Foxy’s is a Ride Through California History

Though most riders don’t realize it, all three Foxy's routes pass through areas rich in California history.

Foxy’s Fall Century is an annual event hosted by the Davis Bike Club. Riders have a choice of three courses: the traditional 100-mile century, a metric century (100 kilometers or 62 miles), and the Flat 50k ride. Though most riders don’t realize it, all three routes pass through areas rich in California history.

 

Putah Creek

Putah Creek at Lake Solano Park
Putah Creek at Lake Solano Park

Riders on all three Foxy’s routes travel along Putah Creek. The trip from Davis along Putah Creek Road to Winters is one of the most popular for local cyclists. It is one of the first long rides for new riders.

The word Putah comes from the Lake Miwok, puta wuwwe, which means “grassy creek.” Mission records in San Francisco and Sonoma in the early 1800s list the names of natives of the area and spell Putah in various ways, such as “Putto,” “Puttato,” and “Putü.” The Spanish called the creek “Los Putos,” and in 1842, William Wolfskill named his land grant, which encompassed both sides of Putah Creek, “Rancho Rio de los Putos.” The spelling we use today was first applied to the town of Putah which emerged around Elijah Silvey’s hotel south of Putah Creek in 1853. Residents later changed the town name to Silveyville, but the spelling they used for Putah eventually became the standard.

Stevenson Bridge
Stevenson Bridge

Foxy’s riders cross Putah Creek over Stevenson Bridge, a local landmark covered in graffiti. The bridge was built in 1923 and has been identified by the state of California as eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. It’s one of only three bridges in California that utilizes an architectural design known as the overhead tie arch. Riders cross the creek again on the 1906 railroad bridge in Winters which has been converted to a bicycle/pedestrian bridge. 

Putah Creek has suffered during the last 150 years as a result of the completion of Monticello Dam and other activities along the creek.  Recent environmental stewardship activities, including changing flows and making modifications to the channels and banks by groups such as the Lower Putah Creek Coordinating Committee, are gradually restoring important aspects of this valuable environment.

 

The Four “Ss”

Pony Express Marker at Silveyville
Pony Express Marker at Silveyville

Part of Foxy’s Fall Century’s 100-mile and 100km routes includes a path well known to Davis riders: a series of roads known as the “Four Ss.” The roads are Stevenson Bridge Road, Sievers Road, Schroeder Road, and Silveyville Road.

Stevenson Bridge Road, an extension of Road 95a, is known for the eponymous Stevenson Bridge. The road ends in the south at Sievers Roads, which 100-mile and 100k riders follow west for a short distance. Sievers Road was part of the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway, dedicated in 1913. Lincoln Highway originally turned south at Sacramento to get to San Francisco via Stockton because the Yolo Bypass was not passable by automobiles most months of the year. The Yolo Causeway, which was the first year-round passage between Sacramento and Davis, opened in 1916. Lincoln Highway was realigned to pass through Davis, and incorporate Sievers Road, in 1927. You can still see a Lincoln Highway marker at the corner of Russell and B Street in Davis.

Riders turn from Sievers onto Schroeder Road, which takes them south toward Dixon before turning west on the last of the Four Ss, Silveyville Road. On the southeast corner of the intersection of Schroeder Road and Silveyville Road stands a house built in 1873 by Joachim Schroeder. It is the last remaining structure of Silveyville, and is still owned by the Schroeder family.

1878 map of Silveyville and Tremont Disctricts
1878 map of Silveyville and Tremont Disctricts

Near this same corner stands a Pony Express monument memorializing Silveyville as a stop on the Pony Express. The town began in 1852 when Elijah Silvey built a corral and hotel and hung a red lantern to attract miners on their way up to the gold mines in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Silveyville, standing halfway between Benicia and Sacramento, was a natural Express stop. Silvey did not build his hotel as a Pony Express stop; Pony Express riders were supposed to ride a ferry from Sacramento to San Francisco, bypassing the area entirely. Occasionally, however, a rider missed the boat and would have to race to Benicia to catch a ferry from there. 

The small town of Putah grew up around Silvey’s hotel. Residents changed the name to Silveyville because Putah sounded like the Spanish word for prostitute.

The Pony Express ran from April 1860 to November 1861. During this time, Silveyville was a well established community with a store, saloon, school, two churches, a blacksmith shop, and homes for 160 residents. In 1867, however, the railroad track linking San Francisco to Sacramento was built just south of Silveyville along land granted to the railroad by settler Thomas Dickson. Dickson convinced the residents of Silveyville to relocate their town nearer to the railroad and the station on his land (misspelled as “Dixon”). Three years later, all of the buildings that could be moved were relocated, turning Silveyville into a ghost town.

