of creaking leather, the tinkling of bits and bridles, and the swelling crescendo of human voices.

Los Rancheros Visitadores ride again!

This world-famous Santa Barbara riding organization is now in its 34th consecutive year of existence. Its members and guests gather the first week of May from more than half of the fifty states of the Union and from many foreign countries. Five hundred men of all ages, occupations, tastes, and interests are drawn together each year because they share a common love for good fellowship, the out-of-doors, and good horses!

Just as the famed Pasadena Rose Bowl has set the pattern for New Year’s bowl games across the nation, so has the annual trek of Los Rancheros Visitadores become the guide for the formation of other famous riding 1

groups throughout the West and as far away as Hawaii. When the first small group of riders gathered for their first trek back in 1930 to recapture and preserve the spirit of fun and fellowship of the early California Rancheros, none would have envisioned what was to follow. Why has Los Rancheros Visitadores grown to its present stature?

There are many reasons, but first and foremost is the fact that the very concept of the trek has deep roots in a colorful and romantic tradition of the past.

Fiction, motion pictures, and lately TV have built a legendary picture of the American cowboy; but long before he rode the Western ranges his modus operandi was being established by the rancheros and vaqueros of California.

California’s cattle “industry was born in 1769 when a herd of 200 Mexican cattle were driven along by Christian Indians as Captain Caspar de Portola, civil and military governor of California, marched the long trail from Baja California to Monterey.

For 55 years the cattle business was conducted under the guidance of the Missions, there being less than 50 private ranchos in the State at that time. When the Missions were secularized in 1834, hundreds of thousands of acres of California range land were opened up through grants to favorite sons of the Mexican government. A new profession, Los Rancheros, was born.

Ranges were unfenced and the cattle mingled freely. Each Spring Los Rancheros with their Vaqueros made a cooperative effort, riding from ranch to ranch to round-up and sort the cattle and calves and to brand the new crop. Here they combined business with pleasure, with round-up and fiesta.

By 1863—just one hundred years ago—there were approximately 3 million cattle in California. Then came the tragic drouth of ’63 and ’64, during which time nearly three-fourths of the herds perished from lack of feed and water. Cattle sold for as little as 37^/^ cents each and some land dropped to an assessed valuation of 10 cents an acre. The economic disaster that followed drove the Rancheros to sub-divide their property. By 1900 there were 72,000 ranches in the State.

This was the past from which sprang the modern-day Los Rancheros Visitadores.

One day in the spring of 1929, the late artist, Ed Borein, was caught in the throes of a bad case of spring fever. He encountered Elmer Awl, estate manager for the J. J. Mitchells, on one of Santa Barbara’s paseos and tempted him with this proposal: “Elmer, I have a chuck wagon. What do you say: let’s go out for a few days with three or four of the boys?”

Both history and Elmer are vague on why he did not accept the invita tion immediately. The chuck wagon did not roll that spring but, a few months later. Jack Mitchell bought the property now known as Rancho Juan y Lolita on the Santa Ynez River and to it he bought and brought a collection of old stage coaches and horse-drawn rigs.

And so, early in April of 1930, Elmer and Harvey McDonald, then as now the superintendent of Rancho Juan y Lolita, hitched up stages and rigs and some sixty-five “of the boys” and their ladies took off in horse-drawn vehicles or in the saddle for the six miles across the Santa Ynez Valley for luncheon at Mattie’s Tavern in Los Olivos. There they were met with en2

ihusiasm by the late Felix Mattel, and by the time the riders started far home in the afternoon, they were fired up with the idea of perpetuating the grand old tradition of riding, eating, living and jjlaying under the sun and stars each Spring.

T. Wilson Dibblee, owner of famed Hancho San Julian, was in the group and when he returned home and told liis wife of the outing and plans for the future, she suggested that the group ought to name their organization, Los Rancheros Visiladores, ‘'the Visiting Ranchers.”

The first official Ranchero Trek started from Dwight Murphy’s Los Prietos Ranch on May 9 of that year. Ninety men camped at Los Prietos that evening after enjoying a traditional California barbecue. Early the next morning they were in the saddle for a ride down the Santa Ynez River, where luncheon was served at San Marcos Rancho. They continued on to Rancho Juan )● Lolita. The next day an alleged rodeo was conducted in an alfalfa fi eld. On the fi nal day they rode past Mission Santa Ines to Rancho ;\lisal and wound up at Nojoqui Falls. Highlight of this day was a match race between Sam Stanwood driving four mules and Sammy Kramer handling four horses.

By present standards, the men making the fi rst Trek really had to rough it. Each Ranchero furnished his own bedroll, cot, utensils and horse.

"The start of the Ride" at the Old Mission.

The invitation warned prospective riders to “Bring their own liniment” and placed a positive ban on automobiles and women. Luxury items included at least three stage coaches, a covered wagon to haul the beddin C>’ and a chuck wagon. Each person paid for his meals when served.

Committee members planning the first ride were John J. Mitchell, Sam Stanwood, Dwight Murphy, Wilson Dibblee, Ed Borein, Silsby Spalding.

Ray Skofield, Jim Rickard, Max Fleischmann, Joel Fithian, Edgar Stow, Reginald Fernald, Tom Storke, Adolfo Camarillo and Elmer Awl. Los Rancheros Visitadores was formally organized on the third day of the Trek. John J. Mitchell, who was destined to serve as president for 25 years, was named president, Dwight Murphy, vice-president, and Elmer Awl, secretary and treasurer. Even though the large attendance got the organiza tion off to a flying start, it was apparent that the founders did not realize to what extent the Ride would grow throughout the state and the rest of the nation. The minutes of the charter meeting record that it was moved, seconded and passed that “out-of-town visitors be made vice-presidents.”

Riders signing the charter RV roster included Charles E. Pressley, Ken neth Curtis, John J. Mitchell, Jack H. Petras, Elmer Awl, Earle Ovington, W. A. Herdman, Sam Kramer, Alexander Gray, Sam Stanwood, George E. Marcy, John D. Wright, William P. Nelson, T. Paul Dalzell, W. 1). Longyear, II. L. Hitchcock, Cammillo Fenzi, Clarence A. Williams. George Williams.

E. W. Alexander, Joe Paxton, John M. Curran, C. E. Hutchinson, Dr. W. D. Sansum, H. L. Tucker, H. R. Bergh, Eugene S. Kellog, Dwight Murphy, Dell Owens, James Rickard, George Edwards, Ross Woods, Charles J. Woods, A. K. Bennett, John B. E. Wheeler, H. J. McCaffrey, W. J. McCaffrey, Robert Phelan, J. R. Drake, W. G. Williams, F. Bowers, Peter Flanagan, J. J. Plunkett, C. R. Mattel, F. P. Mattel, Harvey McDonald, Brainerd Beckwith, Philip Van Dusen, H. H. Davis, V. W. Nidever, Frank Dunne, Jack Craw4

ford, C. C. Mitchell, L. R. Phillips, C. L. Preisker, L. D. Waller. Frank McCoy, F. D. Rubel, Edgar Snow, Ed Borein, Tom Storke, Reginald Fernald, C. B. Mitchell. J .William MacLennan, Fred W. Jouelt, A. B. Watkins, W. C. Oak ley, L. Derning Tilton, and E. La Forest.

Soon after the first official ride on May 22, 1930, members met at a buffet dinner at the Montecito Country Club to view motion pictures taken during the Trek. Wives wanted to see what their husbands had been up to, so the post-Trek dinner was the first event sponsored by RV to which wives of the members were invited. Evidently the ladies approved of what they saw on the screen—Los Rancheros Visitadores received their approval and blessing! The organization was on its way.

The following March a steering committee met to make plans for the 1931 Trek. The first of many refinements were proposed and passed. The membership fee was raised to 825 which was to cover all expenses and do away with the nuisance of collecting money as meals were served. Ed Borein was commissioned to design an official Rancheros Visitadores emblem, which was to be struck as a medallion for all members.

To solve the knotty problem of issuing invitations, a special committee was appointed consisting of the president, vice-presidents, and honorary vicepresidents. Ranch owners were voted positions as honorary vice-presidents and the “veep” roster included E. W. Alexander, Fred Bixby, T. Wilson Dibblee. Joe Drake, Jack Crawford, Ted Chamberlain, Bob Cooper, “Tubby Davis, E. L. Doheny, Bob Easton, Eddie Fields, Joel Fithian, Max Fleischmannj. J. J. Hollister, Harry Hollister, Captain G. Allan Hancock, Kirk Johnson, ,,Jim Glines, F. W. Mathiessen, Charles Perkins, Jim Rickard, Ray SkoBob Sudden, Harry Sloan, George Williams and field, Silsbv Spaldin Herbert Wyler.

Sam Stanwood and Ray Skofleld.

On the evening of April 13, 1931, more than 100 Rancheros arrived for the Second Trek at the EW Ranch of the late and much-beloved E. W. Alexander, then chairman of the board of County National Bank of Santa Barbara and an old cowman whose early days had been spent in Texas and the Southwest. There at the EW Ranch, by the campfires and under a twinkling roof of stars, Rancheros first enjoyed the spirit of hospitality and eomradeshij) which was to inspire the opening lines of the now-famous Rancheros riding song, “Oh, we’ll ride across the range to Alexander’s!”

The route that year took the riders down the Santa Ynez River to San Marcos Ranch, then to Juan y Lolita, and on to Alisal Rancho and return to Juan y Lolita. The Trek was followed on May 20 with a packed mixed banquet at El Paseo.

The Third Trek in 1932 covered much the same route with the exception that a ride to Rancho de los Amigos near Buellton replaced the visit to Alisal.

On the two previous rides, informal visits had been made to Mission Santa fnes, but this year the first official welcome was extended the riders at the Mission at a program pul on by the Santa Barbara Reina del Mar parlor.

Native Daughters of the Golcjen West, at the conclusion of the four-day Trek.

Phe annual banquet held at La Hacienda in Santa Barbara once again was a S.R.O. affair.

More innovations were in order on the Fourth Trek in 1933. For the fi rst time, a portion of the riders assembled for the start of the ride in Santa Barbara at the ranch of Ray L. Skofield, RV vice-president, located near the mouth of Rattlesnake Canyon.

The ride began on the morning of May 4, and, since that time, the first week in May of each year is the traditional date of the Trek. And as a har binger of luxuries to come, each Ranchero was issued cot upon which to rest his weary bones at the end of each day’s ride!

At the same moment the Santa Barbara contingent began its ascent over the Santa Ynez mountains for E. W. Rancho, a second group left El Rancho de Los Amigos and started up the Santa Ynez River towards E.W.’s.

Los Amigos was a ranch that had been leased by a group of Rancheros after the first year’s ride. It was operated as a private dude ranch where the members could meet, ride, and rope on weekends.

The two groups converged that evening at E.W.’s and at the barbecue and campfires renewed friendships. The only sad note was the absence of their host. E. W.-Alexander who was fatally ill in the St. Francis Hospital.

But even though he lay ill in a hospital bed, E. W. had not forgotten the day. He wrote Jack Mitchell a letter that night which perhaps best expresses the deep bonds of friendship mixed with humor which so typifies the relation ship between Rancheros. He wrote: ■■] just rouidn’l let you all sit clown at my Ranch without bidding you all Welcom;. will al.so prove to those new-fangled sawbones sitting around that their new Frankenstein can think I sent the day nurse home early and had the night one come late so I could cheat for say twenty minutes.

This

●‘Two weeks ago my hole card was a deuce. But my friend .Stevens and Dr. Hender son got busy and sent for some Synthetic Blood. But look out for ’em, they are a danger ous i>air. They and the one that grafted the innards of a itelican into a pug dog and the fi rst moonlight night the pelican died howling at the moon and the dog drown<d trying to catch a fi sh. Well, anyway, they have me coming back I am sure, and today they have decided to humanize the rest of the jol) with good old liuman transfusion.

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"Never have been very sick bul once before and that was in New Mexico al 19. My inspiration to get well started with a cowboy friend coming in and saying, ‘Hell, you can't die up here, Aleck. We could not carry you down.’ Al Oviat is my inspiration here.

He comes every day to see about getting the fire ready.

"For sixty years I have done about as I liked. Caught a filly I liked some 35 years ago and while we are out in the open 1 have to put a bell on her (she’s that direction and location dumb) I just wouldn’t trade her at all. We had our fun always. Every body’s been good to us. Got more world goods than we can use so I am saying to the dealer, ‘That’s my stake—turn the next card. I win, no matter what card you turn.’

"I am going to be with you all next year, but tonight I am sure my man Flores and my friends who are helping have lit the pipe of peace and you are all off to a wonderful three days.

“Adios.”

E. W. didn’t make it next year, but “Alexander’s” has become a hallowed RV tradition.

With men of the calibre of E. W. Alexander and the other founder members, it is little wonder that Rancheros Visitadores got off on a firm footing. By 1934, 200 men made the ride and it has continued each year— even during World War II, when annual weekend reunions were held at Rancho Juan y Lolita—until today a limit of 500 members and guests has been set.

Much credit for the world-wide fame of the organization must be given to the four El Presidentes and the many men who have served long and well on the board of directors. J. J. Mitchell gave RV inspired leadership as EI Presidente from 1930 to 1955. He was succeeded by George O’Brien of San Francisco, who held office from 1956 through 1958; Larry Lane of Menlo Park, 1959 through 1961; and the present El Presidente, Stewart Aber crombie, owner of historic Rancho Tajiguas.

They have charted the course through the years and have set the stand ards for membership selection into RV. Perhaps no other rider organization has had a roster of such illustrious members. It would be unfair to single out individuals, but the organization has been built by ranchers, corporation presidents, cowboys, artists, doctors, lawyers, actors and a cross section of “Who’s Who in America.” Regardless of wealth or position, the RV badge of membership—whether it be worn by a millionaire or ranch-hand—is the badge of close comradeship.

Guests invited the first year are carefully screened on the basis of horse manship, fellowship, age, and geographical residence. If the first-year guest passes muster, he is invited back as a guest for two additional years, after which he is eligible to be placed on the waiting list for full membership. By the time a man has received his symbolic silver horseshoe of RV member ship, he has received the approbation of a thorough jury of his peers.

