Escape from the Zoo

In 1919, after a hunting trip to Humboldt county, Mr. and Mrs. Deming Wheeler bought home a black bear cub. Mrs Wheeler had shot the mother and the following day they found the cub in a cave close to the Tish-Tang-A-Tang river after which the bear was named.

It was described as a "pet bear cub." It was not soon before the "pet" was placed in the De Laveaga Park zoo. A second bear was donated later that year. She was caught in Morgan Valley, Lake County. Deputy State Fish and Game Commissioner J. D. [Dave] Dondero donated him to the zoo, so she was named Dera for short. A bear pen was built at to zoo for the two bears and in October 1919 they were turned out into it.  The Sentinel advised "If you want to make the bears happy when you go out to see them, take them fruit, they love it.

The following year in July, the bears escaped. The larger was caught very quickly, but the smaller evaded capture. This one had escaped the week before only to be captured on Blackburn Gulch Road The hope was, that being so young and very domesticated, he would return home of his own accord. He had been missing over three weeks when he was spotted near Soquel. 

But, it wasn't until October 28, that the fate of the bear was sealed. He was shot by J. C. Abner who was living on the Kennedy Ranch on the Laurel branch of Soquel creek. The bear was shot because he was eating Abner's chickens and quote "otherwise making himself obnoxious." He also feared for his children since the animal was "no longer in the infant class."

A photograph of the remaining bear eating the bars of his cage circa 1920 can be found HERE courtesy UCSC, McHenry Library, Special Collections, Santa Cruz County Historic Photograph Collection.

In 1933, when the park decided to close the zoo. The zoo's cinnamon bear, reputedly went to "J. M Sizelove, of the Santa Cruz-Watsonville Highway." According to local historian Ross Gibson, this bear's name was Chilcano.

Stationed on a Scaffold

In 1859, a grizzly killed a two-year-old heifer belonging to Soquel pioneer rancher Nathaniel Holcomb. 

Fellow Soquelian Henry White erected a scaffold close to the dead animal with the expectation that the bear would return. Stationed on the scaffold with his rifle "he waited but a few minutes after sunset, when the shaggy monster made his appearance…"

As the bear approached the carcass, Henry fired his rifle and killed it with a single shot. It weighed about 700 pounds.

A year later White's services were again called upon. A grizzly killed an ox that belonged to Bradley and Nichols, a few hundred yards from their sawmill on Soquel Creek. Again, knowing that the animal would return, Henry waited for him and when he did, Henry shot him through the heart and killed him instantly.

He Bit the Bear!

Excerpt from: Game Reminiscences of Yesteryears by Walter R. Welch, California Fish and Game.

Palo Alto, March 13, 1931

Dear Friend Walter — During the late sixties a Frenchman by the name of Barbone, while fishing in Pilarcitos Creek, in San Mateo County, came onto a grizzly bear. He turned and tried to make his getaway, but the bear was too quick for him, overtook him and grabbed him by the thigh. Barbone succeeded in breaking the bear’s hold on his thigh, but it grabbed him by the arm, and he grabbed the bear by the nose with his teeth, whereat the bear let go and so did Barbone, and both started in opposite directions. Barbone’s injuries, while serious, were not fatal.

Subsequently this bear began to kill cattle on the Dennison Ranch, located near Half Moon Bay, and was finally killed by my uncle, Patricio Soto, with a gun used to shoot whale, that he had secured from a whaling station then located on San Pedro Point, near Half Moon Bay.

Uncle dug a hole in the side of a hill, baited the bear and when it came, fired one shot at it. The bear was wounded, fell into a gully, crawled into the woods and was never seen or heard of after that…

                        Yours truly,

                        John Lucas Greer.

A Visit to the San Francisco Bay

Excerpt from: A Voyage of Discovery, Into the South Sea and Beering's Straits, for the Purpose of Exploring a North-east Passage, 1815-1818, at the Expense of His Highness the Chancellor of the Empire, Count Romanzoff, in the Ship Rurick by Otto von Kotzebue.

