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November 6, 2009
November 6, 2009 - November 19, 2009
Volume XII, Issue 33
In This Issue...
Should Marijuana Be Legalized for Recreational Use?
Capitola Library Likely to Remain on Wharf Road
Target Drops Plans for Scotts Valley Store
Marijuana Use -- Facts and Figures
Capitola Completes Wharf Repairs
Attendance Up at Santa Cruz County Fair
Lime Works Plaque Dedicated
Commission/ Board Vacancies
Call for Holiday Art & Craft Faire Vendors
Hidden Antarctic Lakes to Be Studied
Save the Salmon Fundraiser
Smart Teen Driving Classes
Think Local First Celebrates 300th Member
Auto Body Program Gives Inmates Valuable Job Skills
911
Series of Serious Crashes Plagues County
Around Aptos
Chamber Members Hear from Sheriff and Keep Abreast of Community Projects
A Rail Tale from Aptos
Business Profile
Rainbow Carpet One Combines Product Knowledge, Service and Value
Crimebeat
Crime Beat 11/06/09
Environment
Grocery and Purchase Bags May Be Outlawed
Health
So Far County Has Low Number of H1N1 Cases With More Vaccine on the Way, Clinics Are Scheduled Around County
Some Interesting Running Facts
Opinions
Celebrating the County's Investment in Live Oak and Soquel
Education in Focus -- Pajaro Schools
Postmarked 11/06/09
People
Capitola City Manager To Retire
Morton Marcus Dies
The Mid-County Post > Around Aptos
A Rail Tale from Aptos
By Aptos Museum
Seascape Beach Resort hosted an October dinner presentation to benefit the Aptos History Museum with local attorney and amateur historian Brian D. Liddicoat. He entertained the audience with a presentation on the South Pacific Coast Railroad, which once connected Santa Cruz to Los Gatos through the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Mr. Liddicoat described the vision of the railroad's founder, James Fair, who in 1876 sought to build a railroad from the Bay Area to provide access to the great lumber operations then underway in the San Lorenzo Valley.

From 1877 to 1880, engineering crews drove the line up Los Gatos Creek and then through great mile-long tunnels that still lie under the Summit Road and Highway 17, touching the once-thriving towns of Wright's, Laurel, Glenwood and Zayante. Under the ownership of the Southern Pacific, the line was, during its boom years from 1880 to 1915, one of the most profitable short-line railroads in the country.

Following the end of the San Lorenzo Valley timber operations and the coming of the age of the automobile and Highway 17, the line went into slow decline. It was closed in 1940 following severe storms that caused tremendous landslides near Zayante.

The railroad tracks used by Roaring Camp's "beach trains" between Felton and Santa Cruz still use the only part of this line which remains in operation. Although mostly forgotten today, much of the railroad's old roadbed in the mountains and the portals of its great tunnels can still be seen. Having explored and photographed the remains of the entire line between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz, Mr. Liddicoat was able to show the audience historic photographs of the railroad in its heyday and what its forgotten remains look like today, standing sentinel to the great railroad history of our county.
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