The 500 members and guests belong to 18 different camps, and rivalry between them is friendly but determined. Each camp maintains its own tents and sleeping accommodations, campfire, bar, etc. Practically every day of the week-long ride some type of competition is going on between the camps in the form of races, horse show, skeet shooting, and rodeo events. It has been discovered that cups and ribbons speak louder than words in inter-camp rivalry. Camps also vie with each other in staging planned and impromptu entertainment and pranks. Down through the years the latter have grown with re-telling, and the signal for an extended “bull-session” usually is, “Re7

member when . . . ?” RV pranks have become legends and one that is told and re-told is the year when “some of the boys” dragged a coon through the camp, in tents, over and under cots, and at 3 a.m. turned loose an imported pack of eager and baying hounds to completely demoralize several hundred snoring RV’s!

When the 500 members and guests ride to the Santa Barbara Mission for the traditional blessing by the Franciscan Fathers each May, it is the start of a week’s ride that takes them through the Santa Barbara back coun try to the end of the trail at Juan y Lolita Ranch near Santa Ynez. Established campsites range in distance from 17 to 24 miles over scenic, winding moun tain trails.

Early Sunday morning the riders leave Skofield Camp in Rattlesnake Canyon back of Santa Barbara Mission and head over the mountains to 4-H Camp. This camp was established by RV and is used one day each year.

The remainder of the time it is turned over for use by youth groups, as is Skofield Camp.

The following morning, the Trek continues to Santa Cruz Camp on Rancho San Fernando Rey, where the group remains until Thursday morn ing. Here at Santa Cruz, the Rancheros take daily side rides and stage the traditional horse show, horse races, and skeet shoot. From Santa Cruz the riders come out of the mountains to Juan y Lolita for their gala wind-up, which features the annual RV parade and rodeo, and the ride to Santa Ines Mission.

From its comparatively simple beginning back in 1930, the present-day movement of men and camp equipment is a logistics problem rivaling that of Ringling Brothers Circus. Before the riders mount to ride to the next camp, hands are busy dismantling the various camps, the commissary equip ment and RV field offices and loading the material into a vast fleet of trucks which proceed to the next campsite and are set up before the riders arrive.

Some idea of the magnitude of the ride may be gleaned from the follow ing statistics on the 1962 Trek.

A total of 956 persons were processed through the RV Field Office.

These broke down as follows: 555 Trek members, guests, viejos, and stall members; 271 RV hands and employees, and 130 special one-day guests, in cluding State, City, County officials. Host Ranchers and hands.

As for food, here’s a portion of what was consumed: Meat, 7,272 pounds; chicken, 955 pounds; shrimp, 18 pounds; juices, 1,824 quarts; tomatoes, 864 pounds; eggs, 14,040; frozen vegetables, 418 pounds; bread, 881 loaves; butter, 420 pounds; and 3,516 ice cream sundaes.

This doesn’t take into account such items as fresh fruit, cereals, hors d’oeuvres, pancakes, etc.!

Those who claim RV members are heavy drinkers are right! Consumed were 9,608 half pints of milk; 1,304 half pints of buttermilk, 390 pints of half and half cream; and unestimable gallons of coffee. Horses are the only ones to lose weight on an RV Ride!

John J. Mitchell, in analyzing the reasons behind the successful 34 years of RV existence, believes there is but one answer.

“It’s the ride that makes the fun, not the fun that makes the ride,” he maintains.

Most Rancheros are top horsemen. The most coveted award on the ride is the annual George O’Brien Horsemanship Trophy. It is given to the RV 8

member, riding his own horse, who is judged on general conduct on the trail, care of his horse and equipment, and participation in all scheduled rides, the horse show, races, and rodeo. Six anonymous judges make the decision. Only one person knows the six; even the judges do not know who are their fellow arbiters.

With this emphasis on horsemanship, it is not unusual that the quality of horses on RV treks always has been high. During the first years of the ride, the majority of horses were California bred ranch horses of mixed breed—grade mares and good pure bred stallions, usually Thoroughbred or Morgan. Then Palominos and Tennessee Walking horses became popular.

In recent years, there has been a steady climb in quarter horse popularity.

An estimated 75% of Rancheros members and guests ride them today.

Although now stallions are strictly “verboton”.

Since the organization owes its origin to the historical traditions of th«> past, it is natural that Los Rancheros Visitadores should have acquired civic interests in Santa Barbara. Through its non-profit Rancheros Visitadores Fundacion, it has made available for community use the facilities of both Skofield and 4-H Camps, as mentioned above, as well as purchasing and re storing the Covarrubias Adobe and the Historic Adobe in which are the RV headquarters. Plans also are under way for the collection and preservation of historic stage coaches, rigs, and other ranch and riding objects of interest to future generations.

Already second-generation Rancheros are becoming eligible for mem bership as the annual spring riding tradition of California is passed from father to son. Despite the population “explosion” in the Golden State and especially Southern California, Los Rancheros Visitadores expect to be riding in Santa Barbara County for many years to come. Civilization in the form of 1-acre homesites is beginning to replace the famous ranchos of the Santa Ynez valley. But RV already is planning for the future. The Board of Di rectors have just concluded a 49-year lease with El Presidente Stewart Aber crombie for a future campsite on his Rancho Tajiguas. This will open up about 100 miles of new riding trails in undeveloped back country for future use—if and when the old familia^ trails are cut off.

Los Rancheros Visitadores have had a colorful past and a bright future.

RV members have but one complaint. The days are dragging out too long until May 4, 1963, when El President Abercrombie sings out the welcome order, “Ride Rancheros!”

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Tajiguas Adobe

Rancho Tajiguas

By Stewart Abercrombie*^ A year ago, in February, 1962, I drove to the top of the hill overlooking,<T the Tajiguas Canyon, and at that point I lost my heart. I could think of little else but the great desire to own Tajiguas and to make a working ranch out of the historic Canyon, and of leaving its pastoral 3,700 acres as God had created it, an oasis in the path of the subdividers and their bulldozers for years to come.

It was about on this same spot that Lawrence More II, of the third generation of Mores to live on the Ranch, had ridden one day, a rifle in the scabbard under his left leg and an eye out for a possible coyote, and had seen a pair of red-tailed hawks spiralling high in the blue sky. Very high above them, a pair of golden eagles also spiralled. Suddenly, as Lawrence reined in Ins horse to watch the great birds, one of the eagles tipped forward and dropped like a plummet on one of the hawks. As the eagle struck the hawk, Lawrence stood in his stirrups and yelled with excitement.

No one knows for sure what the name “Tajiguas” means. Pronounced “Tah-Hee’-Woss”, it is similar to the Chumash word “tayiyas”, which means wild cherry, a shrub native to the upper levels of the Canyon. Tajiguas also ‘'Historical information taken from Walker Tompkins’

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Tajiguas Rancho”.

resembles an Indian word for basket. Whatever its meaning, tbe name definitely is not to be tried after a second cocktail.

The first white men to visit Tajiguas were Don Caspar de Portola and the men of his expedition of 1769. Portola’s diarist. Fr. Crespi. made this note in his journal on Wednesday, August 23, 1769: ‘'On each side of (Tajiguas), there is an Indian village, but we do not know if tiiey are .separate. On one bank we counted 42 houses; on the other bank, 37; and the In dians must exceed <100. We pitched camp on the left bank, and as soon as we arrived we were visited by the heathen who made us liberal gifts of fislt and seeds, to which dance. We Captain Portola responded with beads. They also entertained us -witli named these villages ‘San Guido de Cortona'.”

