Recent Black Bear Sightings

1999: In August, County sheriff’s deputy Larry Roland saw a bear running across Lompico Road. “It ran down from the hillside on the left right in front of me and down into the creek,” Roland said.

Also in 1999, near Felton Nancy McFarlane reported a glimpse of what she thought could be a bear. A follow-up search by field scout Rich Coats discovered bear scat near Graham Hill Road. Click here for examples of black bear scat.

2001: A bear was hit and killed by a car on Skyline Boulevard near the Crystal Springs Watershed in June. Vicki Sliwa saw the bear lying in the road. “It was a Sunday afternoon, driving south on Skyline, and then suddenly, there it was, a bear lying in a heap on the gravel shoulder,” Sliwa said. “Traffic was light, but everybody was slowing down to look at it.”

By the time CalTrans and the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) arrived, the bear was gone. A DFG spokesman said that it was likely a passing driver illegally picked up the animal.

2008: Two sightings of black bears in the Santa Cruz Mountains were reported; one at Rancho San Antonio in the Los Altos Hills, and the other along Skyline Boulevard near Sanborn-Skyline County Park and Castle Rock State Park. 

The bear at Rancho San Antonio was spotted by a senior couple who saw the bear cross Rogue Valley Trail about a third of a mile east of the park’s pond. The other, along Skyline, was reported by two hikers.

Rancho Punta del Año Nuevo

Isaac Chapman Steel,
The History of San Mateo County, California,
1883, B. F. Alley Publisher

1867: Once Rancho Punta del Año Nuevo, of which a part became the Isaac Steele Dairy Ranch, abounded with grizzlies. The Ranch, now part of Año Nuevo State Park, is located 21 miles north of Santa Cruz and is adjacent to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. An 1867 encounter with a grizzly above the garden at Isaac Steel’s home, Green Oaks, was chronicled in À La California by Col. Albert S. Evans, 1873: 

"Mr. Steele pointed out where a fearful scene was enacted just above his garden in 1867. An old she-bear came down with her two cubs in the day-time and seized a hog. Two men employed on the ranch, both Portuguese, started to rescue the hog. One had a gun, the other only a garden mattock. They found her by the fence eating the hog, and yelled at her to drive her away. She accepted the challenge, and with a growl dashed over the fence and after them. The man with the gun pointed it full-cocked at her head, but, as he afterward admitted, when he felt her hot breath in his face, became demoralized, dropped the weapon and jumped over the fence. His companion

Included in the National Register Nomination Form, 1976
Courtesy San Mateo County Historical Association

followed his example, and they jumped back and forth for some minutes with the enraged brute in close pursuit. At length the man who had the mattock started to run across the field toward the house; but the bear caught him, threw him down, bit him through the thigh, and then started after the other assailant. Had the wounded man feigned death he would have been saved; but not understanding grizzly fighting, he jumped up and began shouting for help. At this she turned upon him more infuriated than ever, and, seizing him by the side, literally tore him in pieces, killing him instantly. The other man escaped. The next morning the bear, bear-like, returned to finish the hog, and was shot by a party lying in wait for her."

The True Story of William Waddell

1875: On Friday October 1, William Waddell and John Bradley went deer hunting in the gulches behind Waddell's mill. After crossing Steele Gulch they parted, Waddell to the right, Bradley to the left. Waddell found the remains of a deer that he thought had been taken by a mountain lion. His dog caught a scent which it followed up a ravine. The dog began barking then moments later it came bounding towards Waddell pursued by a grizzly.

The bear attacked Waddell in the thigh. The dog immediately attacked the bear which let go of Waddell to again pursue the dog. The two disappeared in the distance. Waddell fired his gun to alert Bradley to his crippled situation. Bradley found Waddell with his thigh badly lacerated and bruised. 

Dr. Charles L. Anderson

Waddell was taken home by horse and treated by Dr. Charles Anderson who later stated that his wounds “were severe but under ordinary circumstances would not be considered serious.”

Waddell died six days later of suspected Pyaemia, a form of infection that was almost always fatal before the introduction of antibiotics in the 1930s. 

Site of William Waddell's Mill in Big Basin State Park

William Waddell, who came to California in the early 1850s, was a lumberman who owned and operated a sawmill. He is the namesake of Waddell Beach and Waddell Creek in Rancho Del Oso (Bear Ranch) which is now part of Big Basin State Park.