There were a number of other small towns between Davis and Vacaville: West Plainfield, Allendale, and Buckeye to name a few. Most are now gone, and the area is primarily agricultural, giving riders miles of roads to ride with low vehicle traffic and minimum stop signs and traffic signals.

 

English Hills and Pleasants Valley

John and William Whitehead enjoying an early spring ride in Pleasants Valley.
John and William Whitehead enjoying an early spring ride in Pleasants Valley.

In addition to miles of farmland with relatively light traffic and few traffic controls, riders on the longer Foxy’s routes get to ride through the rural English Hills over Steiger Hill Road. A little further on, the route passes through Pleasants Valley, which offers fifteen miles of beautiful rolling hills, orchards, and rangeland. 

The northern portion of Pleasants Valley was part of the Wolfskill’s Rio de Los Putos rancho. The English Hills and remainder of Pleasants Valley were part of the Rancho Los Putos grant given to Juan Felipe Peña and Juan Manuel Cabeza Vaca in 1843.

Since that time, Pleasants Valley has been a ranching and farming area. The open vistas and low population are two reasons it’s such a nice area to ride through. In recent years, though, some Pleasants Valley ranches have been subdivided into “ranchettes,” occupied by non-farming residents who typically discontinue agricultural use of their property.

E. R. Thurber, Pleasants Valley with Thurber ranch in the distance.
E. R. Thurber, Pleasants Valley with Thurber ranch in the distance.

Fortunately, at least two ranches dating back to the mid-1800s will stay whole. In 2004, the owner of Martell Ranch placed 535 acres under a conservation easement with the Solano Land Trust. The owners of the neighboring Hoskins ranch also granted a conservation to the Land Trust. Together, these two properties preserve nearly two miles of land adjoining Pleasants Valley Road as open land.

The 100k Foxy’s route passes through these ranches. Not long after, riders cross the Edward R. Thurber Bridge. The bridge was built in 1907 by the Solano County Engineer Frank Alexander Steiger – whom Steiger Hill Road is named after. Steiger built the concrete bridge near the land of Edward Thurber who settled in Pleasants Valley in 1858. Thurber is credited with laying the foundation of the fruit industry of Vaca and Pleasants valleys. The bridge was renamed the Edward R. Thurber bridge in 2007. 

 

Monticello

Monticello Bridge and Putah Creek at flood.
Monticello Bridge and Putah Creek at flood.

Lake Berryessa was created in 1957 with the completion of Monticello Dam on Putah Creek at Devil’s Gate. The lake flooded Berryessa Valley, a ranching and farming region that dates back to the 1840s. It also flooded the town of Monticello, which now lies at the bottom of the lake.

Prior to the flooding, anthropologists found Miwok, Patwin, and Maidu artifacts. There is evidence of 100 to 150 Native American villages dating back 2,000 years. The modern history of the valley dates to 1843 when Governor Micheltorena granted brothers Jose and Sisto Berryessa (originally spelled “Berelleza”) eight square leagues of valley lands bordered by the hills. Apparently, the Berryessa brothers liked to gamble; they lost some of the land that way and sold the rest of it to Edward Schultz to satisfy a debt of less than $2000. Schultz in turn sold the land in 1866 to a group of three men. These owners subdivided the valley into farms and set aside land for a town of Monticello.

Hotel Little Peacock in Monticello, circa 1905
Hotel Little Peacock in Monticello, circa 1905

Roads out of the valley were impassable when Putah Creek was swollen with rain. Napa County built a three hundred foot, three span stone bridge over the creek in 1896. At the time it was the largest stone bridge west of the Mississippi.

The area thrived as a major hub of agriculture. Nevertheless, the population of Monticello was smaller in 1950 than when the town was founded in 1867. In 1948, Solano County Irrigation District formed to obtain irrigation water from the damming of Berryessa Valley.

In 1953, construction of Monticello Dam began.  By 1956, all trees, homes, barns and other structures were dismantled, burned, or razed in preparation for the valley’s flooding. Construction on the dam was completed in 1957, and flooding completed by 1959. The only structure still standing at the bottom of the lake is the stone bridge.

All photos courtesy of the Vacaville Heritage Council, except: Putah Creek, courtesy of Cary Craig; Steven Bridge, courtesy of Russell Reagan; Pleasants Valley courtesy of Anne Huber.

 

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