The Sayant and Achistaca

Before contact in 1769, the Ohlone people lived and managed the land here. Their total population once numbered 10,000 or more with many villages in and around Santa Cruz.

Village populations ranged from 50 to 500. In the smaller seasonal villages, the villagers would take advantage of seasonal sources of food, such as game, fish, fruits, berries, nuts, and acorns.

The Ohlone associated with this area belonged to the Awaswas language group, of which at least three tribelets were associated with the San Lorenzo River and Valley. These were the Sayant living by Zayante Creek and for whom the creek takes its name, the Achistaca living in the vicinity of Boulder Creek, and the Uypi living at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River.

The last speaker of Awaswas died in the nineteenth century, though some words from the language have survived.

In 1769, the Portola Expedition "discovered" and named the San Lorenzo River for Saint Laurence. They gave the name Costanoa, meaning "coast people," to the indigenous people that lived here.

In 1791, Mission Santa Cruz, or Holy Cross, was established. It was the 12th Alta California mission. The first Ohlone to be baptized at Mission Santa Cruz, on October 9, 1791, was an eight year old girl from the Achistaca village. According to the baptismal records her name was Moslon, the she was the daughter of Y-noc and Trocsen.

Between 1791 and 1795, 85 members of the Achistaca village went to Mission Santa Cruz, 75 of them were baptized of which just six were parents. Of the Sayant village, 54 were baptized, of which just 6 were parents.

Records indicate that most neophytes at the mission were forcibly detained, poorly treated, and their way of life obliterated. The Santa Cruz Mission gained the moniker “the Hard Luck Mission” because of its troubled history. Its population was the smallest of the 21 missions and it shrank from a peak of 523 in 1796 through flight, and death from disease and maltreatment. 

After Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, it could not afford the missions, and in 1834, Mission Santa Cruz was one of the first to be secularized. The Ohlone found it impossible to return to their former way of life. Much of their ancestral land had been awarded as Mexican Land Grants.

Three land grants were awarded in the San Lorenzo Valley - Rancho Zayante to Joaquin Buelna in 1843, Rancho Cañada del Rincon en el Rio de San Lorenzo (meaning valley on the corner on the San Lorenzo River) to Frenchman Pierre Sainsevain in 1843, and Rancho La Carbonera (meaning relating to charcoal) to Guillermo Bocle, aka Englishman William Thompson, in 1838.

William Ware, an Irishman who settled in Santa Cruz County in 1836, resided with his wife Twaneeya on the Zayante Ranch. She has been referred to as the last of the Zayante. When she died, she was buried in Felton Grove. At one time her gravesite had a marker, undoubtably now washed away with one of the Felton Grove floodings.

White Redwoods

When snow falls in the Santa Cruz Mountains our beautiful redwoods turn a glimmering white. Although snowfall is not common, true white redwoods are very rare. These are albino redwoods, that is, they are unable to produce chlorophyll, and need a mother tree in order to survive. The albino tree and the mother tree share a root system and thus the albino obtains the nutrients it needs to grow. 

David Kuty, a docent at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park has classified them based upon the color of their foliage. There are six variations including white, bright yellow, green and white, and yellow-green. Most albino redwoods are white. Green and white specimens are much rarer.

Botanist Zane Moore, pictured here next to an albino redwood hedge in the Santa Cruz Mountains, has studied and written about albino redwoods. Two such articles written by Zane appear in the Santa Cruz MAH publication Redwood Logging and Conservation in the Santa Cruz Mountains which is available in the San Lorenzo Valley Museum bookstore.

The locations of these rare trees are not publicized in order to protect them; however an albino redwood can be seen on the Redwood Grove Loop Trail at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Look out for it at stop number 14.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, white redwood sprigs were used in ornamental floral arrangements especially for weddings and at Christmas. Indeed, the casual way in which the sprigs were referenced implies they were not considered too unusual. One such arrangement was described in 1882: “… then there were baskets of tea roses, interspersed with spays of fern, smilax and rare foliage plants, veiled, but not hidden, with the little fairy gypsaphilla, and these were sitting on beds of soft, green wood moss, bordered with flowers and white redwood in Grecian bric-a-brac …” In 1890, a white redwood from Paul Sweet gulch decorated the stage at Signor Enrico de Tomaso's testimonial held at Santa Cruz Opera House.

A ranch at the headwaters of Bear Creek, White Redwood Ranch, was named for the white redwoods that grew “to a respectable size” from the stump of a felled tree. “The green and white trees grow side by side and even from the same stump, and the general appearance of the groves is very peculiar.”

When in 1911, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that a white redwood found near in San Mateo County was the “only one that has been found in California,” the Santa Cruz Sentinel responded with an article entitled “White Redwood Not So Rare.”

In 1915, Andrew P. Hill photographed white redwood sprigs in Big Basin State Park, these photographs were published in the San Jose Mercury Herald. The article attests that “white redwood is rare and is only occasionally found where the second growth comes up after cut-over lands have been burned over.” While this may be a simplified statement, it does appear that stress may be a factor in the growth of white redwoods.

In 1917, a beautiful specimen of white redwood was found between Boulder Creek and Felton. It was presented to the San Jose Chamber of Commerce.

At Christmas 1928, Santa Cruzan Iva Davis and her relatives gathered white redwood at Skyland Ranch, just off Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

References to white redwood being used in floral displays continue until the 1940s. In July 1936, “Plant Novelties and Fall Flowers” was the subject for the Santa Cruz Flower Lovers club. It was apparently the most interesting meeting of the season with a wealth of odd plants, shrubs, and “freak blossoms.” A large spray of white redwood was described as “lovely … This was grown where no sun ever reached it.”

You can find out more about these amazing mutations at www.chimeraredwoods.com. 

This is a reprint of an article printed in the Santa Cruz Mountain Bulletin in the November/December 2015 issue.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Have you taken down your Christmas tree yet?

Santa Cruz Sentinel January 1, 1889, Page 3

I hope not. Traditionally the Christmas season begins on Christmas Eve and lasts though the twelve days of Christmas to Epiphany on January 6th. Christmas Trees were traditionally taken down on January 6th or 7th. 

For the full two weeks after Christmas the season was celebrated with fine food and in the company of family and friends. When I was growing up, New Year's Day dinner was a repeat of the Christmas dinner, and leftovers were eaten with pickles and preserves.

Today the Christmas shopping season seems to have taken over Advent, and even Advent calendars today have a door for the 25th - tut tut. As a youth my Advent calendar featured images behind the door - not chocolate - and I was still excited to open them. Whether Christian or not, Advent is a time for reflection, anticipation, and excitement - not shopping with angst! 

The full Christmas season should be enjoyed, so next year put your tree up a little later and enjoy your tree a little longer - your cat will thank you.

Merry twelve days of Christmas.