Wow, photos of the women's shops of 1910 are fascinating! The manikins hairstyles are up in a bun and there are long white and black dresses draped on them. It's stunning to see the manikins in the 1910 shop windows. I also found photos of the old Soquel Drive covered bridge. It was a very long bridge, probably the longest covered bridge I'd ever seen. I would have loved to see it during that time!

Today I spent time working with images of movies, movie still and movie sets. Some of the movies that were shot in Santa Cruz include: Maid of Salem, Evangeline, Old Hutch, Romance of Rosy ridge, Thunder Mountain, Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm & Forest Rangers. Some of the sets were really beautiful. The areas that they were shot include: Bonny Doon, Graham Hill and Glen Canyon. The movie sites were either in these areas or along these roads.
Some of the movie photos seemed to be just a collection of autographed headshots and movie still that Preston Sawyer Collected.
A little about Preston Sawyer.

Our Special Collections Department carries Preston Sawyer's historical photographs of Santa Cruz area and the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. We also have his photo albums and scrapbooks of the early film stars and movie industry in the Santa Cruz mountains. Also included are 16mm films of Santa Cruz events, negatives and glass plate negatives.

Preston Sawyer was a collector, proofreader and historical writer. He was born in Santa Cruz in 1899. He was a life-long bachelor who lived with his brother Ariel, also a bachelor, who ran the Sawyer Tile Company. As a youth, Preston Sawyer worked as a movie extra in the very early movie industry located in the Santa Cruz Mountains. A prolific amateur photographer, he snapped hundreds of pictures of the movie stars and the sets while waiting for work. In addition to taking his own, including, for example, a series of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, taken from a 16 year old's point of view, he also collected pictures covering early Santa Cruz and the surrounding areas.

More information about Preston Sawyer can be found at the Santa Cruz Public Library link: http://www2.santacruzpl.org/gallery2/main.php

I also processed a lot of train and railroad photographs which included tunnels and bridges.

While sorting the photo archives yesterday I found some really interesting material. There were horse cart races near West Cliff and a motorcycle race near Ocean Street. The horse cart races happened around the turn of the century. It's hard to tell when the motorcycle races happened. Possibly during the 1930's.

I also found photos of a buffalo and a bear. These animals were part of a zoo that was kept at the De Laveaga Park. It seems that the zoo only lasted until the 1920s.

I've also been finding some awesome beauty pageant photos. These photos go up to the 1930s. It was amazing to find that these women looked very "average" by today's standards.

I've been working with the Santa Cruz Historical Photographs at McHenry Library at UCSC. It's incredible to see how the city has evolved. The batch I am currently working on is hotels, motels and cottages in Santa Cruz County. Some of the hotels I've sifted through are the Riverside, Hageman, Wilkins and Germania Hotels. There are quite a few pictures of hotels, lodges in the regions of Felton, Zayante, Ben Lomand, Brookdale (Brookdale Lodge) and Boulder Creek. I've also found a few pictures of the Bayview Hotel in Aptos. There are many great photos of Hotel Capitala. I also stumbled upon quite a few Sea Beach Hotel photos from West Cliff area next to Cowell's Beach. That hotel burned to the ground around

The Sea Beach Hotel apparently had a red roof. Here is a link to it http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/history/santa-cruz-beach-old/ . It is the 5th or 6th photo down from the top.
There are also photos of Cottage City and Tent City. A postcard image of Cottage City can be found at the same link posted. An image of the Santa Cruz Tent City can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitalpast/2438637295/ Lots of great pictures can also be found through the Santa Cruz History Museum and the Santa Cruz Public Library: http://www2.santacruzpl.org/gallery2/main.php . The information found here describes the tent city in this way: The tourist accommodations known as 'Tent City' on Beach Street, across from the Boardwalk. The tents had wooden floors, canvas sides, lights, and water. In the background is the first Casino, built in 1904. The casino and the tent city were destroyed by fire in 1906.

It seems that "everything" was destroyed by fire. There were so many hotels in the Santa Cruz region that were eventually burned to the ground.

There are secret beaches all along the Santa Cruz coastline. One of the more beautiful spaces is next to Moran lake and Twin Lakes Beach. I've gone for full moon walks with friends on these beaches. Moran Lake and adjacent beach has a small parking lot with bathrooms. It's a nice spot to sit and in the evening you can have a campfire.

A fun place to watch the surfers is at the end of 41st Ave. There is a parking lot with bathrooms. You can walk across the street and there you will find a few picnic tables and a very nice view of Monterey Bay. It's always interesting to watch the surfers because it is a notable surf spot.

If you look closely you will see a sea otter cleaning himself in the water at the edge of the bank. He's just hanging out in front of the elephant seals and having fun. This is another photo from my Elkhorn Slough adventure. This was one of the first times I could get really close to sea otters in the wild. I've been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to see them but it's not the same as seeing them in the wild. The experience really confirmed how playful sea otters are and they seem to enjoy life so much. I imagine that being a sea otter wouldn't be too bad.

My favorite birds are herons and Egrets. I think they are so magical. While touring Elkhorn Slough I spotted this Great Egret sitting on the bank absorbing some sun. He was a little far away so I wasn't sure that I could capture him with my camera. But to my delight I was able to do just that!