An Historic Trek: The Amazing Honeymoon of W.F. Traughber and Nora Petree Traughber in 1905, Part I

Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Blog Post #42

By Tonya McQuade

The first stop on Frank & Nora Traughber’s Honeymoon - Hotel Del Monte,

Del Monte (Monterey), California [1]

In my last post, I wrote about my great grandparents’ wedding in San Jose, CA. William Francis “Frank” Traughber and Nora Elma Petree were married August 17, 1905, at the home of Nora’s brother Louis and his wife Kittie. Following the wedding, the two set off on quite an adventure. Recently, my father gave me their old photo album with pictures from their honeymoon, as well as their early years of marriage and family life. I decided I wanted to try to map out their journey and learn more about their adventures.

Nora’s description on the back of one photo, tucked loosely into the album, gave me a great starting point. The photo, taken at Del Monte in modern-day Monterey in 1905, states: “Figuring on our trip, which took us to Los Angeles, Catalina, and all about in So. Calif., to Portland World’s Fair of 1905, on to Seattle, Yellowstone Park, Salt Lake City, Missoula Montana, and several other stops before we arrived to Mexico, MO, where we lived for 2 years before coming to Calif. via San Jose on to Los Angeles.”

In the album, this photo is labeled, “Figuring to see how long we can stay.” A second copy of the photo, loosely tucked in the album, has the inscription written below.

As it turned out, their honeymoon lasted for about four weeks - which seems like quite an adventure for the time period! They traveled by train, boat, horse, and wagonette/rig, from what I can tell. Here’s the timeline I worked out from the album pages where Nora wrote dates - for some places, dates are missing:

Traughber Honeymoon Trip: 1905

Aug 17 - Wedding in San Jose

Aug 18 - Del Monte, CA (modern-day Pebble Beach in Monterey)

Aug 19 - Pacific Grove

Aug 20 - Santa Cruz Big Trees

Aug 22 - Catalina Island

Aug 25 - San Jose

Aug 26 - San Francisco

Unknown - Shasta Springs/Mt. Shasta

Unknown - Portland, Oregon’s “Lewis and Clark Centennial” World’s Fair 

Aug 30 - Tacoma, Washington

Aug 31 - Seattle, Washington 

Sept 4-9 - Yellowstone Nat’l Park

Unknown - Missoula, Montana

Unknown - Salt Lake City, Utah

Mid-Sept - Mexico, Missouri (to begin their new life)

The album also includes labels for many of the photos, often written in a very playful way - especially the early pages. The labels are beautifully scripted by Nora in white pen. Frank and Nora must have had a photographer following them around in Del Monte right after the wedding to take many of the photos they were able to capture. Here’s a sampling of a couple pages, with the labels printed below the photos:

Captions: Del Monte, Cal. Aug 18, 1905

Off for a stroll. / The flower garden. / “Do not pull these flowers.”

What if they find it out? / We just can’t leave here. / If it wasn’t chained.

Captions: Del Monte, Cal. Aug. 18, 1905

Innocent fun that resulted seriously. / Pouting about it. / Shall I drown my troubles?
Could stay away no longer. / Trying to make up. / Made up under the above date.

I love how they tell a story, both through the photos and the captions. The many pages of photos from Del Monte got me wondering, though, where Del Monte was located. After a bit of research, I learned that part of its original grounds now make up Pebble Beach Golf Course in Monterey. The hotel where they stayed, Hotel Del Monte, was a famous resort and tourist attraction.

This OLD VIDEO from 1897 shows a party of tourists arriving at the Hotel Del Monte in a series of carriages. Frank and Nora likely did the same, after first traveling from San Jose to Monterey on the Del Monte Express, a passenger train operated by Southern Pacific Railroad from 1889-1971 that ran from San Francisco to San Jose, then on to the “Del Monte” stop in Monterey.

The Hotel Del Monte, which sat on 126 acres of cultivated ground on the Monterey peninsula, was located near this stop. Opened in 1880, the hotel was advertised as being “in every detail and in all its environment ideally Californian.” The ad below additionally claims it has “the most magnificent hotel, the most expansive landscape, the most varied forests, the most delightful temperature, and the most superb flowers IN ALL AMERICA.” That’s quite a claim!

