LPM President
Meet Roger Mason
Roger Louis Mason was inspired by his granddaughter, Rachel, to found a mountain history museum group in 2015. Roger is a fourth generation Santa Cruz Mountain resident whose family settled in the Skyland community in the 1870’s. Great grandparents on both sides of the family lived and farmed on Stetson Road. Roger grew up and worked on the family fruit farm, and he also worked in construction with his father. Roger graduated from San Jose State University with an Industrial Engineering degree and a Business minor.
Event Speaker
Meet Melany Moore
Melany Moore grew up in Monte Sereno and, as a child, she was fortunate to have loving parents who nurtured her love of all animals, including horses. Her entire life has been devoted to saving animals of every type, to her children and to her business Shanel's Flowers in Campbell, which she created in 1986 and worked at until 2022. As a mother, Melany is proud to have raised her two daughters in the Loma Prieta School district, for which she was a volunteer for 11 years. Her children are proud graduates of Loma Prieta, C.T. English & Los Gatos High School.
Historical Glenwood
If you’ve ever driven south on Highway 17 from the Summit, you may have noticed an exit just past Inspiration Point for Glenwood Drive and another just a little further south for Glenwood Cutoff. If you estimated the size of a town based on the number of freeway exits it has, you might think Glenwood was a fairly sizable community. If you had been traveling by foot, buggy, horse, or train between 1880 and 1930, you would have indeed arrived at the lively town of Glenwood. After that time period, a stop in this stretch leads only to private bucolic neighborhoods. Today, if you listen very carefully, you might still hear a ghostly train whistle from the past carried in the westerly breeze. According to California Historical Landmark 449 located near Glenwood Drive and Eagle Road, the founding of Glenwood is credited to Charles C. Martin who homesteaded in the area in 1851. Before him a man named David Burns, identified as a bear trapper, lived there long enough to have Burns Creek named after him. Even earlier, the Parker and Bean families lived on the land and had respective creeks named after them. During this period, the area was known as Bean Hollow. A quote from the Santa Cruz Sentinel on November 25, 1917 sums up the location, “After them was named Bean Creek which flows through Mt. Herman and empties into Zayante Creek...The date was 1856 when only a horse trail connected Santa Cruz to Los Gatos via the mountains”. The same horse trail was originally a Native American footpath for nearly 10,000 years before any of the above-mentioned settlers arrived. The trail was also used by the Franciscan monks as they traveled between Santa Clara and Santa Cruz during Spanish rule.
The Historical Wright Family Name
By Debra Staab
It’s not unusual for people to choose a beautiful and serene location for their retirement, perhaps a location like the Santa Cruz Mountains. That is the exact plan that Reverend James Richards Wright put into place back in 1869 when he acquired 100 acres of land at the Summit from Lyman Burrell. The Wrights and Burrells had been neighbors in Ohio, and their families were related by marriage when James’ sister Clarissa wed Lyman in 1839. Burrell had staked his claim at the Summit in 1853. Sources say that Wright paid $600 for his property, possibly as part of a debt repayment scheme between the two men.
Bringing Fruit to Market
By Lou Rapp
Preparing for next year's crop of fruit begins in September and over the next twelve months, here’s what it took for the Rapp Ranch to make a crop of fruit ready for market. Adolphus Rapp first started farming in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1904. CHAPTER ONE - WINTER WORK In September a cover crop of Vetch seed was spread throughout the orchard. Vetch fixes large amounts of nitrogen (N) into the soil that helps the pear crop. The grass protects soil from erosion and helps improve soil and provides weed control during its vigorous growth in the spring. Also at this time a single disc blade plow was used to make drainage ditches across certain parts of the orchard diagonally, diverting water out of the orchard. This prevented the rain water from eroding the soil by gouging out gullies in the orchard. During these rain storms Adolphus went out with his hip boots on to make sure the water was draining properly in the orchard and that the reservoir was not overflowing.
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