1816:

October 23d. To-day, the Governor had prepared us an interesting spectacle, in a fight between a bull and a bear; the latter are here so numerous, that you have only to go a mile from the habitations into the woods, to meet them in great numbers. The species is distinguished from ours, by its pointed head and its ash grey colour; they are likewise bolder and more lively than ours. Not withstanding this, the dragoons here are so active, and courageous, that they are sent on horseback into the forests for a bear as we would order a cook to bring a goose from the pen. Three dragoons on horseback, provided only with a noose, are sufficient to overpower a bear; in this kind of chase, they endeavour always to keep him in the middle, and to provoke him. As soon as the furious animal is going to rush on one of the horsemen, the other throws the noose, which is fastened to the saddle by strong thongs, round his fore-leg, and spurs his horse, by which the bear is thrown down; the other takes advantage of this moment, and throws the noose round his hind-leg, and while he lies without being able to move, the third ties all his four feet together, and he is thus carried home without any danger. In this manner the dragoons had brought a bear to-day, while others had caught a wild bull in the same mode. The cattle, which are left the whole year in the pasture, become wild; and when one is to be killed, it is caught in the same manner by a couple of horsemen with nooses. The combat between these two animals was remarkable, and though the bull often tossed his raging antagonist on his horns into the air, he was at last obliged to yield.

The Sport of Roping Grizzlies in California's Early Days,
San Francisco Sunday Call, January 15, 1911.

 

Santa Clara's Day

Excerpt from: Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity, Hutchinson’s California Magazine, April 1859. 

August 12, 1851.

But the greatest of all sources of gratification to all classes and sexes, were the bull-fights, and bull and bear fights. As San Jose and her sister Mission of Santa Clara were the most flourishing of all the Missions, and as the latter was the especial favorite of all the Patron Saints, her bull-fights were the best in the country. After the discovery of gold, and before their grounds were much settled up by the Americans, they continued them with more zeal and magnitude than ever, until prevented by the town authorities in 1851, which was the last time they were permitted within the limits of the town.

On this occasion it was acknowledged to be the most extensive they had ever had; and was continued for nearly a week. Twelve bulls, two large grizzly bears, and a considerable number of Indians were engaged, at different times, for the amusement of the assembled multitude. In the second day’s encounter, four Indians were killed, and several wounded by the bulls; the loss of the horse seemed to cause far more regret than did the Indians. When the latter were gored by the sharp horns of the bull, the band would strike up a lively tune to smother his cries or moans, and the people appeared immensely pleased at the performance.

The Padre in charge at the time was a Franciscan, and evidently enjoyed the sport, but he was removed the following year, and a Jesuit appointed in his place, who denounced all such cruel sports from the altar, to the great displeasure of the Californians generally.

 

Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity,
Hutchinson’s California Magazine, May 1858.

 

Early Documented Grizzly Encounters

In 1602, when Explorer Sebastian Vizcaino stopped in the bay of Monterey, he witnessed bears coming down to the beach to feed on the carcass of a stranded whale. Father Antonio de la Ascension, the expedition's official diarist reported that the bear tracks measured “a good third of a yard long and a hand wide.”1

In 1769, Father Juan Crespi wrote: “we saw bears' dung everywhere.”

During the Mission Period, livestock grazed on the land surrounding the Santa Cruz Mission. The animals were much easier for grizzlies to catch than the native deer and elk. In 1933, H. Torchiana of Watsonville wrote of a story told by a Santa Cruz Mission Indian:

Bears were so plentiful that once the soldiers of the guard were ordered to hunt them for target practice.

Cattle roamed on the vast ranchos. They were raised mainly for their hide and tallow, not their meat. So, after the animals had been slaughtered their remains were just left to rot. The grizzlies took full advantage of this tasty meal.

