Talk:San Marcos Pass

Untitled

Ack! I've added this to my to-do page. First person in an encyclopedia article? Gaaah!

Well, at least we should be thankful that he/she gave us a good piece of material to work from. (Think positively, now!)

cluth 12:35, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the statement in first-person was a quotation from the Tompkins reference, in which case it's perfectly fine to include in this article so long as it appears as a quote. 65.57.245.11 16:45, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

To-do: rewrite the following

Geography

Santa Barbara is located along the Pacific Coast of California. It sits at the base of the Santa Ynez Mountains. In 1904, Stewart Edward White described the view of these mountains:

The ridge, ascending from seaward in a gradual coquetry of foot-hills, broad low ranges, cross-systems, canyons, little flats, and gentle ravines, inland dropped off almost sheer to the river below. And from under your very feet rose, range after range, tier after tier, rank after rank, in increasing crescendo of wonderful tinted mountains to the main crest of the Coast Ranges, the blue distance, the mightiness of California's western systems. The eye followed them up and up, and farther and farther, with the accumulating emotion of a wild rush on a toboggan.... It left you breathless, wonder-stricken, awed. (White)

The Santa Ynez Mountains are as striking as he describes them. The Santa Ynez mountains form a steep mountain wall along the south coast of California that runs from east to west. There are only three routes out of Santa Barbara to the north that cross these mountains: Gaviota Pass, Refugio Pass, and San Marcos Pass, which provides the most direct route of the three.

The summit of San Marcos Pass is 8 miles northwest of Santa Barbara. The Painted Cave community is located up East Camino Cielo Road.

History

San Marcos Pass and the area surronding it are places rich in history.

First People

The first people to live on San Marcos Pass were the Chumash. Their name for this place was "Malames". Some Chumash lived by the sea, others lived in the Santa Ynez Valley, and some lived on San Marcos Pass.

Chumash rock paintings can still be found in many places on the Pass. Painted Cave is one such site. Rocks found along the pass often exhibit mortar holes made by pestles or grindstones. They were used for making acorn mush and other foods and to grind and mix paint pigments. <> In some specially sacred spots, they were made for grinding the toloache [jimson weed] root into a potion of extreme potency..for ritual initiation and dreamed vision depictions which can still be seen nearby - painted on particular rocks of 'power'. The groups [usually comprised of mostly males] would be governed by the careful attentions of what was known by the same name AS the jimson weed potion; "Momoy".. meaning: 'Older Women'. This is what kept overdoses from being as dangerous a liability, otherwise. <ref><ref>

John C. Fremont's 'Great Battle'

California belonged to Spain in the early 1800s. When Mexico broke away from Spain in 1837, California became Mexican territory. In the 1840s American pioneers started moving into California. They wanted it to be an American state. A war of independence was started between the United States and Mexico over California. Col. John C. Fremont, "The Pathfinder," was one of the American officers who fought in the war.

In 1846, John C. Fremont lead 300 American Troops through Foxen Canyon. He camped about a mile from Benjamin Foxen's ranch, near the present town of Sisquoc, in the hills east of Santa Maria. A common fable is that Foxen told Fremont that the Mexican Army was lying in wait for him in narrow Gaviota Pass, ready to roll rocks on him and the soldiers. This story is false. The Mexican Army was in Los Angeles with General Pico's Army. Besides, Gaviota Pass was closed due to floods. (Tompkins, 1966, pp. 39-48.) Foxen did tell Fremont about a shortcut through the mountains. The troops left on Christmas Eve, 1848. It was raining hard, and the mud was slippery as they made their way up the narrow ridge over San Marcos Pass. Fremont lost 150 pack mules that night, but not one human life. (Tompkins, 1966, pp. 39-48.)

