| 13,000 y.a. |
Bigfoot cross the landbridge from Asia to Northwest Territories |
| 10,000 y.a. |
Humans cross the landbridge and spread along the "ice-free corridor" |
| 1769 |
Portola Party names the San Lorenzo River (October 17) |
| 1791 |
Mission site chosen in Santa Cruz; Costanoan Indians there included Ohlone, Aptos, Soquel and Zayante |
| 1841 |
Isaac Graham purchases Rancho Zayante and establishes the first power sawmill in "Alta California" |
| 1843 |
Mexican land grant to Pierre Sansevain: Rancho Canada del Rincon |
| 1846 |
General John C. Fremont comes to the Redwood Grove Feb 26th on mapping expedition; rumor that he slept in a redwood tree starts |
| 1854 |
Mountain Charley fights a Grizzly Bear (May 10th) |
| 1856 |
James Frazee Reed (the first Mason in the West & part of the Donner Party) purchases mining rights to Gold Gulch Creek and vicinity for 3 years |
| 1861 |
California Powder Mill incorporated (where Paradise Park is today) |
| 1867 |
Judge Edward Stanley of S.F. sold 350 acres that included the Fremont Tree grove of redwoods to Joseph Warren Welsh (he purchased the grove largely because of the fame of the Fremont tree) The land he purchased was taken on a defaulted mortgage from Isaac Graham |
| 1868 |
Stanley laid out the town of Felton, centered on Baldwin Street (now Hwy 9) on the west side of the San Lorenzo River, named after Charles Felton (Stanley's lawyer who later became a state senator) |
| 1870 |
SLV's first steam mill built by Page, Donnell & Lee, near Gold Gulch (to mill the gold boulder found there?)
A buggy road is constructed from Felton to Santa Cruz as a toll road, and the Toll House was built in South Felton |
| 1872 |
Felton & Santa Cruz County Road becomes a free public road |
| 1876 |
Lumber flume built between Boulder Creek (at Waterman Gap) to Felton (14 miles long, in some places as much as 60 ft above the ground) |
| 1880 |
Big Trees RR Station built along with a saloon, boarding house and store at Welch's Big Trees Grove (by the Spring the Southern Pacific line from Alameda joined the pioneer Santa Cruz & Felton line just south of the Big Tree Grove at Felton. It became known as the 'Picnic Line') |
| 1882 |
F.H. Gassaway, writing as "Derrick Dogg" in the San Francisco Post mentions a "Wild man of the Woods" frightening Felton campers during the 1870's |
| 1883 |
Felton & Pescadero RR built, a subsidiary of the Santa Cruz Felton line (Felton to Boulder Creek utilizing the flume right-of-way.) |
| 1884 |
Joseph Ball leased the resort at Welch's and built three more buildings and a dance pavilion |
|
Felton incorporated for a short time |
| 1885 |
Last Grizzly Bear known to exist in the Santa Cruz Mtns killed in Bonnie Doon by Orrin Blodgett
South Pacific Coast RR and the Felton & Pescsadero stretch from Santa Cruz to Boulder Creek |
| 1888 |
State Miner alogist Annual Report mentions a 16 cu ft quartz boulder (yielded $33,000 worth of gold) that was found a number of years prior to the report |
| 1890 |
San Lorenzo River floods |
| 1893 |
Felton Church built (now a library)
Teddy Roosevelt's "The Wilderness Hunter" relates a trapper's "goblin tail" that researchers believe recounts an encounter with an angry bigfoot |
| 1895 |
Milo Hopkins operates Big Trees Lodge near the Toll House on property owned by Henry Cowell (there were two 'Big Trees' groves at this time: Welch's Grove and Hopkins' Grove or Cowell's Big Tree Grove) |
| 1903 |
President Teddy Roosevelt visits Cowell Big Trees during his "Conservation Tour" of the West changing policy from exploitation to preservation |
| 1905 |
Kenneth W Rugg is born in Oregon; Margaret M Rugg is born in Ohio |
| 1906 |
Mt Hermon founded (on the 'Arcadia'property and some property owned by Thomas Bell; 'Arcadia' had the Tuxedo Inn at Bean Creek at Zayante Creek, which became the Zayante Inn. |
| 1907 |
Thomas Bell records the 'Tanglewood' tract in SoFel |
| 1930 |
Santa Cruz County buys 120 acres from JW Welsh (son of Joseph Welch) and renames the Grove 'County Big Trees Park.' |
| 1940 |
Picnic Line (aka 'Sunshine Special') closes after flood of ë39 -'40 |
| 1942 |
Cowell Big Trees (Hopkins' Grove) closes due to WWII |
| 1945 |
Santa Cruz Lumber opens in Felton |
| 1950 |
Sam Cowell gives 1623 acres to the state of California and the Santa Cruz Felton RR stops running to the coast |
| 1951 |
South Felton branch of the RR closes down to give way to roads and diesel logging trucks
British mountaineers find footprint of the Yeti on Everest; Western press labels the animal the "Abominable Snowman" |
| 1952 |
KW Rugg trades bungalo court in San Leandro for cabin in Felton near Welch's Grove
Michael Rugg begins collecting articles on unknown hairy bipeds |
| 1954 |
Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park dedicated (combining the Welch property with the Cowell property to form one big state park) |
| 1958 |
Humbolt Times prints Jerry Crew's photo holding cast of footprint belonging to "Bigfoot" |
| 1961 |
KW Rugg buys property at the entrance to Tanglewood, and opens Precut Engineering Service Corp (sold cabin kits) |
| 1963 |
KW Rugg dies; Howard Rugg takes over the operation of his woodshop |
| 1964 |
Howard Rugg opens House of Howard, an antique and junk store |
| 1967 |
Michael Rugg writes term paper at Stanford on unidentified hairy bipeds; plans expedition to hunt bigfoot in Bluff Creek (March)
Patterson and Gimlin film bigfoot at Bluff Creek (October) |
| 1968 |
Michael Rugg opens art gallery in the House of Howard building, formerly Bea & Frank's Snack Bar |
| 1969 |
Howard Rugg and Michael Rugg form CapriTaurus |
| 1980 |
Last known sighting of a bigfoot in the Santa Cruz Mountains on Granite Creek Rd near Scotts Valley |
| 2003 |
Michael Rugg and Paula Yarr launch the Bigfoot Discovery Project to encourage the nonexploitation and preservation of bigfoot |