When Santa Barbara Mission was founded in 1786, the coastal strip from the Rincon to the Santa Maria River became available for grazing and agriculture. In 1795, Captain Jose Francisco de Ortega, the discoverer of San Francisco Bay and one of the founders of the Royal Presidio at Santa Barbara, was retired from military service because he was too obese to sit in the saddle. Finding himself in debt to the army, he petitioned the Viceroy for some land where he could go into the sheep and cattle business. This petition was granted, over the objections of the Franciscans, who opposed private land use because such use tended to draw the savages away from the Missions.

Ortega picked out a strip of land one league in depth and extending from Refugio Bay to Coho Canyon, and he named this rancho “Neustra Senora del Refugio”—“Our Lady of Refuge”. The area included 16 canyons, of which Tajiguas was next to Refugio Canyon itself.

Thereafter, whenever an Ortega married, he moved up the coast a canyon or two, built an adobe, and set up housekeeping. (You can still see the original Ortega adobes at nearby Honda and Quemada Canyons!. The Tajiguas adobe was started in 1800, at which time California’s first lemon trees were planted. One of them still is bearing fruit and may be seen, pro tected from browsing deer and cattle by a board fence, about 400 yards from the Tajiguas residence of today.

Captain Ortega died in 1795, and a r-randson. Antonio, became the actual grantee of Refugio Rancho in 1834. during Governor Figueroa’s term of office. Thus Tajiguas is a portion of Santa Barbara County’s oldest land grant. (There is no such thing as a Spanish land grant locally. Spain issued grazing permits only, not deeds.)

In 1826, Daniel Hill, of Massachusetts, married an Ortega girl and built a home at what is now 11 E. Carrillo Street, in Santa Barbara. This building boasted of a wooden floor, the first one in the Pueblo. Hill was Santa Bar bara’s leading American-born citizen. Eight years later, he moved with his family to Tajiguas and, in 1836, he considerably enlarged the small adobe that had been erected in 1800. The last Ortega to own Tajiguas was Pedro, the man who hauled the first stone for the lighthouse at Point Concepcion in 1856.

As time passed, the Refugio Grant was broken up. About the lime of the beginning of the Civil War, Frank and George Young purchased Tajiguas Canyon and then rented it to a Bostonian, A. L. Lincoln. Lincoln soon tired of the rustic life at the Ranch and moved to town, where he became cashier of Mortimer Cook’s bank.

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One event of the Young regime at Tajiguas was the total loss one year of the almond crop to squirrels, those beautiful, dark gray fellows with the long and showy tails. This is of interest because this colony of tree squirrels still flourishes in the Canyon and its members still are seen daily in the trees along the creek bed.

In February, 1884, Lawrence More, of Ohio, purchased Tajiguas Canyon and fenced it. This is the first time that the boundaries of the Ranch definitely were marked. Though the property was fenced, the right-of-way from it to the fool of the Refugio Grade remained intact. Up to this time, the Ranch was little changed from the pastoral aspect that had existed about it in His panic years. The nearest approach of “civilization” was the stagecoach road between Santa Barbara and Gaviota, built in 1860, which crossed the lower end of the Canyon not far above the beach.

Lawrence More’s son, Clifford, had the distinction of giving to one of the main side canyons the name that it now bears; and he did this in what, today, seems to have been an extraordinary way: Riding one day up this side canyon on a tour of general inspection, he jumped a mountain lion. The little fox terrier, which was following at the horse’s heels, immediately gave chase with such a hullabaloo of excited yappings that the big cat, ten times the size of the little dog, became frightened and ran up an oak tree. At this wholly unexpected outcome, Mr. More tied the valiant terrier to a low hanging limb of the oak and then set out at a run for the ranchhouse. Returning to the tree with his rifle in his hand, he found the little dog still holding the great cat at bay. From this event onward, the side canyon has been known as “Lion Canyon”.

Ed Borein on his white mule.

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In 1901, the Southern Pacific Railroad laid its steel rails across the Canyon immediately to the south of the county road. The chief engineer of this section was Jack Carrillo, who had his fi eld headquarters in Tajiguas Canyon. Both Jack and his younger brother, Leo, who was chainman of the surveying crew, were seen often about the ranch buildings, a circumstance that was remembered vividly by Lawrence More II, then a small boy.

In 1903, Clifford More set a string of poles over the ridges into Refugio Canyon and on these he strung wires to hook up with the trunk line from San Francisco. From this date forward, the Ranch fairly could not call living conditions on it primitive. By 1919, life had become so effective that a R. F. D. carrier left mail daily in the More box on the county road. News papers reached the Ranch only one day old!

Shortly after the close of World War One, a bridge was built over Tajiguas Creek to accommodate the increasing automobile traffic on the Coast Highway, a traffic that objected strenuously to fording the creek, es pecially during times of heavy rains, as the old Wells-Fargo stages had had to do. up to this time.

Times were changing at an accelerated pace now. In 1923. Mr. and Mrs. Kirk Johnson, of Montecito, purchased the Ranch, with the intention of converting it from a cattle ranch into a citrus one. They also planned to make their residence there. With large funds at their disposal, plus true devotion for the place, they embarked on a full-scale program of improve ment. One of their fi rst acts was to raze the historic old ranch house. When one of the wings which had been built by the Young Brothers, was torn down (the Johnsons were having the work done with great care so that the 13

RANCHEROS VISITADORES Trek Map

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original Ortega bricks might be preservedi a metal box was uncovered.

Upon opening, it was found to contain letters, coins, and old newspapers, together with a message written by a Tajiguas resident who signed herself “Caroline Woodward.” It read: “The cornerstone of this house was laid at 6 A.M. Sept. 27, 1872. Ulysses S. Grant and Horace Greely are the presidential candidates. The Pacific Ocean is entirely con trolled by the Pacific Mail Steamboat Company. Santa Barbara is a resort for invalids.

Land costs as much as $100 an acre near town.”

It tvas a happy day for the Abercrombies to have the Rancheros sign a lease for a permanent camp sight on Tajiguas Ranch, and for us to feel we were to be able to share these rolling hills and steep canyons with so many of our friends and future Rancheros from all parts of the country.

An Afternoon at TM Ranch

By Selden Spaulding As we sat in the comfortable living room, with the etchings and watercolors of Ed Borein on the walls around us, the black and while drawing

by Joe De Yong over the door, and a pile of old photographs on the desk, the conversation necessarily drifted from one old timer to another who had ridden in the Valley in former years and had been the guests of our host.

It was very pleasant to recall this and that incident in which these friends had played leading roles.

For a while, we lingered with affection over Leo Carrillo, who so often had visited the house that at last Tom Storke had built a room for him beside the swimming pool. Nat Wills and Tom had known Leo intimately of course; while I, who had never known him intimately, had known of him as far back as 1901, when he had been chainman in his brother’s surveying crew when the railroad was being built along the coast to the west of Santa Barbara.

At that time, both brothers had put up in the bunk house at Tajiguas Ranch while the work was being done in this area. Even at this early dale, Lawrence More once told me, Leo was famous as a mimic, a comedian, and a story teller. In the course of these lively recollections, Nat remarked that Leo al ways kept himself in the physical condition of an athlete, almost to the days of his last illness, riding and roping and doing all those other things that were in the tradition of the Carrillo family; and for this reason Leo always appeared as a young man. Tom remarked that he and Leo had been born at about the same time.