Fremont and his men were going to Santa Barbara to fight the Mexican Army, but the Mexicans were in Los Angeles. The only enemy left in Santa Barbara was Augustin Janssens, a ranch owner who was loyal to Spain. He only had fifteen cowboys fighting for him. He knew he would lose the battle. He also knew knew that Fremont's men needed new horses. To make sure Fremont didn't steal any of his horses, he rounded them all up and hid them near the Santa Ynez River exactly where Cachuma Lake is now. Janssens lost the fight. (Tompkins, 1966, pp. 39-48.)

Fremont hid one of his cannons in the brush because the mules pulling it had died. He was able to pull the rest of the cannons with horses. On December 27, 1846, the soldiers returned and couldn't find the hidden cannon. Captain McLain's journal described the cannon being hidden deep in the brush. The cannon was never recovered. (Tompkins, 1962, p. 62.)

Ten days after Fremont crossed the Pass to Santa Barbara, General Pico surrendered to him rather than suffer the casualties of war. (Tompkins, 1966, p. 48.) The California war was over. San Marcos Pass became part of the California Republic, and it became part of the U.S. in 1850.

The Stagecoach Days

There is no way out north of Santa Barbara without crossing the Santa Ynez Mountains. The shortest way over the mountains is San Marcos Pass, so a stagecoach route was built. In 1868, Chinese workers started on both ends of the proposed route, following stakes put in the ground by road engineers. (Tompkins, 1962, p. 89)

The original stagecoach route started near Kellogg Avenue in Goleta. A half mile above Rancho del Ciervo, the road turned into a steep slope of sandstone, where the horses slipped and could not get up the rock. The Chinese workers had to chisel deep grooves into the rock so the horses could climb up. This section was known as Slippery Rock or "Slippery Sal." The road went on to Kinevan Ranch where the stagecoaches stopped and changed horses. From there, the road went over the summit and on down to Cold Springs Tavern. Then the stagecoaches went to Felix Mattei's Hotel in Los Olivos, now known as Mattei's Tavern, and on to Santa Maria. (Tompkins, 1962, p. 89.)

Stagecoach drivers often left the gate open at the bottom of Slippery Rock, and the ranchers complained. In 1892 a new road was built. San Marcos Road ("The Old Pass") follows that route today.

Patrick Kinevan owned the land on top of the Pass. He was the toll collector and really charged a lot. Most toll booths today don't charge as much as he did. He charged:

• 1 horse and wagon $1.00
• 2 horses and wagon $1.50
• 4 horses and wagon $2.50
• 6 horses and wagon $3.50
• horses and cattle $0.25 each
• sheep or goats $0.05 each

Patrick Kinevan's wife Nora sold meals and let people stay overnight for a bit of money. (Tompkins, 1982, p. 68.)

The Pass was filled with fearful bandits. Many stagecoaches didn't make it over the Pass without being robbed. The bandit problem was the worst during the 1850's. There were fewer sheriffs, and most bandits weren't caught. The favorite targets of most bandits were cattle buyers. They usually had their saddle bags filled with gold. (Tompkins, 1962, pp. 73-79.)

One of the greatest robberies happened in the 1850's, when a stagecoach was robbed on its way to the bank. The two bandits took a box filled with gold coins and ran into the hills with it to hide from the sheriff. A few days later the bandits were found. One was shot, the other was put in jail. Neither of them had the box of gold. While in jail the bandit got sick. Right before he died he told the sheriff that the box was buried in front of a tree where two streams come together. He died the next day. No one ever found the treasure, and I doubt they ever will. One day, a long time later, one of the descendants of Patrick Kinevan found a gold coin in the orchard near where we used to live. It was an unusual coin because of its octagonal shape, the same sort of coin that vanished in the robbery. He gave it to a priest from the Mission who shipped to to the Pope. (Tompkins, 1989, p. 122.)

Runaways, a team of horses out of control, was one of the most feared dangers of crossing the Pass, much more scary than armed bandits. Although they were rare, it usually meant death for the stage driver and his or her passengers. A hornet's sting, a rolling tumbleweed, the buzz of a rattler, you name it. When one of the horses got spooked, the others followed, running like maniacs.

