California State Parks interpretive aide Paul Karz leads Landmark Elementary School students on a tour of the Castro Adobe during recent field trip. Rancho San Andrés Castro Adobe is located in Larkin Valley near Watsonville and is one of the finest remaining examples of a rancho hacienda in the Monterey Bay area. Karz treats his visitors to stories and experiences from both the time of the rancho as well as from the prior period, where the Indigenous people lived in the area before the arrival of Europeans. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Landmark Elementary School students make miniature adobe bricks during their visit. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Watsonville Poet Laureate Robert Gomez gets young visitors from Landmark Elementary up and dancing in the Castro Adobe’s Fandango Room. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel)
California State Parks interpretive aide Paul Karz introduces visiting Landmark Elementary School students to the magic of an authentic indoor cocina (kitchen) during a recent field trip to Rancho San Andrés Castro Adobe in Watsonville. Located in Larkin Valley near Watsonville, the two-story Castro Adobe is one of the finest examples of a rancho hacienda in the Monterey Bay area. Visitors can "stroll back in time with our State Park docents to the Mexican Rancho period of the mid-1800s," according to the Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks website. The Castro Adobe is open to the public only on Open House Days, school field trips, private tours and other special events, and the next open house takes place Dec. 8. The two-story Castro Adobe hacienda was built on the 8,000-acre rancho granted to Jose Joaquin Castro and became one of the social centers of the central California coast and featured bear and bull fights on site. In 1988, noted adobe conservationist Edna Kimbro and her husband Joe purchased the property as their home, but the building was badly damaged the following year in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The damage sustained in the quake launched a 20-year community effort to repair and restore the adobe. Thousands of people – including hundreds of elementary students – have visited the park since 2015 through open house events, private tours, special events and school field trips including through the popular Kids2Parks program. Docents and interpreters like Karz treat visitors to stories and experiences from both the time of the rancho as well as from the prior period, where the Indigenous people lived in the area before the arrival of Europeans. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel)
A student makes handmade tortillas using a historically accurate tortilla press during their visit to the adobe. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel)
The facade of the Castro Adobe rises over the home’s front yard. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel)
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California State Parks interpretive aide Paul Karz leads Landmark Elementary School students on a tour of the Castro Adobe during recent field trip. Rancho San Andrés Castro Adobe is located in Larkin Valley near Watsonville and is one of the finest remaining examples of a rancho hacienda in the Monterey Bay area. Karz treats his visitors to stories and experiences from both the time of the rancho as well as from the prior period, where the Indigenous people lived in the area before the arrival of Europeans. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Landmark Elementary School students took a field trip to Rancho San Andrés Castro Adobe in Watsonville recently.
Located in Larkin Valley near Watsonville, the two-story Castro Adobe is one of the finest examples of a rancho hacienda in the Monterey Bay area. Visitors can “stroll back in time with our State Park docents to the Mexican Rancho period of the mid-1800s,” according to the Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks website.
The Castro Adobe is open to the public only on Open House Days, school field trips, private tours and other special events, and the next open house takes place Dec. 8. The two-story Castro Adobe hacienda was built on the 8,000-acre rancho granted to Jose Joaquin Castro and became one of the social centers of the central California coast and featured bear and bull fights on site. In 1988, noted adobe conservationist Edna Kimbro and her husband Joe purchased the property as their home, but the building was badly damaged the following year in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The damage sustained in the quake launched a 20-year community effort to repair and restore the adobe.
Thousands of people – including hundreds of elementary students – have visited the park since 2015 through open house events, private tours, special events and school field trips including through the popular Kids2Parks program. Docents and interpreters like Karz treat visitors to stories and experiences from both the time of the rancho as well as from the prior period, where the Indigenous people lived in the area before the arrival of Europeans.
