A visit to Mount Madonna

On Friday, we finally made it out for a hike -- we had decided to visit Mount Madonna, as our neighbors, Steph and Pat, had hiked there last week (they have a blog that you might like to visit - she does a great job telling their story and sharing pictures: https://www.rnewview.com/).

I had looked up online the route to take to drive there, but... Carl got the Garmin to take us there, and... it didn't exactly take the path that Google Maps had recommended...

Initially, the road seemed to be a bit narrower and a little more winding than I had thought...

... but it was really pretty!

Then it changed to a dirt/gravel road...

... a lot narrower...

... and very winding!

But it was still a beautiful drive, and luckily the only vehicle we met happened to occur when there was a wide enough spot for us to pass each other!

When we got to Pole Line Road, there was a huge tree right in the middle of the road (the road went around on both sides).

We got to the visitor center / ranger station where we went to try to pay our entrance fee. Unfortunately it was locked, but a ranger came out and told us where to find the pay kiosk (evidently, had we come up the normal way, we would have driven right past it). She mentioned that the previous day, the kiosk was not working, and advised us that if that was still the case, we should just consider that our visit was free...

We drove a short ways downhill to the entry kiosk and, sure enough, it was still out of service, so we did not need to pay an entry fee.

As a result of going down to the entry kiosk, we were near where the Valley View Overlook and Twin Giants were located... so it was easy to make the decision to check those out...

The Valley View Overlook gave us a view over Gilroy in the valley...

Carl got his selfie stick out and we got a picture of the two of us at the Overlook.

Then we drove to the trailhead for the Twin Giants...

"The International Society of Arboriculture and the National Arborist Association jointly recognize this significant tree in this bicentennial year as having lived here during the American Revolutionary period. 1776-1976 Giant Twins"

Carl dwarfed in front of the Giant Twins

Trail marker and trail by the Giant Twins Trail

From the back we could see that one of the Giant Twins has a large hollow spot -- I guess the Keebler elves might be making cookies in there!

We drove back up toward the visitor center and parked near the trail for the "Self Guided Tour of Mount Madonna's Miller Estate & Nature Walk".

From the brochure:

 Mt Madonna County Park was once the summer home of Henry Miller. He purchased it in 1875 as a nearby retreat from his headquarters at Bloomfield Ranch (south of Gilroy). He chose it for its location, climate, and views. Initially it was used as a rustic camp with a cabin and wood floored tents for shelter. Between 1890 and 1902 he built bungalows for his wife, son, and daughter.

The abandoned estate was in bad shape in 1933 when the remaining buildings were destroyed or dismantled; the largest was moved to Watsonville Road. Since then, nature has been reclaiming the land.

Santa Clara County Parks acquired the lower part of the estate in 1927. In 1953, the County purchased the remainder of the estate (including the building sites) and added it to Mount Madonna Park.

Who was Henry Miller, the Cattle King?

Henry Miller was born July 21, 1827 in Wurtemburg, Germany, as Heinrich Alfred Kreiser. Raised on a farm, he was apprenticed as a butcher at the age of 8. At 14, he left home, roamed throughout Europe, and then immigrated to the US. By 1846, he was making his living as a butcher in New York City. In 1850, fascinated by the Gold Rush, he purchased a ticket to California from a friend. When he noticed that the ticket was "NON-TRANSFERABLE" in the name of "Henry Miller", he adopted the name for the trip. He liked it and legally changed his name to Henry Miller in 1858.

Miller arrived in San Francisco in 1850 with only $6.00 in his pocket and quickly got a job as a butcher. By 1851 he had his own shop. By 1857, he held options on most of the cattle north of the Tehachapi Mountains, making other San Francisco butchers buy their beef from him.

In 1857, Miller teamed with Charles Lux (a former competitor) to buy a large herd of American cattle. In 1860, they formed a partnership as Miller & Lux Company. Over the next 27 years they became the largest landholders in the United States by purchasing and improving a network of ranches throughout California, Oregon, and Nevada. At their peak, they owned well over one million acres of land and had herds of over one million head of cattle, 100,000 sheep, and countless pigs.

In 1858, Henry Miller and Charles Lux married sisters, but unfortunately Henry's wife, Nancy Sheldon Miller, died in childbirth 11 months later. In 1860, Henry married Sarah Sheldon (a niece of his first wife). They had three children: Henry Jr (1862), Nellie (1865), and Sarah Alice (1867). Henry's wife shared his ambition and goals and worked hard to help him succeed. He was very distressed when she died in 1905.

In 1879, at the age of 12, Sarah Alice, their youngest daughter, died in a riding accident. Henry fell into a serious depression and returned to his hometown in Germany to help get over this loss. His son, Henry Jr., became an invalid and died in 1902 at the age of 40. Sarah Miller (Henry Jr's widow) lived at Mt Madonna until her death in 1922.

In 1887, Lux died and Henry Miller assumed control of the company. Miller appointed J. Leroy Nickel (his son-in-law) as president in 1914.

Henry Miller died in his daughter Nellie Nickel's home at the age of 89 on October 14, 1916. Nellie survived her father to become principal heir among 24 others. She died in 1944.

It was said that Henry Miller could travel from Oregon to Mexico without spending a night on land he didn't either own or control.

His empire was essentially gone by the late 1930s.

These are part of the ruins of the large house that Henry Miller built for his wife in 1901 at a cost of $250,000. It included 7 bedrooms and baths, a living room with a veranda on three sides, and a 3,600 square foot ballroom. The foundations of the summer homes of Henry Miller Jr and Nellie Nickel were also there. We found it surprising that they all would have been let go to destruction in such a short amount of time.

Along one of the trails associated with the self guided tour -- these were indicated as "Young Redwood Trees".

These Redwoods are only native to the coast of Northern California because they require its misty climate. They include the tallest and oldest trees in the world. In the mid to late 1800s, Coast Redwoods were heavily logged to built the rapidly growing San Francisco Bay Area. Most of the last old growth trees on the Miller Estate were cut to help rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 fire and quake. Almost all of the redwoods in the park today are second growth, rising from the roots of their ancestors. Redwood trees can live more than 2500 years and grow to over 350 feet tall with trunks up to 25 feet in diameter.

This was indicated as a "Redwood Cathedral, Fairy Ring, or Refrigerator Trees":

When redwood trees are severely damaged or cut down, they recover in several different ways; the most common is for them to sprout new shoots from the old roots which then become a ring of trees (clones of the original). These rings of redwoods are sometimes called "cathedrals" or "fairy rings". These rings are common throughout the park. The "young" trees (most are less than 130 years old) are growing on rootstock that may be up to 1000 or even 2000 years old.

Before iceboxes or refrigerators, the rotting core of the parent trees were sometimes dug out and used as an evaporative cooler for perishables. They were kept cool by evaporation of water from wet organic matter or later by being packed with ice.

The cut stump of the original tree in the midst of the Redwood Cathedral.

The spires of the Redwood Cathedral reaching up to the heavens above!

We took the more normal route on our way back to the campground, but we thoroughly enjoyed all of our trip to visit Mount Madonna!