County buys Coyote Highlands and Coyote Ranch; connects multiple preserves
Published in the December 9 – 22, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Mike Monroe
Mike Monroe
I have made the Valley of Heart’s Delight and all its natural beauty my own personal Walden, Henry David Thoreau’s famous retreat near Concord, Massachusetts. Perhaps this explains why my enthusiasm soared when I learned of a local scenic property that just came into the public domain for all of us here in the South Valley to explore and treasure.
The County of Santa Clara recently agreed to purchase two ranches — Coyote Highlands and Coyote Ranch — for inclusion into our park system.
The properties are located along Morgan Hill’s eastern ridge-line overlooking Coyote Creek as it meanders from Coyote Reservoir into Anderson Reservoir. They provide an amazing addition to our open space because the land connects multiple preserves, and protects a relatively undeveloped wildlife habitat extending for more than 100,000 acres. The Bay Area Ridge Trail will serve as a pathway envisioned more than 25 years ago that intends to encircle the entire Bay Are region, so this purchase is a big step closer to that dream becoming realized.
Coyote Highlands is a significant landscape to me and others who honor the memory of the naturalist and early environmentalist Charles Kellogg, who lived in the Morgan Hill area about a century ago.
There have been many interesting people who have lived in our area and many who have made a more lasting impression in terms of having streets or schools named after them. But Kellogg has a well-deserved legacy of preserving and respecting our natural heritage, especially for calling attention to the plight of California’s redwood forests.
Kellogg and his wife, Sarah, called their property (today’s Coyote Highlands) the Ever Ever Land Ranch or Kellogg Springs. For some reason, the couple decided to purchase a remote property near the tiny town of Morgan Hill in 1913. It had a population then of between 500 and 1,000 people. Cattle ranches, fruit orchards and grain fields surrounded the village, but the community did not offer too much in the way culture that the Kelloggs experienced during their time on the East Coast.
What did they see in the landscape that motivated them to acquire initially 89 acres of the Catherine Dunne Ranch called the Santa Catherina Hills? And what inspired them to continue purchasing adjacent parcels throughout the 1920s, and eventually become one of the largest landowners in South County? Kellogg was a rare individual with many layers to his personality. Perhaps he did want to try his hand at becoming a gentleman agriculturalist. He was a very flamboyant personality and he and Sarah were wealthy enough to live anywhere.
The real estate agents, J.P. Massie Co., and their closest neighbor, the Castillou family, probably thought the couple were a little crazy to settle on a sun-baked slope with only patches of oak trees to provide some relief from the afternoon heat and the water supply was minimal as best.
My hunch, or perhaps my imaginative insights into the personality of Kellogg, are based upon the review of many newspaper stories and interviews about Charles and Sarah. Kellogg even wrote an anecdotal account of his life called “Charles Kellogg: The Nature Singer, His Book.” And with the property transfer now underway, there are several current resource documents prepared for the Coyote Highlands sale to help us sharpen the picture.
My opinion is that Kellogg intended to make his Ever Ever Land Ranch his personal Walden. He wrote: “It was here that I resolved to carry out the long cherished plan of building my ideal home.” Complete with a cabin he called “The Mushroom,” the plan was so much in alignment with the purposes of Henry David Thoreau at Walden that I truly believe there is a connection.
Charles desired to simplify his life and confront the essential facts of culture and nature — or so it may have seemed. But there may be more to the story. In 1911, J.M. Barrie wrote a novel called “Peter and Wendy,” a story situated in “the Never Never Land” where Peter Pan and the Lost Boys refused to grow up. The novel is a metaphor for eternal childhood, or immortality or escapism — all aspects which apply to the life of Charles Kellogg. The Pan from Greek mythology is the god of the mountain wilds and woodcraft, both traits of Kellogg who was a “Nature’s Child.” And, like Peter Pan, he was a lost boy. His mother died when he was very young. He was sent to live with relatives in New York to receive formal education rather than the wild education he was absorbing as he roamed the great outdoors of Plumas County, Calif., where he was born.
Besides his affinity with the natural world, Charles possessed a unique gift — his vocal cords allowed him to sing bird calls. The acoustic range of his voice in terms of decibels was off the charts. He was known as the “Nature Singer” or the “Bird Man.” Using this ability, he acquired international fame and became a recording artist for RCA Victor during the early 1900s. His reputation and genuine passion for the environment afforded him opportunities for friendships with the renowned naturalists John Muir and John Burroughs.
We all have Waldens — places of special personal significance, places to think, to rest and to enjoy.
I look forward to the day when we can walk the landscape of the former Ever, Ever Ranch where Charles and Sarah Kellogg decided to make their home among the oaks and springs. And I will imagine talking with them about life as friends and mentors.
