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."

Bears Like Bacon

1889, Official Map of Santa Cruz County,
A. J. [Andrew Jackson] Hatch

1877: C. C. [Charles Campbell] Rodgers, founder of the Mountain Echo newspaper published in Boulder Creek, had an encounter with a mother grizzly and her two cubs. Rodgers was living on his homestead at the source of Boulder Creek at Bull’s Spring (also known as Bull Springs). Bull’s Spring is close to Highway 236 on the edge of Big Basin State Park and on the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail.

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.

That very same day Rodgers constructed a scaffold, in a “bunch of redwoods” well up from the ground, and used it to sleep on until he had completed his cabin. He bored holes in a redwood into which he drove wooden pins so as to make a ladder up which he could climb to the scaffold high in the tree.

In October the same year, C. C. Rodgers had yet another encounter. The Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel reported:

“On the head of Boulder Creek, last week, C. C. Rodgers, while ascending a trail, found himself in the rear of a couple of grizzly cubs. They hurried along, a few feet apart, the hunter getting his Henry rifle in order to give them a salute. Hearing the pattering of feet behind him, he turned his head and beheld mother bruin, open mouthed, long-haired and shaggy, and apparently as large as an elephant. Thinking that there might be something in the bushes that he wanted he turned aside, breaking one side of his bridle in doing so. Held by one rein around and around swung his terrified animal, and the grizzly kings of the forest, together and satisfied that neither was hurt, moved off at their leisure, apparently indifferent to the presence of the man with the broken bridle.”

The Soquel Bear

October 23, 1978, Santa Cruz Sentinel,
Courtesy Newspapers.com

1978: Valerie Norkoli remembers a bear in the late 1970s:
"It was in the Soquel Hills less then a 1/4 mile from my house. It mauled our neighbors little wiener dog. It was relocated. I was about 10 and was able to view it after they tranquilizer it."¹




1. Accessed July 25, 2017:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bouldercreekneighbors/permalink/861769267309753/?comment_id=863073617179318&reply_comment_id=863180330501980&notif_t=group_comment_reply&notif_id=1500997510487744

Hunting and Trapping

Initially, grizzlies were not hunted for food, but for their skins, for the thrill, and because of their threat to livestock.

Grizzly Bear Trap
from The Newhouse Trappers Guide, 1914.

Before the introduction of the repeating rifle, killing a grizzly with a shot gun was very difficult. It was rare that a single bullet would suffice, so the best option was to trap and then kill the animal.

Bayard Taylor, 1849: "We had no other arms than pistols and knives and no horses of sufficient fleetness to have ventured an attack with safety; so we passed on with many a wistful and lingering look, for the gray hide of one of those huge beasts would have been a trophy well worth the capture."

Besides traps, poisons, such as strychnine and phosphorus, were also used. Often a grizzly would not eat an entire animal in one sitting but come back the next day to finish it off.
The left remains would be poisoned in anticipation of the grizzly’s return. See the blog post: Treed by a Dead Bear.

Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel,1872: "Some twenty [bears] have been killed in this county recently, in that way. Mr Miller returned to his ranch yesterday with four bottles of strychnine to cure bear meat, he having previously fought three bears from a tree in his oat field, and had only an ax to keep the old she bear and her cubs from climbing the tree."

Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel, 1872: "Varments of the grizzly tribe are peculiar, and the best medicine we can think of is Mrs. Winlow’s soothing syrup, especially for the cubs, when they set up that hideous howl so graphically described. For the older ones, Galena pills [lead shot] – 16 to the pound – from Dr. Henry’s repeater or the Parker gun with good strong powder would no doubt be potent, but in case of failure, try strychnine."

Mrs. Winslow’s syrup contained morphine and was responsible for the drug addition and death from overdose of countless infants and children.

A Text Book for the Professional Teacher, 1910: "The Food Department of the United States has established a list of medical preparations, “soothing syrups,” which are referred to as “baby-killers.” The use of this class of products is certainly to be condemned, and the list as given by the United States Government chemists includes the following preparations: Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup (morphine sulfate)."   

Gatling Gun versus a Bear!

Boulder Blast, October 19, 1895

1899:  In December 1899, butcher William (Billy) H. Dool of Boulder Creek sent a 300 pound black bear to the Popular Meat Market in Santa Cruz. The bear had been shot by Henry L. Middleton in the Big Basin.

Henry Middleton had acquired a Gatling gun and wanting to “experiment” with it took it to a place near his lumber mill in the Big Basin. The gun, a machine gun that consists of multiple barrels revolving around a central axis and is capable of being fired at a rapid rate, had been “captured” from the Filipinos.

The Gatling Gun,
for Service Ashore & Afloat,
William B. Franklin, 1874

(The Philippine-American War ran from Feb 1899 to Jul 1902. Middleton had just been awarded a contract by the US government to supply troops at Manila with 3000 tons of hay.)

He fired the gun and then saw a large bear approaching. Middleton had long wanted to kill a bear and saw this as his opportunity.

The bear came running toward the gun, Middleton fired.

"Bruin saw he had no business with the Mayor of Boulder Creek, and decided that the Big Basin was too small to hold both. As the bear turned to run another shot was fired with fatal effect."

Middleton, with the assistance of several men, brought the bear to Dool's Meat Market in Boulder Creek.

Treed by a Dead Bear

1872: Near the White House Dairy, on Steele's ranch, near Pigeon Point, a monster grizzly bear had killed a cow. Mr. B[arzilla] M. Scofield, the owner of the cow, placed a bucket of syrup, well poisoned with strychnine, near the place where the cow had been killed.

The next night the bear came back and ate the syrup and died on the spot.

In the morning a group of people, including a Chris Coffin, a teamster, approached the spot. They saw the bear quietly sleeping near the place where the poison had been left. The whole party were seized with fright that they were so close to a such a  huge a monster, (he was about twelve hundred pounds) and Chris, hurriedly climbed a tree near by, while the rest of them made their escape, running as fast as they could, thinking the bear was at their heels.

Hours passed and the bear failed to wake up. Chris first ventured a whistle, but that did not wake him so then he gave a huge bark, like a dog, this did not move him. 

So Chris came to the conclusion that the bear had eaten too much and was very fast asleep. So he slowly climbed down.

How do you think he felt on finding that the bear was dead, not asleep after all, after spending so long in the tree?

As reported by the Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel: "Chris. Says [sic] the balance of the company have not returned yet, so badly were they frightened at the sight of the dead bear."

Paul Sweet’s Escape

Circa 1850s: There are several versions of this story that have been recounted over the years. This is as told by Richard C. Kirby, local tanner and husband of libertarian Georgiana Bruce Kirby, to Caroline H. Dall and published by her in My First Holiday, 1881:

"We drove by the old tannery once kept by Paul Sweet. When Mr. K. first came to it, great grizzly bears, each weighing from eight hundred to a thousand pounds, used to steal into the cattle-yard every night. On one occasion one of these creatures caught a calf by the nape of the neck, and leaped a tall fence. A revolver was fired, but the animal dropped the dead calf and escaped. The next day they followed the bear with hounds, and took him.

Paul Sweet and his wife Margarita,
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

One day Paul met a grizzly bear with cubs, in the wood. She caught him by the waistband, plunged into a hollow, dug a large hole in the sand, and buried Paul out of sight. After a while the tanner worked his way up to the surface, but Mistress Grizzly was watching. She darted forward, and snugly tucked him in with two or three strokes of her big paw. This time Paul was more wary. The sand was loose, and after the creature had gone off to her cubs, he crawled home entirely unhurt."

You can read more about Paul Sweet by clicking here.