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Best of Picture from the Past
Wild game still abounds in Santa Cruz Mountains
By John S. Baggerly
Hunting and fishing was a way of life at the turn of the century, when deer ran free in the surrounding hills and Los Gatos Creek ran free from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the southern tip of San Francisco Bay. Salmon once swam upstream as far as what became Los Gatos, and local men were known to hook trout for breakfast.
Junius Dalton "J.D." Shore and fellow hunter Dick Blake did not have to walk very far into the hills to shoot the deer shown in today's picture. Hunters often took horses along to carry out their kill. The hunt was more for food than for sport or for thinning the herd. Shore's son, also nicknamed J.D., possesses an extensive collection of his father's kills with other local hunters.
It came to pass that the elder Shore, who died in 1934, became the local marshal in 1913 and the fire chief in 1920. A few days after fighting a local forest fire Shore died of a heart attack. His funeral at Place Funeral Home--now the Chart House restaurant on N. Santa Cruz Avenue--is still thought to be the most highly attended in Los Gatos.
Modern-day motorists who commute to Los Gatos from Santa Cruz report it is common to see young deer along the freeway--some dead and some alive, desperately trying to climb back into the wilds. Older deer who have survived the perils of the freeway are wise enough to stay well into the hills.
Perhaps the best-known local descendant of the elder Shore is Elaine Shore Shuman of the historic Almond Grove District in Los Gatos. Her many years of work with various girls' groups has given her a wide circle of friends.
An August 1999 edition of the Saratoga News carried a cover story titled "Fair Game?" on how the residents of the Toll Gate area of Saratoga have complained for several years about the deer population decimating their landscaping, reducing ivy to brown strings and turning flower beds to bare roots. Now there's fear that additional wildlife, including coyotes--and quite possibly a mountain lion--have taken a liking to their neighborhood.
The story begins:
"To the average animal lover, it might almost seem like a dream--you open your front door at dawn to fetch the paper, slippers on your feet and a cup of coffee in hand, and lock eyes with a half-dozen deer grazing in your yard.
The animals don't bolt in fear--they simply look at you like you've interrupted their breakfast. Never mind the fact that the beasts have made a salad bar of your well-tended garden."
Perhaps the deer should be more fearful. Many dead deer sighted in the area have been hit by automobiles and others have been killed by hungry predators--possibly a mountain lion, a bobcat or a coyote.
Vince Garrod of Saratoga's Garrod Farms, horse riding and boarding stables on Mount Eden Road, says that deer have been particularly destructive to his vineyards, which are also part of Garrod Farms.
John Baggerly is now semi-retired. This column is from the Los Gatos Weekly Times archives.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
Locals J.D. Shore and Dick Blake found game plentiful in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