Hubert Bancroft wrote in his History of California that during the early 1800s “the bears became so bold as to kill and eat cattle every-day in full view of the herdsmen.” Traps and poison had proved ineffective and the governor was asked to authorize the use of 1000 cartridges “and a regular military campaign was undertaken against the enemy.”

In 1828, when Kentucky trapper and storyteller James Ohio Pattie wrote about his travels through the Mexican Territory of Alta California, supposedly vaccinating people against smallpox, he described large numbers of grizzlies in the area around Monterey: 

Forests spread around Monte El Rey for miles in all directions, composed of thick clusters of pines and live oaks. Numberless grey bears find their home, and range in these deep woods. They are frequently known to attack men. The Spaniards take great numbers of them by stratagem, killing an old horse in the neighborhood of their places of resort. They erect a scaffold near the dead animal upon which they place themselves during the night armed with a gun or lance. When the bear approaches to eat, they either shoot it, or pierce it with the lance from their elevated position. Notwithstanding all their precautions, however, they are sometimes caught by the wounded animal; and after a man has once wrestled with a bear, he will not be likely to desire to make a second trial of the same gymnastic exercise. Such, at any rate, is the opinion I have heard those express, who have had the good fortune to come off alive from a contest of this kind. I do not speak for myself in this matter, as I never came so near as to take the close hug with one in my life; though to escape it, I once came near breaking my neck down a precipice.2

In 1850, Methodist minister William Taylor described bear tracks he had seen in the Santa Cruz Mountains on his way to a meeting in Santa Cruz. he wrote:

For a couple of miles back as I came through a dense chaperel [sic] thicket, I have been on the track of a grizzly bear. His track by measurement was fourteen inches long and seven wide; he must have been a monster.3

1. Father Antonio de la Ascención's Account of the Voyage of Sebastián Vizcaíno, 1929 Translation by Henry Raup Wagner.

2. The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie, of Kentucky, James Ohio Pattie, 216.

3. William Taylor, California Life Illustrated, Carlton and Porter, (New York, NY: 1860) 153.

Bears for Big Basin?

 In 1935, the then president of the San Lorenzo Valley Chamber of Commerce, Frank Pimentel, investigated introducing bears into the park "to amuse the visitors, as they do in Yosemite." 

Pimentel was authorized by the Chamber to appoint a committee to assess the "desirability and feasibility of acquiring a few surplus bears from Yosemite and planting them in the vicinity if Governors' Camp in the Big Basin." 

Pimentel realized he should probably consult park warden Fred Moody first. He reflected; "Maybe the bear and the deer wouldn't get along well together."

"Bear?" questioned Warden Moody. "They tried to go nudist up here last summer. I wouldn't want 'em any more bear."

However, the project was quickly nixed when the wives of the directors of the San Lorenzo Valley boosters pointed out that no women would want to pick huckleberries if she might meet a bear doing the same. "And the husbands like huckleberry pie."

Perhaps the Last Bears at Big Trees

In 1919, film star Nell Shipman and a party of actors visited the Big Trees, now Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, on their way to Seattle. She had recently starred in "God's Country and the Woman" and "Back to God's Country" both of which were a huge success.

The Sentinel reported that "the party was traveling in two [railway] cars and two bear cubs accompany them."

Not just an actress, Nell Shipman was also a director, screenwriter, producer, and animal advocate. She spoke out against animal cruelty and rescued animals from abuse. Many of these appeared in her movies. She eventually owned a zoo that contained over 200 animals. Unfortunately, a movie venture failed and the animals were acquired by a creditor. Eventually, forty animals including four bears were donated to San Diego Zoo. Nell is pictured here feeding one of her bears. 

Nell Shipman feeding one of her bears, courtesy
Priest Lake Historical Photograph Collection, University of Idaho.

More information on Nell Shipman can be found at Archives West, Nell Shipman Papers (1912-1970) HERE.