Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph courtesy of William A. Wulf, published in A Trip Through Time and the Santa Cruz Mountains

The popular Glenwood Hotel, shown here in about 1909, was built and operated by Charley Martin.

Picture from the Past

John S. Baggerly

Mountain life, history comes alive in locally written book

Back in 1979, Los Gatos High School had a speedy halfback named Reece Jensen who, as a senior a year later, played as quarterback. After his graduation in 1981, his surname disappeared locally until 1994, when his parents, Billie J. and Reece C. Jensen Sr., published A Trip Through Time and the Santa Cruz Mountains. Reece Jr. went on to receive a Harvard degree, get married and become a physical therapist.

According to Ghastly Gallimaufry Publications, the original edition of the Jensen book sold out. The revised second edition was printed recently with additional rare photographs and historical overviews. The retail price is $17.95.

Accompanying a copy of the second edition are two other Reese books, Up to Alaska and Hollywood Hoopla and Chutzpah 1910-1940. The former is a true-life narrative by the Jensens and is based on their own adventures in 1959-1960, weaving historic and epic events of the territory--later the state--of Alaska. The book includes more than 250 photographs in black and white and color. Retail price is $24.95. The Hollywood book includes humor, photographs of early participants in the movie and entertainment field and many rare early California postcards. Retail price is $19.95.

Billie and Reece give special thanks to historian Bill Wulf, who supplied historical information and photographs for their writings. A Trip Through Time and the Santa Cruz Mountains and Hollywood Hoopla are available locally at the Curious Book Shoppe at 23 E. Main St. in Los Gatos and the Summit Store, located at 24197 Summit Road.

The Jensens tell about themselves in their mountain memoir book:

"My husband and I moved to the Glenwood area of the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1957, the year after we married. On the 20 acres we purchased, we developed a spot for our 40-foot house trailer and a spring that supplied us with ample mountain water. Six years later, we widened that original site to accommodate our home we designed and built ourselves.

"A portion of the Old Glenwood Highway and Bear Creek formed the southwestern border of the property, which was, no doubt, part of Charlie McKiernan's land holdings 100 years before. When we came here, the old Glenwood one-room schoolhouse was still standing just down the road; there was Charlie's Tree within a stone's throw of us in one direction and the portal to the Glenwood-Laurel Tunnel in another. The infamous San Andreas fault was a mile or so to the north. Fascinated with the mystery, beauty, dangers and history all around us, we began our research for this book.

"For several years both of us also worked in the rapidly growing aerospace industry, in the Bay Area's Silicon Valley. I took a several-year respite when we had our child but went back into business in Los Gatos when we bought an existing store and became sole proprietor.

"In 1991, a year and a half after the Loma Prieta earthquake, which greatly affected our area, we began to think of retirement. And, at the end of that year, we moved to Gardnerville, Nev., where we now make our home. The view from our dining room takes in the 'backside' of the High Sierra as it enfolds Lake Tahoe. We were inspired in 1994 to finish our original manuscript on the Santa Cruz Mountains started so many years ago."

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