Advertisement for the Hotel Del Monte in Sunset magazine [2]

I’m not sure whether Frank and Nora were lured by an ad like this, or whether Nora during her years at Stanford University had heard about the hotel and added it then to her honeymoon wishlist. Perhaps they had read the May 1898 inaugural issue of Sunset magazine, which featured a seven-page illustrated section promoting “Summer Holidays Among the Hills: Santa Cruz Mountains and Shasta Resorts.” That first issue only cost 5 cents and included no outside advertisements “under the assumption and hope that subscriptions and self-promotion would cover all costs." [3]

Published by the Passenger Department of the Southern Pacific Company in order to promote western tourist destinations, Sunset magazine took its name from the railroad's much-touted Sunset Route, which ran between Los Angeles and New Orleans. The Sunset Route “offer[ed] special inducements to winter travelers, by reason of its southern route, thereby avoiding the extreme cold of the winter months. Its course [lay] through a section of the country that present[ed] a variety of beautiful and picturesque natural scenery. It [was] also the direct route to the popular resorts of Southern California, thereby making it a favorable route for tourists.” [4] Monterey and Santa Cruz soon became other favorite destinations. Click here to see an old video of the train.

Photo of Hotel Del Monte. Detroit Publishing Co, 1899. Library of Congress. [5]

Whatever the case, Frank and Nora made the Hotel Del Monte their first honeymoon stop - and they definitely seem to have taken advantage of many of its offerings while they were there. Their album includes photos of them sitting under the pines, firs, live oak, and giant date palm; strolling in the flower garden and the Arizona Garden; enjoying the Lover’s Driveway and hotel’s back porch; finding their way through the Mystic Maze; and sitting in a boat at the water’s edge.

Under the “Giant Date Palm” at Hotel Del Monte - perhaps the same one as in the

historic photo of the hotel above.

Strolling in the flower garden - and being tempted to pick some flowers!

The album includes two photos of Frank and Nora in the Arizona Garden. As it turns out, there is a lot of information about this garden. It was designed by the noted nineteenth century landscape gardener Rudolph Ulrich and included a combination of desert and subtropical plants. Ulrich also designed Arizona Gardens for Stanford University and San Francioco’s Golden Gate Park, but his first was the garden at the Hotel del Monte. It’s likely that Nora enjoyed the Arizona Garden at Stanford while she was a student there. 

The Hotel Del Monte, established in 1880 by railroad baron Charles Crocker through the Southern Pacific Railroad's property division, Pacific Improvement Company, soon became a playground for the rich and famous, as well as the wealthy and influential. The hotel's property "extended south and southeast of the hotel and included gardens, parkland, polo grounds, a race track, and a golf course. Originally used for hunting and other outdoor activities, the hotel's property became Pebble Beach, an unincorporated resort community, and the world-famous Pebble Beach Golf Links. The famous 17-Mile Drive was designed as a local excursion for visitors to the Del Monte to take in the historic sights of Monterey and Pacific Grove and the scenery of what would become Pebble Beach." [6]

The hotel was “justly renowned for its extensive and beautiful grounds….  Ulrich was particularly known for creating extravagant formal landscapes, comprising  both native and exotic plants. He utilized a gardenesque style for many of his estate and hotel designs, displaying diverse botanical specimens in large areas of velvety turf. He used fountains, urns, and statuary as focal points in his landscapes, and often included artificial lakes and hedge mazes as additional design elements.” [7] 

Ulrich’s efforts were described in a Monterey newspaper on November 3, 1881, as follows:

“Mr. Ulrich, the head gardener at the Hotel del Monte, returned on Wednesday last from a trip to Mexico, where he has been to purchase plants indigenous to that country. One carload of cactus and other tropical plants have already arrived and three more are expected next week. The plants gathered on this trip (and others like it) were used to create what Ulrich called an ‘Arizona garden.’ To obtain as many plants as he needed to generously fill the garden, he had been given the use of a locomotive and several boxcars, along with a crew of eight men and six teams of horses. He made his way by rail to the Arizona Territory and farther south into Mexico, where he collected and purchased plants of the Sonoran Desert.” [8]

