1889, Official Map of Santa Cruz County, A. J. [Andrew Jackson] Hatch |
Headwaters of Boulder Creek at Bull's Spring, with a small concrete dam through which the creek flows. |
He had not yet built his cabin on the land and so slept on the ground under the stars. Around sunrise one morning he awoke to find a large female grizzly eating his discarded bacon rinds just a few feet from the end of his bed, with two cubs a little further away. Rodgers and the bear looked at each other for a brief time - that seemed like an eternity to the former. He then sprung to his feet and without stopping to dress he “clasped the nearest tan-oak in a loving embrace” and made a desperate attempt to climb it. Fortunately, for Rodgers, the bear gave a disgruntled growl and sidled slowly off into the nearby brush.
The area has since been logged. |
In October the same year, C.
C. Rodgers had yet another encounter. The Santa
Cruz Weekly Sentinel reported: