Waterman Gap Lumber Mill Turns 100
By Julie Horner with Scott Tucker and Derek Whaley
On Sunday, November 5, 2023, local tree professional Bruce Baker took a group of local history buffs, backcountry trail hands, and the generally curious to the ruins of the Santa Cruz Lumber Mill near Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The Santa Cruz Lumber Company was formed by Santa Cruz native George Ley in 1923 and the massive mill structure was built on Pescadero Creek at Waterman Gap on a 12,000-acre property Ley purchased from the Henry Cowell Estate.
The Waterman Gap Lumber Mill milled rough sawn redwood and a small percent of fir felled from lands straddling Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties and down through the Pescadero Creek watershed. A wooden millpond, or log dam, was part of the original operation. Remnants of the chutes used to move the logs through the mill are still present. Operating on several floors, two boilers downstairs burned sawdust to power the facility entirely by steam. The boilers are marked “The Casey-Hedges Company / W.H. White, 1923, Chattanooga, Tenn.” The mill was converted to electricity in 1954 but retained the use of steam for certain applications.
A system of highline cables, inclined tramways, and steam donkeys conveyed logs and lumber to and from the mill, and the lumber was carried to markets in Boulder Creek, Felton, and Santa Cruz by steam locomotive. A bridge across Waterman Creek to the mill was built in the mid-1950s when logging trucks replaced rail. The mill was shut down in 1973, according to Baker, and much of the original acreage was sold to nearby county park holdings and the Sempervirens Fund. The remaining 7,000 acres or so are still part of a logging prescription program that reflects today’s harvesting and fire suppression standards. “The mill was only here during the clearcut of the old growth,” Baker explained. “That’s the way it was done in the day.”
The mill operated year-round and was at its peak in the 1920s, according to Baker, with 80 or more men in residence felling trees and processing the lumber. The nine-foot double cut band saw produced 50,000 board feet per day and was capable of more. The band saw enclosure located one floor above the boilers is marked “Stearns MFC CO, Erie, Penna.” The saw blade itself has been removed from the wheel and lies on an upper floor of the mill.
Dusty passageways warped by time and the elements are visible only by the slant of daylight through broken windows and leaning doorways; the building climbs into the rafters where owls and bats have strongholds. The cascade of Pescadero Creek is the only sound.
Featured photo Bruce Baker leads a group of visitors to tour the Waterman Gap Lumber Mill. Photos of the mill interior by Julie Horner. Historic image provided by Scott Tucker.
Julie Horner writes about art, music, and the local business scene in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
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Julie Horner is Co-Founder and Editor for the San Lorenzo Valley Post. Julie lives and works in Boulder Creek and is an active participant in the county's vibrant music scene. She loves the outdoors and is the go-to expert on Santa Cruz Mountains hiking trails.