On one run over San Marcos Pass in 1897, young stagedriver Selin Carrillo had seven passengers: 5 drummers, a woman, and her six month old baby. As the stage was just about to reach Dead Horse Rock, the lead horse stepped on some barbed wire and got its foot tangled up. The stampede was on! Selin thought of jumping into the soft grass thinking the drummers would follow, but then he remembered the lady and her baby, how would they get out? He stuck with the horses and stage and was able to calm the horses down. No one was killed. Selin died in the early 1970's. (Tompkins, 1982, p. 50.)

"Thousands of years ago when Santa Barbara County lay under the Pacific Ocean, an amazing seismic convulsion caused the land to be rendered skyward to form the Santa Ynez Mountains." (Tompkins, 1987, p. 45.) A giant boulder about the size of a forty-foot high cube formed exactly where San Marcos Pass would be. The massive rock was called Hobo Rock because homeless people used to sleep in a cave under the rock. Stages staying overnight would camp there. Bandits also used to hide there to ambush passing stagecoaches. Hobo Rock is now gone because in 1963, when Highway 154 was built, the road builders had to blow it up. It would have been too hard to move. Engineers estimated it weighed about 640 tons. (Tompkins, 1982, p. 4)

Modern Times

The stagecoach days were over. More and more people started living on the Pass. A highway was built in place of the old stagecoach road. Automobiles were driving over the Pass now. Eventually a bridge was built over Cold Springs Canyon.

The first car to drive San Marcos Pass was driven up in 1910. The driver was so mad at the price Patrick Kinevan made him pay at the summit that he left his car there and walked down. (Tompkins, 1989, p. 124.)

After the turn of the century, more and more people wanted to live on the Pass, and several communities were started. (Tompkins, 1989.) The Painted Cave community was started in 1896 by Johnson and Viola Ogram. The San Marcos Trout Club was built as a fishing retreat. It still exists today, though some houses were destroyed by the San Marcos Pass fire in 1990. Homer Snyder built Laural Springs as a resort in 1905. Later it was turned into a retreat for nurses from Cottage Hospital. For awhile it was a summer camp owned by Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda. Now it is for sale. Other communities were started at Rosario Park and West Camino Cielo.

San Marcos Road originally had 22 steep switchbacks, so the new settlers built another road for those who got carsick. (Tompkins, 1989, p. 131.) Cold Springs Bridge started construction in 1962. Using 5,094,000 pounds of steel, the bridge was as tall as a 36-story building. The painters of the bridge used 2100 gallons of paint to cover the 180,000 sq. ft. surface. (Rassmussen, p. 18.) Today thousands of cars drive over Cold Springs Bridge each day. It was recently remodeled.

Sources

• Report by Ewan J. Kummel, Copyright 1996, Released under GFDL in 2005
• Hudson, Travis. Guide to Painted Cave. Santa Barbara, California: McNally and Loftin, 1982.
• Nelson, Bob. "Stagecoach Days. Rough Roads, Robbers, and Slippery Sal". Central Coast, Jan. 1992, p.21.
• Rasmussen, Bill. "Cold Springs Arch Bridge: How it was Created". Santa Barbara News-Press. October 10, 1985, p. 18.
• San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society. Papers on the Chumash. Occasional Paper number nine. Paso Robles, California: Roberts House of Printing, 1975.
• Tompkins, Walker. California's Wonderful Corner. Santa Barbara, California: McNally and Loftin, 1982.
• Tompkins, Walker. Goleta the Good Land. Goleta, California: Goleta Amvets, 1966.
• Tompkins, Walker. Mattei's Tavern: Where Road Met Rail In Stagecoach Days. Los Olivos, California: The Olive Press Publications, 1974.
• Tompkins, Walker. Santa Barbara Neighborhoods. Santa Barbara, California: Schauer Printing Studios, 1989.
• Tompkins, Walker. Stagecoach Days in Santa Barbara County. Santa Barbara, California: McNally and Loftin, 1982.
• White, Stewart Edward. The Mountains. New York: McClure, Philips & Company, 1904.