Chictactac Adams Walk

Chictactac Adams Heritage Park is possibly the smallest and least known of the parks in the Santa Clara County Park system. This park provides a view into the Ohlone Indian life in the Santa Clara Valley before the arrival of the Spanish. The park features great views of Uvas Creek, and cultural artifacts including bedrock mortars and petroglyphs created by the Ohlone Indians. It includes a self-guided interpretive walk with 8 stations that focus on the Ohlone Indian Culture.

To get to Chictactac Adams Heritage park from Highway 101, take the Tennant Avenue exit in Morgan Hill and proceed west towards Monterey Highway. Turn left (south)on Monterey Highway and travel approximately 0.5 mile south to Watsonville Road. Take Watsonville Road west 5.5 miles (past several wineries) to the park site which is located on the west side of the road across from the intersection of Watsonville Road and Burchell Road. [GP:cacp]

The self-guided 8 station walk typically takes 20-30 minutes. The first thing I noticed when I got out of my car, interestingly enough, was the restroom building. It was covered in a colorful mural of Ohlone life and is shown in the two pictures below.

The first station “A” is entitled School Days. This station describes the Adams school which was built in 1859 and burned down in 1915. The school was rebuilt and remained active, serving the local Adams school district, until it burned down in again in 1956.

The interpretive shelter includes several displays describing Ohlone Chitactac village that was believed to be located on this site, as well as Ohlone culture, trade, social structure, food resources, petroglyphs and other topics.

The interpretive shelter houses the boulder shown in the picture below. This boulder was originally located down the hill near the Uvas river. To protect it from vandalism, it was moved in 1986 to Mt. Madonna park, and then back to Chitactac in 1999. On the surface of the rock is a petroglyph of circles within circles that is believed to be thousands of years old.

The walking tour continues outside the interpretive shelter in a counterclockwise direction around the park. There are two overview maps, one shown in this picture, and paper maps available in the interpretive shelter as well as in a map box located near this point.

Station “B” shows how the original Chitactac Village on this site might have looked. One of my few disappointments when visiting this site was that other than the petroglyphs and rock mortars, there really isn’t much evidence of the original village left to view, most of what I learned and saw about the Ohlone life was from displays in the interpretive shelter and the 8 stations.

The next station encountered on the walk is “C – Ohlone Buildings”. Ohlone buildings included houses, assembly buildings, graineries and others. All were built from locally gathered materials. The typical Ohlone house was dome shaped, covered with grass or tule thatching, and could hold 8 – 12 people.

On the way to the next station, you will see in the sandstone some holes or “mortars” that the Ohlone used for grinding food.

Station “D” – Rock Art describes the two types of petroglyphs found in Citactact – cupules and cup and ring forms. Experts aren’t sure about their meaning.

A sighting device next to the station directs your eye to a moss-covered cup and ring petroglyph on the rocks below. The picture below shows this cup and ring image.

At Station “E” – Food processing, you can see the bedrock mortars in the sandstone used along with pestles by the Ohlone to crush and process seeds, roots, nuts, fish othet food.

Station “F” is focused on Uvas creek. You have a great view of the Uvas creek from this location. The creek and streamside habitat provided important resources to the Ohlone. The creek provided year round fresh water, which was probably a major factor in the establishment of the Chitactac village in this location. The creek was probably also used for food processing, washing bathing and swimming in the summer. The creek was an abundant source of fish, and also attracted a variety of game mammals, amphibians and birds.

Station “G” covers the impact of the arrival of the Spanish on the Ohlone way of life. Initial contact between the Spanish and the Ohlone tribes was generally friendly. Starting around 1769 efforts to convert and control the Ohlone increased, and with the establishment of ranchos, missions and presidios the lifestyle and culture of the Ohlone people was changed forever. The village of Chitactac was impacted by mission influence until quite late, with the first people brought into mission Santa Cruz in 1795. Another fallout from the mission life was the introduction of diseases for which the Ohlone had little or no immunity.

One thing that caught my eye, especially near station “G” was that most of the boulders and many of the trees were covered with a thick layer of green moss. The historic park was very moist probably because it borders on the Uvas creek and I happened to visit just after Christmas day during the rainy season.

Station “H” is entitled “Ranchos and Growth”. This was the most sobering station as it described how the Spanish colonization in the late 1700s destroyed the traditional Ohlone tribal life. Many of the Ohone lived and worked on the large ranchos as vaqueros and servants. Later when California came under American rule, many of the new landowners didn’t use Indian labor, leaving them with no place to go. Large scale cattle and sheep ranching had damaged their incestral lands, grasslands were overgrazed, forested harvested and many waterways spoiled due to mining and ranching activities. The traditional food resources for the native people were becoming very limited. Private land ownership and fenching limited access for traditional hunting, food gaterhing and fishing.

Here is a moss covered tree, followed by a closeup image of the moss on the tree.

The last station “I” – Describes the “Round Houses” that the Ohlone built primarily for important ceremonies. The round houses were typically built partly undergound with floors excavated 3 or 3 feet into the earth. They could be as large as 80 to 100 ft in diameter, and in some cases could hold an entire village.

Conclusion: If you want to learn a bit about the Ohlone Indians, experience some beautiful scenery, don’t like crowds (I was one of only two people visiting when I was there) and don’t have much time (tour takes 20-30 minutes) Chictactac Adams is a great place to visit.