Irving Cobb, who had been as careless of his physical condition as Leo Carrillo had been careful, was mentioned; for he, too, had been a frequent guest at the ranch not only when he “rode” with the Rancheros but at other limes as well. He was a great talker, going on and on, seemingly, with an inexhaustible supply of wit and imagination, as he drank his liquor. Tom told us that Cobb had spent a night with him at the Ranch in this fashion and then had gone on to San Francisco, where, the next day, he was stricken and had died. The photograph on the wall in the hallway showed Tom and “Irv” comfortably seated in chairs on the porch. Cobb had his mouth wide 16

open, obviously having been caught by the photographer in the middle of one of his famous “windies”. It was conceded that this was an especially good picture of Irving Cobb.

“Hobie” Skofield, quite naturally, recalled “Lew” Hitchcock and Sam Stanwood and Hobie’s father in the days when the last named gentleman was acquiring a large part of upper Rattlesnake Canyon, and was making plans to establish himself there. Sam had owned a piece of land in the Canyon and had sold it to Ray Skofield. The lower part of the “Skofield Tract”, of course, now is used by the Rancheros as a camping ground on the night before they start on their annual trek over the mountains and down to the Santa Ynez River. It is land redolent of much that was best in the early, romantic life of the community.

Showing us a photograph of the county officers grouped on the steps of the old court house, Tom told us of the election for sheriff many years ago when Nat Stewart had run against Tom Hicks. The former was Tom Storke’s choice and so, of course, Tom had worked hard to further Nat Stewart’s candidacy. When the election was over and the votes were tallied, the two men were exactly tied with 2002 votes each; and so the contest was declared a draw. This is the only tied election known to me, and so Tom’s account of it was of more than passing interest. In the run off election that followed, Stewart won by a majority of 112 votes.

A1 Essig, sitting in a comfortable chair and sipping a mild highball, encouraged Tom to continue his reminiscences by an occasional and well chosen question. When Tom noticed that Al’s glass was empty, he suggested a refill; and then he told us of one of his guests, who had sat where A1 was sitting, who had told Tom that the whiskey was the worst he ever had tasted.

This remark was received with the more astonishment because it was known that the liquor Tom served was excellent. Al, assuring our host that the whiskey was of the very best, declined a refill on the grounds that he was the one who would drive the car home over the Pass.

Tom told us with obvious satisfaction of the time Irving Cobb, Ed Borein, Leo Carrillo, Lewis Stone, and one or two more turned aside from the main body of the trek and, coming to his ranch house, spent the night with him. We had a great time that night, Tom said. This, perhaps, had happened in the days when the riders set out from Santa Barbara with their bed rolls and when a few of them, ever so, were willing to forgo the pleas ures of a bivouac under an oak tree for the softer comforts of a good chair and sheets on a well made bed.

As we prepared to depart, Tom sped us on our way with the usual, friendly salutations. “Look out for the deer as you go down the canyon,” he said: and this Al Essig agreed to do.

IRVING COBB

ED ALEXANDER

Histone and Carrillo Adobes.

Los Adobes de los Roncheros An outstanding piece of liistorical salvage and restoration work was accomplished through the generosity of members and guests of Los Ranchero Visitadores when, in 193B, as a part of its interest in helping preserve some of the historic landmarks of the old Spanish period in California, RV through Los Adobes de los Rancheros acquired title to the Covarrubias and Fremont Adobes.

Los Adobes de los Rancheros is a non-profit corporation, having no legal connection with Los Rancheros Visitadores but having a Board of Trustees selected from Ranchero members. Its revenue is derived from con tributions of Ranchero members and guests and the people of the community.

The Covarrubias and Fremont Adobes are two of the most interesting and most beautiful of the old California structures still in existence. The buildings are located at 715-17 Santa Barbara Street and are open to the public w’ilhout charge and are regularly visited bv people interested in early California history.

Casa Covarrubias was built in 1B17 by Domingo Carrillo. In 1B53 tlie house became occupied by the Covarrubias family. Governor Pio Pico of Mexico was a close friend of the Covarrubias family and was a frequent visitor on his lrij)s to Santa Barbara. Don Domingo Carrillo had died in 1B37 but his wife, Dona Concepcion Pico, maintained the tradition of hos pitality in their casa until her death in 1B90. With her lived children, grand1 <> io

children and great grandchildren, filling the old house with laughter. In the 1850’s Santa Barbarans began to call the adobe, Casa de Covarrubias for the distinguished legislator and general, French-born Jose Maria Covarrubias, who had married a Carrillo daughter in 1838 and reared his family within its walls. General Covarrubias died in 1870 and his wife, Dona Maria del Espiritu Santo Carrillo, in 1899. The house passed to their eldest son. Sheriff Nicolas A. Covarrubias, who sold the property in 1907 after 90 years of occupation by Don Domingo Carrillo and his descendants.

The building is in the shape of an L. Its rooms contain many fascinating relics of old California days and the vigorous ranching'life that was part of them. The “sala” is 55 feet long and retains its original adobe-wall con struction although massive outside buttresses have been added. The Indian pattern “river of life” is carried out in the solid door carvings. The adobe was originally roofed with mission tile supported on willow canes. Over the canes a layer of mud was placed in which the tiles were set.

The age nd historic associations of the Covarrubias adobe make it one of the most venerable and interesting in Santa Barbara.

Sharing the patio with the Covarrubias Adobe is the much-traveled Fremont or “Historic Adobe.” It has two large rooms. It is a reconstruction, from original material, of a house that apparently has been in several places in Santa Barbara in one guise or another. Some claim that its material was used in 1836 to build near the present corner of State and Carrillo Streets for Conception Pico de Carrillo, sister of Pio Pico, the last of California’s Mexican governors. It also has been known as General Fremont’s headquar ters, when as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1846, he was in charge of the American occupation, although this claim is disputed by some.

The building was first erected in the early 1800's near the present site of the County National Bank. The building was removed, brick by brick, to Carrillo and Anacapa Streets where it was later used by the first Museum of Natural History. In 1922, when the construction of Margaret Baylor Inn Hater Hotel Lobero) was planned, the old adobe w'as again taken down and reconstructed in its present location by John R. Southworth, antiquarian author of “Old Adobes of Santa Barbara and Montecito.” It is completely roofed with original Mission tiles and has a tiled veranda 75 feet in length.

The 192.5 earthquake did it no damage.

In 1938, the Historic Adobe and the adjoining Covarrubias Adobe were sold to Rancheros Visitadores and, in 1941, both buildings were repaired and were used by the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce until the spring of 1945. British War Relief occupied the premises until the end of World War II when it was placed at the service of the Santa Barbara Chapter.

American Association for United Nations. In January 1947 the Historic Adobe was returned to Rancheros Visitadores who use it as an office.

Through the efforts of the Finance Committee, headed by Kenneth Curtis, an initial S5,733.40 for purchasing the old Adobe was raised in contributions from Ranchero members and guests followin the 1938 Trek.

A good deal more was required to furnish the buildings, but through the interest of members and guests the fund raising continued successfully. The $15,000 original cost of the property was paid off through the annual de duction of .$5.00 from the membership dues each year, and payments were completed by 1946.

