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.

The Last Bear in Boulder Creek

While in Big Basin, in September 1900, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that Henry L. Middleton of Boulder Creek had caught a bear. They later retracted this statement quoting the Mountain Echo:

H. L. Middleton received as a present this week a bear cub from San Francisco. His cubship took part in the recent Native Sons parade and is now comfortably installed at “Madrone Villa”. – Mountain Echo.

How easy it is to be in error. The other day the “Sentinel” stated that Mr. Middleton caught this bear in the Big Basin.

Middleton owned land in the Big Basin that would become the California Redwood Park, now Big Basin Redwoods State Park. And this was during the time that he was working strategically behind the scenes with former lieutenant governor William T. Jeter of Santa Cruz, and many others, to ensure that this would manifest. Perhaps admitting that the bear was caught in the Big Basin was not a wise admission.

The bear was a cub, and it is unclear if it was a grizzly or a black bear. But it was clear that Middleton wanted to keep it. Unfortunately, just over a month later the cub escaped. He was spotted soon after near the schoolhouse, but then took to the woods. About one week later, three men, who were hunting for quail and pigeon on the Fat Buck Ranch on Kings Creek north of Boulder Creek, spotted and killed the bear. The cub was identified as Middleton’s by a cut on its shoulder made by a dog while the bear was in captivity. 

The bear was hung on exhibition in Dool and Stagg’s butcher’s shop in Boulder Creek and was served as bear steaks the next day at “the greatest political meeting ever held in Boulder Creek,” according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel; a Republican gathering.

San Francisco Call, November 3, 1900.

Unfortunately, the Mountain Echo issue detailing the capture of the bear is neither on Microfilm nor in the Museum’s collection. However, a 1982 Santa Cruz Express article, written by Don Waters, son of early Boulder Creek resident Arthur Waters of Water Bros. store, colorfully details the events.

According to the article, the bear was being kept in the crawl space under Middleton’s mercantile store, pictured here.

Dougherty & Middleton Mercantile Store, Central Ave., Boulder Creek, CA.

Middleton’s younger brother, Billy, after sampling his favorite brew at a local saloon after work, decided to show off the bear to some friends. The bear did not find it difficult to escape the tipsy crew and fled the scene. As told above, the article describes the encounter of teenager Malcolm McLeod and the bear, close to the school early the next morning, as Malcolm was delivering milk from the family cow to the local merchants. According to Waters "Malcolm decided he was far too young to be a hero and instantly dropped the milk cans and fled.

The Santa Cruz Surf reported, “An immense brown bear was killed yesterday” and this was echoed in the San Francisco Call’s article “Bear Steak for Voters” on November 3, 1900. The poor grizzly cub, now “an immense brown bear”, was described as the last bear in Boulder Creek.

Grizzlies Were Thick

 San Jose Mercury News, July 15, 1892, p3. 

Excerpt from: Treed By Grizzlies – A Pioneer Tells a Strange Story of Early Mountain Adventure.

"The thing happened in the early 50tys when big grizzlies were a great deal thicker in the Santa Cruz mountains than coyotes were before the scalp bounty law went into effect. Myself and a partner of mine, who came with me to this country from Missouri, made up our minds in San Francisco that there might be gold in the mountains and gulches near this city …"

Killed a Bear Cub.

"The adventure happened on the first day that we left our wagon with a teamster that we had hired in San Francisco, and started out on foot to prospect through the mountains, intending to be gone four or five days. Our blankets, provisions and water we had strapped around us so as to be as easy to carry as possible. We had been trudging about four hours when my partner saw a grizzly bear cub, unconscious of our approach, within easy range of a heavy single barrel pistol that I carried. Without considering what might be the consequences I leveled and fired and the cub dropped over dead. At the same instant I heard a growl and some crashing sounds through the underbrush and we knew that we did not have much time to lose in climbing a tree. Luckily we did not take time to throw off any of our traps, and the only thing that I dropped was the pistol."

A Sorrowing She Grizzly.

"We both climbed the same tree as it was the only one near enough at hand for the purpose. We did not reach the limbs any too soon for in an instant the immense she bear was standing on her hind legs and reaching up for us as far as she could with her front paws. The next moment she was on the ground. I then heard a cracking sound and I knew that in her rage she was crunching the pistol in her powerful teeth. Then she ran to the dead cub and licked its dead body.... I could see that bear shed tears. They rolled from her cheeks like marbles and she gazed sorrowfully at the dead body of her cub …"

Different Kinds of Bears.

"… the bear suddenly began a terrible bellowing growl which startled me so that I almost let go the limb I was straddling when I would have fallen at her feet. In a second we were made aware that the growl was the signal for a bear rally, and they began coming from far and near. As far as we could see there were bears bobbing up and down over the ridges and coming toward the clearing where we were. It did not seem to be more than five minutes before the whole space around the tree was full of bears of all sizes and ages. Most of them were grizzlies, but there was also a good sprinkling of little, brown cinnamon bears and another species that I have never seen or heard tell of before or since. There were only two or three of them and they were larger even than the grizzlies and almost black in color. They had hunches on their backs like camels, and I suppose that it was a species of bear that was almost extinct even in those early days. …"

Camping in a Tree.

"It was soon very evident what was the intention of the bears. After a good deal of pow-wowing they began to go away, and soon as the coast was clear with the exception of one big grizzly who settled himself comfortably at the bottom of the tree as if he intended to camp there a while. Fortunately, however, we were prepared to withstand a siege of a few days at least. With our blankets, provisions and water we were soon as comfortable in the big tree as Robinson Crusoe on his desolate island. By tying the corners of a big double blanket to opposite limbs with ropes we soon had a hammock that was as comfortable a bed as anyone could wish."

A Night Guard.

"…The hammock that we had fixed up with the blankets was rather narrow, and we were afraid turn in for fear that in our sleep we might roll out and make bear meat out of ourselves before we knew it. At last I thought of an arrangement that would make everything secure."

Precautions During Sleep.

"I tied a good, stout rope by the center to a large limb beside the bunk. Then we fastened each of the loose ends to one of our feet at the ankle, so that if one of us dropped out the other could haul him up again. With this precaution we were soon sleeping as soundly as if there was no big bear at the bottom of the tree ready to snap us up in the instant that he could get us into his clutches. My partner rolled around in the blankets considerable, however, and sure enough about 2 o'clock he fell out. The thing happened so sudden as it surprised him so to find himself dangling from a tree at the end of a rope by one foot that for a minute he did not know what it was all about, and he let out some oaths, and a yell that scared me so that I fell out too."

A Surprised Bruin.

"When in my descent I came to the end of the rope and bumped up against my partner I got wild myself, and we came near having a scrapping match together like two cats tied by the tails and thrown over a clothes line. I think for a minute that my yells were louder than those of my partner for I was not only frightened by the accident but also by some terrible crashing sounds that I heard in the timber down below me. As soon as we came to our senses we knew that the bear on guard had been frightened away by our oaths and yelling. Of course a bear did not have much experience that would be surprised to hear Missourians swear, especially in those days, but anyhow the bear was not there any more and from the crashing sounds that he made through the timber he must have gone ten miles, at least before he stopped to take a breath. As soon as we could we got down out of that tree and skinned out, and we never went prospecting in a grizzly country again."