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| Landmark #448 | Santa Clara County | Visited: August 28, 2016 | Plaque? YES! 🙂 |
| What is it? | A plaque on the side of the road! |
| What makes it historical? | THE GUIDE SAYS: “Mountain Charley” McKiernan, one of the earliest residents of the Santa Cruz Mountains, settled near here in 1850, and John Martin Schultheis and his wife homesteaded land about a mile from here in 1852. Their home was still standing in 1950. The Patchen Post Office, named for a famous racehorse, was located in this vicinity from 1872 to the 1920s.
OTHER TIDBITS: “Mountain Charley” was born in Ireland, became a quartermaster in the British Army, and left his station in Australia when news of gold in California broke! After all, British army work paid $20 a year, while working in the mines paid $20 a day! Charley had no luck in the Trinity mines, though, so he headed south to the Santa Cruz Mountains, where he built his homestead, raised cattle, and hunted deer to sell! He and his neighbors built the first stage roads through the Santa Cruz Mountains! Mountain Charley is most famous for his legendary fight with a mama grizzly bear. A famed hunter of the bears, and contributor to their extinction in California, he had it in for one particular mama and her cubs. In the ensuing battle, she left him paralyzed below the waist and mangled enough to need a metal plate installed in his head (without anesthetic)! The bear and her cubs both got away! John Martin Schultheis, his German carpenter neighbor, was the one that found and saved him! |
| How can I Help the Helpers? | HERE’S HOW:
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| Where is this place? | LISTED DIRECTIONS: Intersection of Old Santa Cruz Hwy (P.M. 3.57) and Mtn Charlie Rd 1.2 mi SE of Holy City, CA 95033 ANNOTATIONS: From Los Angeles: ~350mi (564km) — 5.9hrs |
| When should I go? | Whenever the mood strikes you! |