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The building committee with Leo Carrillo as chairman and assisted

by Joe Plunkett, Sam Stanwood, Hap Maxwell, Elmer Awl, Herb Geisel, Lester Pope, Yale Griffith. Ed Haskell and Jack Mitchell worked diligently on the reconstruction problem. All the reconstruction work was done with a view to real permanence and strength but with careful preservation of the original Spanish style and appearance. The cost was considerably reduced through the courtesy of Messrs. Plunkett and Edwards, E. E. Duque, Ed Haskell. Charlie Urton and others who donated both time and materials to this project.

Donations of art and other California relics were made for the decorating of these Adobes and the walls now are teeming with interesting objects through the generosity of members of Los Rancheros Visitadores and friends who are interested in the preservation of historically interesting articles.

The “Old Adobes” are a vital part of Santa Barbara and of the Ran cheros. Step in, Sehores, and you’re at home again—in the romantic Cali fornia of elder days, the days of the Horse and Men to ride him. An'd the well-known sombreros on the hatrack by the fireplace suggest that their beloved owners have just stepped out a minute and will be back at any time, although they have ridden far away. Yet where their hats hang, here are they!

JOHN J. MITCHELL Chairman, Los Adobes de los Rancheros

Moon Magic (Santa Cruz Corrals)

By Joe De Yong From somewhere out in the night —its directions confused in the dark— A big twig cracks . . .

Its somehow-eerie sound, brittly-sharp!

And from the shadow of a bearded-oak Among huge, hump-back boulders, A hatless figure appears, wrapped in a long, dark cloak.

Which, as he moves out into the starlight, slips from his shoulders.

Small, noticeably slight, and dressed in dark Spanish costume That is neat, and rather tight He, for a moment, quietly stands there . . .

As the cool night-breeze idly fingers a lock of his smooth, black hair.

When through a notch in the skyline’s rim A big, slow, yellow-faced moon Pierces the far-flung, oak-dotted, valley’s gloom To, magically, light the meadow before him!

At which he smiles, and, humbly, bows . . . low Then, easily straightening, again Turns back his cuffs with the practiced air of a skilled “majico”: Deft . . . self-confident . . . studiedly-slow!

Then, bending over to make a pass Above the tips of the dew-damp grass, He commences to pick a handful of golden poppies (where, but a moment before, there had been nothing other than low, rose-red, owl’s clover!)

Poppies, whose petals, one by one, he pulls apart And, negligently, tosses into the air . . .

Where, apparently to his surprise, they immediately become a hovering swarm of winking fireflies—such being his Art! And, as he brushes them out of his hair —their phosphorescent glow bathing his face in ghostly-light— The tucked-in wrinkles at the corners of his eyes Pucker and crinkle in—seemingly—spontaneous, childlike-delight.

When—his manner, usually, winning, persuasive, bland . . . suddenly changes And he makes a quick, authoritative gesture of the hand; At which each winking speck of swampfire light becomes a spinning, smudgedred spark against the dark.

And, breeze-borne, floats away and is lost among the deeper shadows of the night.

Then, eloquently spreading his open hands . . . he shrugs, depreciatingly.

And again bows low . . . as though to an imagined,audience— Turns, stoops to retrieve his fallen cloak, and mistily . . , Becomes one with a moss-grey shadow, beneath the crooked arm of a gnarled, old oak.

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Moon Magic?

Wel-1 . . . according to those most likely to know: Perhaps, both a little of “Yes” and a bit of “No”!

Rather, the spirit of a dedicated artist, who, On every bright, moonlight-night.

Still diligently practices some such, invariably-new, patiently-perfected, Intended contribution to Each year’s Fiesta, and/or, Los Gringos’ Camp Show.

None other than Santa Barbara’s beloved, “Primero Majico y Ranchero Viejo”: Gentle, kindly, Abel Maldonado . . .

Alias, El Senor Maldo!

VAYA CON Dios!

P.S. Such being his unpredictable, impish-wit, He might easily be engaged at this very minute In gleefully twisting some sedate Saint’s pur loined halo Into . . . of all things, a corkscrew? Or, more likely a bridle-bit! No? I Being confident, with us, that nothing offensive will come of it!)

Copyriirliteci. Joe Dc YonK. 1961

Rattlesnake Canyon

By Dick Smith'’ The long procession of horsemen ride up the canyon from the Old Mis sion. They follow a tradition as old as the cattle industry in Southern Cali fornia. And the trail they follow on their first day’s journey is as old as the foot prints of man upon this land.

Each year, after a blessing from the Padres, the Rancheros Visitadores leave the Old Mission and ride up Rattlesnake Canyon to their headquarters at the Skofield Ranch. From there the trail leads up over the Santa Ynez Mountains beginning in the canyon and finally along the steep mountain slopes above it.

No one today remembers just how Rattlesnake Canyon got its name. It was not called that by the Indians, nor was it called that by the first Spanish colonists, who spoke of the creek as “Little Mission.” They undoubtedly referred to the canyon in the same way.

The late Sam Stanwood, whose name will be forever linked with the horseback history of Santa Barbara, once suggested that the name might have come from the snake-like scar of the trail high on the mountainside. But to him this was only repeating a thought expressed by others before him. *Co-author of “Back Couniry”, a currenl Iwok nn llie mountains and trails of Santa Barbara County.

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The name may have come from the rattlesnakes found in the canyon.

But it is doubtful that there were ever more snakes in i this canyon than in any other.

The earliest official maps call the canyon, “Las Canoas”. This takes the name back to the 1880’s. And it may have been the imagination of a map maker that started it all.

To the Rancheros, the canyon is one of scenic interest. From the Old Mission they ride beneath large oaks and sycamores, waving at the residents of the homes along the way. From the Ranch Headquarters they follow just above the creek until the trail cuts up to Gibraltar Road about a mile above the ranch. However, beneath the surface there are countless stories of early Santa Barbarans and their efforts to gain shelter, solitude, w'ater and wealth from the canyon.

Farliest dwellers in the canyon were Indians. Of the three distinct cul tural periods defined by local archaeologist, David Banks Rogers, only the last or Canalino lived in the canyons above the site of the Old Mission.

Rogers, who worked with the Museum of Natural History in the 1920’s mentions the location of an Indian Village, “Kashwa,” in his book, “Pre historic Man on the Santa Barbara Coast.” He notes that it had been mentinned in the mid 1800’s by an amateur archaeologist, H. W. Henshaw.

Relics and an occasional burial have been found in i recent years by residents living at the junction of the two creeks.

When the mission padres began in earnest to develop their lands in the first decade of the 19th century, their first thought was for a stable supply of water. They engineered dams at strategic points in Mission Creek and its tributary Rattlesnake Creek.

With Indian labor they built the dams and laid the tiles for two aque ducts that would bring water to a settling basin and a reservoir just above the Mission.

The aqueduct leading from the Rattlesnake Canyon Dam followed the contour of the land. It crossed many southern slopes that were terraced and planted in grapes. These terraces may still be seen as one drives along Las Canoas Road. Residents on the slope above the road find occasional grape vines springing up—long dormant remnants of the once flourishing Mission Grape.

While the Rancheros trail leaves the canyon before reaching the old Indian dam, it is just a few minutes walk up the creek to the dam. The face of the dam, while not as high as that of its sister in Mission Canyon, is, none theless, equally well built. A capping of red baked tile flooring is still visible over a portion of the dam.