Ulrich’s Arizona Garden consisted of “a complex series of fifty-seven raised beds in four symmetrical quadrants radiating around one large central bed…. In addition to over sixty species of cacti, the garden was planted with numerous other succulents (notably agaves, aloes, and yuccas), palms, conifers, ornamental grasses, and flowers. Two Victorian classics, monkey puzzle trees (Araucaria araucana) and pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana), featured prominently in several beds.” [9]

 

Tall columnar saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) were a signature of the original Hotel del Monte Arizona Garden in Monterey. Photograph by CWJ Johnson. [10]

“The garden caused a great sensation once it was planted, and was featured prominently in Hotel del Monte literature and marketing. Hotel pamphlets pointed out with great pride that the Arizona Garden was not “under glass” as it would need to have been in the eastern United States; this was proof, indeed, of California’s “superior” climate. The large size of the garden (30,625 square feet), the variety and rarity of the plants, and the use of formal design was absolutely unique in California at the time. Guests of the hotel came from all parts of the United States, as well as England and Europe, and were suitably impressed by this seaside desert garden, often posing for photographs amongst the plants….

The Arizona Gardens, Del Monte, Monterey, Cal., American Stereoscopic Co., 1902 [11]

“The site he chose (southwest of the hotel) was not close to the main building, but could only be glimpsed from the veranda through the surrounding trees and shrubbery. Whether he deliberately sited this most unusual garden as one might a magnificent rose garden—behind a hedge or around the corner, as a prize to be discovered by the more intrepid hotel guests—is open to conjecture. The positioning of a hedge maze, another popular landscape feature of the day, in the exact opposite area of the grounds (southeast of the hotel) makes it seem likely that both of these horticultural curiosities were placed by Ulrich for optimum effect.” [12]

The “hedge maze” mentioned above is another feature of the hotel that Frank and Nora enjoyed. Called the “Mystic Maze,” the maze was a large ornate shrubbery on the grounds of the Hotel Del Monte. I found several photos online that matched the photo of Frank and Nora at the entrance.

Entrance to the Mystic Maze

Photo of the Maze at Hotel Del Monte [13]

An interior view of the Mystic Maze [14]

Interestingly, the same month that Frank and Nora honeymooned in Monterey and Santa Cruz, Sunset magazine featured a cover photo of a Santa Cruz beach. Its caption read, "A mother walks her baby boy up off the beach; in the background, happy bathers cavort in the surf. The boy is carrying a nice stalk of dead kelp." [15]

Cover of Sunset magazine - August 1905

When Frank and Nora visited Hotel Del Monte, it was already well established as one of the premier tourist destinations on the West Coast. Pacific Improvement Company – headed by Crocker, as well as fellow railroad barons Leland Stanford, Collis Potter Huntington, and Mark Hopkins, Jr. – had opened the scenic 17-Mile Drive along the majestic Monterey coast in 1881, and by 1901, they had begun charging a 25 cent toll per person  (today admission is $12 per vehicle). In those early days, the drive began and ended at the Hotel Del Monte.

In 1897, “Del Monte Golf Course opened as a 9-hole golf course, making it the oldest golf course west of the Mississippi still on its original site. In 1903, it was made into an 18-hole golf course.” [16]. In 1909, a lodge opened to serve meals to travelers on the 17-mile drive. For more information about how the Del Monte Golf Course, the Lodge, and Pebble Beach Golf Course evolved, check out this timeline.

I’m not sure whether Frank and Nora rode along the 17-mile drive, but their album includes photos or them on “the surf beaten rocks” and “the rocky way” in Pacific Grove, looking at children “bathing in the surf,” and standing among “the big trees [in] Santa Cruz” on August 20, 1905, so they clearly ventured out from the Hotel Del Monte while staying on the Monterey Coast. It's possible they visited Big Basin Redwoods, which was established in 1902 and is California's oldest state park. Some of its ancient coast redwoods are more than 50 feet around and up to 1800 years old. The tallest tree, "Mother of the Forest," is 329 feet tall.  

“On the surf beaten rocks” and watching children “bathing in the surf” in Pacific Grove, near Monterey in California

Today, guests can still visit the Hotel Del Monte, but it now serves as the Naval Postgraduate School. As I discovered online, “The Hotel Del Monte was requisitioned by the Navy at the beginning of World War II and used as a pre-flight training school.In 1947, the U.S. Navy purchased the hotel and its surrounding 627 acres for $2.5 million.In 1951, the United States Naval Academy's postgraduate school moved from Annapolis, Maryland to its new location—the former Hotel del Monte." [17]

According to the Naval Postgraduate School website, “Whether your stay is for business or pleasure, we know you will enjoy the ambiance and heritage of the Hotel Del Monte. Hotel Del Monte, under the direction of the CNIC and the Fleet and Family Readiness Program, is the Navy's 5-Star Hospitality program. Hotel Del Monte offers standard rooms and suites that are fully modern and comfortable, as well as four luxurious, custom-decorated Admiral Suites for distinguished visitors.” [18]

I know I’m curious. I think I’ll try to check it out the next time I’m in Monterey! In the meantime, since this post is definitely long enough, tune in next time for Part II of the Traughber Honeymoon saga!

An advertisement for today’s Hotel Del Monte, now operated by Naval Support

Activity Monterey [19]

Endnotes:

1. Jackson, William Henry. “Hotel del Monte, Del Monte [ie. Monterey], California.” Detroit Publishing Co., 1906. https://www.loc.gov/resource/det.4a31560/.
2. Whaley, Derek. “Curiosities: Sunset Magazine.” Santa Cruz Trains, 8 November 2019, https://www.santacruztrains.com/2019/11/curiosities-sunset-magazine.html.
3. Whaley, Derek. “Curiosities: Sunset Magazine.” Santa Cruz Trains, 8 November 2019, https://www.santacruztrains.com/2019/11/curiosities-sunset-magazine.html.
4. White, James H. “Hotel Del Monte.” Edison Manufacturing Co., 1897. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/ntscrm.00047177.
5. “Hotel Del Monte, Cal.” Detroit Publishing Co., c1899, https://www.loc.gov/resource/det.4a32216/.
6. “Hotel Del Monte.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Del_Monte.
7. Biklé, Anne, and Frederick Law Olmsted. “Rudolph Ulrich's Arizona Gardens.” Pacific Horticulture, https://pacifichorticulture.org/articles/rudolph-ulrichs-arizona-gardens/.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. “The Arizona Gardens, Del Monte, Monterey, Cal.” American Stereoscopic Company, 1902, https://www.loc.gov/resource/stereo.1s10387/.
12. Biklé, Anne, and Frederick Law Olmsted. “Rudolph Ulrich's Arizona Gardens.” Pacific Horticulture, https://pacifichorticulture.org/articles/rudolph-ulrichs-arizona-gardens/.
13. The Maze at Hotel Del Monte, Monterey, Cal.” John and Jane Adams Postcards, M. Reider, https://digitalcollections.sdsu.edu/do/3f5929f2-f6cc-44dc-a7f3-ba9cb31e4475.
14. Heidrick, A. C. “Mystic Maze in Del Monte grounds, California.” Baja California and the West Postcard Collection. MSS 235. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego, https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/20775/bb56351442/.
15. Whaley, Derek. “Curiosities: Sunset Magazine.” Santa Cruz Trains, 8 November 2019, https://www.santacruztrains.com/2019/11/curiosities-sunset-magazine.html.
16. Graham, Julian P. “The Story of Pebble Beach Resorts | Heritage and Timeline.” Pebble Beach Resorts, https://www.pebblebeach.com/timeline/.
17. “Hotel Del Monte.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Del_Monte.
18. “Welcome - Hotel Del Monte.” Naval Postgraduate School, https://nps.edu/web/navy-gateway.
19. Hotel Del Monte, https://www.thehoteldelmonte.com/.