By watching carefully, the aqueduct may be easily traced along the west side of the canyon. Large sections of this are still intact and it was quite likely an important part of Santa Barbara’s water system as late as 1880.

Mission records have been thoroughly searched for years for a descrip tion of the complete water system but no information has ever been found.

Many names have been given to the trails that climb over the top of the Santa Ynez Mountains above Rattlesnake Canyon. Today the main trail is called Gibraltar Road because it crosses Santa Ynez ridge and runs down the inner slope that leads to the city’s Gibraltar Dam. At the time this road was built, the country was in the throes of the depression of the 1930’s, so it was at first called “Depression Drive.”

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In the early 1900’s, Santa Barbara was a popular resort area for eastern families. Among the many forms of recreation, the city offered hikim2 and riding in the mountains. In 1902 the Chamber of Commerce bought up rights of way from canyon homesteaders and land holders to develop a scenic trail to the top. It was engineered to have no more than a maximum six per cent <>rade at any point in order to make it easy for tourists. “The Chamber of Commerce Trail,” as it was called, received much weekend traffic from the townsfolk as well as the tourists. The Chamber called the trail along the creek, “Las Canoas or “Rattlesnake” and made mention of its junction with a sj)ur to the left at “Tin Can Shack”. This was a popular point of interest at the turn of the century and for many years later.

Few people today have any knowledge of the origin of “Tin Can Shack.

And fewer still are those who saw the shack that finally collapsed m the canyon fire of 1925.

William History records the clearing and the shack as the property of O’Connell. The recording in the 1900 Book of Patents at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse gives both his and his wife’s name. But from j)hotographs of the shack taken in 1914, it is difficult to believe that any man could get his wife to live in such humble'and remote surroundings. The house itself was crudely fashioned of the flattened sections of oil cans lashed to a framework of Ceanothus. There were windows but no floor. Outside there grew ^single of William peach tree. Only a rapidly disintegrating pile of tin remains O’ConneH’s homestead. Even his peach tree is dead. The trunk lies on top of the pile in the clearing. homestead in the canyon. Rec O’Connell was not the only man to file ords also note the holdings of John Stewart. His 160 acres was below 0 Con nell’s. On the steep side of a hill, Stewart built a simple adobe. Nearby he |)lanted a pepper tree. Today the pepper tree is easy to spot on the site but nothing at all remains of Stewart’s adobe.

Another adobe was situated just above Las Canoas Road. Its position is easily spotted by a row of Olive trees and flowers in neat rows on the gentle owner has slope of an open hill above the creek. No record of the adobe’s been found.

Years ago there was a well-built buggy road along the creek. I arts of it still remain in the higher reaches of the canyon. This is in good condition just below the sandstone quarry where much of the rock for stonework on the Riviera was cut in the middle 1800’s.

Well below the dam, the walking trail passes through a pleasant stand of pines. These were planted by Hobart Skofield, son of Ray L. Skofield, who brought the major portion of canyon land under a single ownership in the 1920’s.

The later history of Rattlesnake Canyon is better known. Today, a riding stable occupies the dairy that closed a year or two ago. An Episcopal monastery, “Mount Calvary”, occupies the former Ray L. Skofield mansion.

Rattlesnake’s riding and hiking trails are enjoyed all year long by young and old. And the young find cool waters deep enough for a swim at the narrows a bove the old Indian dam.

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The San Marcos Hot Springs

By Dwight Muri»iiy When Nicholas and Richard Den obtained a Mexican grant from Pio Pico, in 1846, of the San Marcos Ranch, no mention was made of the hot suiplmr springs in what is known as Hot Springs Canyon. The government surveys, in establishing the lines of public lands, showed the hoi springs outside the San Marcos Ranch property.

In the year 1874 j. W. Hough filed on 137.45 acres in the Hot Springs Canyon area for a homestead and this acreage was to take in the land on winch the springs were located. These springs were in the bottom of the canyon and consisted of three large springs as well as several smaller ones in all they produced eighteen inches of hot sulpher water—the temperature registering from 105° to 109°. In 1875 Hough employed W. H. Norway to make a survey of his homestead. This survey was filed with the government and he obtained title to the property. The Hough homestead was reached only by foot or horseback as there was no road to the springs which were located approximately one mile up Hot Springs Canyon from where Highway 154 crosses the canyon.

The Dens sold the San Marcos Ranch to the Pierce brothers of Santa Rosa in 1868. 'I he new owners in after years purchased several homesteads that adjoined the San Marcos Ranch and among them was the Hough proper ty. It was while the Pierce heirs owned the San Marcos Ranch that George Owen Knapp of Montecito obtained permission to use the hot springs. He built a road from the ranch headcpiarters to the springs and also built two cottages, two bath houses and a stable. Water from the hot springs as well as cold water from the canyon was piped to the cottages and bath houses.

Knapp made frequent trips to the springs and usually took guests with him.

A number of well known persons living in Santa Barbara enjoyed the hot S|)ring baths—among them were Alexander Harmer, noted artist of early California scenes, Edward Borein, well known for his etchings of the West.

C. K. G. Billings, Dr. Harold Sidebottham and James Ross, Sheriff of Santa Barbara County for many years.

Judge Atwell Westwick tells of his visit to the springs in 1909 while he was camping with his father and mother in the Hot Springs Canyon. The judge stated the foreman and the men on the ranch were most hospitable.

They furnished horses to ride to the hot springs and extended many other courtesies to the campers. The judge said that steelhead trout were plentiful in the canyon stream.

There was a regular annual visitor to the hot springs that no one ever saw. Evidence of his being there, however, was quite clear. It was during the fall of each year that tracks of a large hear could be plainly seen either on the trail or on the road leading to the springs, and on each of his visits to the sjjrings he left the bath houses plastered with mud. He seemed to enjoy rolling in the stream and, when his coat became covered with'mud, he would rub the mud off on the buildings.

One year he broke the screen on the porch of one of the bath houses and proceeded to rub off the mud he had accumulated on the walls inside this building. It was believed the bear was heading for some cave in which to hibernate during the winter.

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In 1919 ihe San Marcos Ranch changed ownership when Mr. F. W. Mallhiessen of Ventura County purchased the Pierce holdings. About this time rumors were heard that the hot springs were not on the San Marcos property and the Hough homestead did not take in the springs. As a result Mr. Mallhiessen had a survey made to determine whether or not the south line of the survey made in 1875 by W. H. Norway placed the hot springs inside Hough’s homestead. Difficulties were encountered and the subject was not definitely settled. However, in 1953, when the drillers in the Tecolote Tunnel encountered a tremendous flow of liot sulpher water, it soon became apparent that the flow from the hot springs had been effected. Even though the distance is approximately two miles from the place where the hot water was struck in the tunnel to the hot springs, the water from the springs grad ually decreased and in a few weeks the springs were entirely dry.

Although it was not contended that the hot springs water possessed medicinal value or curative powers, nevertheless several individuals troubled by rheumatism claimed to have been greatly benefitted by taking the hot sulphur baths.

Uncle Davy Brown

By Charlie Whitcher Hunters, campers and other people who like to roam through the moun tain back country in the San Rafael Range are likely to be familiar with the Davy Brown Canyon. However, there are not many at this time who have personal recollections of this unusual character or of his cabin in these mountains.

It was generally believed that he had been a Privateersman during the War of 1812. He usually wore a large, wide-rimmed hat (sombreroI, and his long white hair and w!hiskers nicely matched his buckskin-colored hat. He would come down from his mountain home on horseback or muleback to Los Olivos or Santa Ynez to get food and supplies.

When he had decided to establish a mountain cattle ranch, he rode to the lop of a peak in the San Rafael Range and declared that all the country in sight was to be his cattle range. For his headquarters he built a long cabin on a point between two creeks which were later known as the Davy Brown Creek and the Fir Canyon Creek. These two creeks came together and con verged just below the cabin and flowed on down to the Manzanna Creek.

From the cabin one could hear the water rushing over the rocks from these two creeks.

The cabin was built in two parts or rooms. One room was a lean-to running the length of the main house. A huge stone fireplace was built in this lean-to, and each end of this section had a large door or gate. These were arranged so that a log could be dragged into the house by a mule or horse.

Davy could then skid one end of the log into the fireplace, build a fire on that end. and continue skidding the log along as this end of it would be burned away by the fire. This would save a lot of wood cutting.

'Fhere was a very large pine tree nearby, and the cabin was built with one; wall almost touching it. This tree branched out into two sections, and

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one section extended directly over the house. Some of Davy’s friends told him that the tree might fall and smash his house and maybe kill him. He answered that he had lived too long to be killed by an old pine tree. While he was still living in the house the tree did split at the forks and one section fell over the cabin. However, it sort of straddled over it and did not do much damage, and Uncle Davy was not even injured by an old pine tree.

Part of the limbs were still on the cabin in the year 1898 when my brother and I spent the winter in the vacated house.

The two streams which ran by the cabin contained trout, so Uncle Davy rocked off a pool in .which he kept a supply of trout on liand. When he wanted a meal of fish he would take only enough for that time. One day a man who was known by the name of Smithy came to visit Davy and discovered the pool containing the trout, so he fished there until he caught the entire lot.

When Davy discovered this he was so angry that he got his gun and forced Smithy to cook every fish that he had caught. Smithy said afterwards that he was never so full of fish in his life.

There were no roads to the Davy Brown Canyon, so all supplies had to be taken in by pack horses or mules. At one time Uncle Davy had a com panion. He was thought to be nearly as old as Davy, though he was known as Davy Brown’s boy. This fellow’s life ended in a rather tragic manner. He had been to Santa Ynez with a pack outfit and was returning with supplies.

There was a “drift fence” on top of Figueroa Mountain which crossed the trail that was used to reach the Davy Brown cabin. He apparently dismounted from his horse to open the gate and was unable to get back in the saddle.

It was a cold day with snow on the mountain, and he was found frozen on the ground. It was thought that he had taken on too much whisky, which he had obtained in Santa Ynez, and had fallen asleep when he was unable to get back on his horse. His dogs were still with him when someone came along, although they were nearly starved by that time.

When Uncle Davy would come with his pack outfits to Los Olivos, some of us small boys would gather around to see him load his alforjas or pack bags. These alforjas were made from a fresh or soaked skin of a cow or steer. The hide would be cut and sewed together to form a bag of the de sired shape and size with the hair on the outside. Then a wet bag would be stretched over a form of the right shape and left on this form until the hide was fully dry. It would them hold its shape. Two loops or straps were fastened to each bag to provide a means for hanging the bags onto the pack saddle, one bag on each side of the pack horse. Each of the bags had to be loaded with the same weight as the other in order to get a good balance on the pack saddle.

Uncle Davy was very friendly to us small boys and would often buy a big bag of candy and give it to us. This candy usually consisted of good chocolate creams and was quite a treat for us youngsters. With his long white hair and whiskers and a big “ten gallon” sombrero on his head he had the appearance of a real Santa Claus.

Uncle Davy nearly reached the age of his ambition, the age of one hun dred years. He died near Guadalupe where he had spent his last days.

About the year 1898 my brother and 1 spent the winter in the then va cated Davy Brown cabin. We had brought a small bunch of cattle to graze in the Davy Brown Canyon and in the Manzanna Creek Canyon and its trib utaries. One tributary is Lost Valley and another is Hurricane Deck.

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We had placed some cows with calves in Lost Valley, but we were wor ried about them as mountain lions might prey upon the calves. We were told that, if we put bells on the calves, the ringing noise might scare off the lions.

Actually, the lions did take one of the bell-calves, and we did not even find the bell. It was difficult to follow a trail through this rough country.

On another occasion we found a fresh carcass of a cow which had been partly consumed by lions. We expected that they would return to finish up on their kill so we cut slits in different places through the hide and sprinkled strichnine in these openings. Also, we had a No. 4^/2 steel wolf trap which Elmer Fields had loaned to us, so we set this trap near the carcass. There seemed to be one large adult lion and several smaller ones in the bunch.

We got one of the young ones in the trap and two from the poison. The large one, probably the mother, and the others got away, though they were sick from eating the poisoned meat. They had rolled around in fits from the effects of the strychnine. A light snow had fallen during the night and then had melted, so we lost the tracks. This was at Willow Springs in the Davy Brown Canyon.

There was considerable game in these mountains, such as deer, tree squirrels, valley quail and the beautiful mountain quail, and the streams contained quantities of fine trout. There were also mountain lions, coyotes, bob cats and a few bears.

THE “RANCHERO ISSUE This supplementary issue of Noticias, which is devoted wholly to the Rancherns Visitadores and the country through which they make their annual ride, has been put together largely by A1 Essig, chairman of the organization’s Publications Committee. Mr. E.ssig also has played a large and very helpful part in the Historical Society’s current drive for funds for its new building; and so, happily, in the assembling of this material, he has represented the interests of both groups. Through the courtesy of the Rancheros, the members of the Historical Society are receiving copies of this issue; and, in similar fashion, the Rancheros have received copies of the regular Spring Number.

Acknowledgment is made to Karl Obert for photographs used on the inside front cover, and pages 3, 4, 5, 12, 13, 15, and 18; and to Eldon Tatsch for the photograph on page 10.

HISTORICAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP There are five classes of membership: Benefactor, $100; Patron, $25; Contributing, $15; sustaining, $10; Active, $7.50. Dues are tax deductible.

MAILI-NC

address; OLD

MISSION, SANTA

2B

BARBARA, CALIFORNIA

Davy Brown's Cabin.

OFFICERS President First Vice President Second Vice President Secretary Treasurer.

Past President

●Dr. Hilmar 0. Koefod Hugh J. Weldon Mrs. Wilson Forbes Paul G. Sweetser Mrs. Henry Griffiths .Thomas J. McDermott

DIRECTORS Mrs. Charles H. Cannon Mrs. Robert Ingle Hoyt Garrett Van Horne John D. Gill Elmer H. Whittaker .Mrs. W. Edwin Gledhill Dr. Irving N. Wills Rev. Virgil Cordano Thomas M. Slorke* Mrs. Godwin Pelissero John Galvin® John Jordano, jr.

Lockwood Tower ® Honorary Directors Edward S. Spaulding W. Edwin Gledhill Mrs. W. Edwin Gledhill Edward Selden Spaulding.

.Museum Director Curator Editor-in-Chief

NOTCIAS QUARTIRLY BULLFnN OF THE SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Non-Profit Org. U. S. Postage PAID Santa Barbara,

Calif.

Permit No. 534

OLD MISSION SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA