"Branciforte Drive. B-R-A-N-C-I-F-O-R-T-E Drive. That's 'b' as in boy, 'r' as in rich, 'a' as in able...Oh, and it's 'Drive' not 'Avenue.' There is also a Branciforte Avenue in Santa Cruz. Yes, I know it's impossible. Please read it back. Thank you, goodbye." I hoped that the person on the other end of the line recorded my correct address. I don't know how many times I've pronounced and spelled "BRANCIFORTE" to bank and airline clerks plus the odd telephone catalog mail order clerk or clothes and presents. The word is not user-friendly. Elementary and junior high school children and out-of-town adults do not spell it easily."Leave no child behind" and change the name! for all of us.
      Branciforte Drive is one of the oldest roads in the county, beginning at the end of Market Street, running along Branciforte Creek and ending at the "Y" where it meets Vine Hill and Mountain View Roads. Early maps show the road as "Blackburn Gulch Road," which extended to sections of Jarvis Road.¹ Judge Blackburn was not generally noted for wearing a "white hat," but at least he had an honest, easily spelled name. So why not just get rid of the "Gulch?" "Gulch" in this modern day denotes a West Virginia shout-out from gulch to gulch—the Hatfields and the McCoys—bad blood all around like Squabble Hollow (now Glen Canyon Road) just down the road. But that is another story. Few Blackburn place names have survived: Blackburn Lagoon, Blackburn Terrace, and Blackburn House Apartments.² So, why not call our lovely road Blackburn Road or Blackburn Drive as was suggested at one time?
      Instead, our road was named for the original pueblo founded in 1798. The name honored Don Miguel de la Grua Talamanco y Branciforte, Marques de Branciforte, the rogue Viceroy from Sicily who was Viceroy of Ne Spain at the time.³ Since then, there have been other "Brancifortes." There was Branciforte County, which lasted forty-six days before the state wisely changed the name to Santa Cruz.⁴ There is a Branciforte Covered Bridge, Branciforte Creek, two schools (Branciforte Grammar and Branciforte Junior High), Branciforte Library, Branciforte picnic area in De Laveaga Park, several businesses and a fire station.⁵ I should be so grateful, I suppose, that the rogue Viceroy's name was shortened to merely Branciforte as a place name.
      I called Happy Valley Elementary School in search of why our road was named Branciforte. Cheryl Brothers, who was the school administrator at that time, pulled out the history file and loaned me a copy of the Happy Valley Get Together Club minutes. "This may help," she said.⁶
      The Get Together Club of Happy Valley was founded on July 6, 1912 at 8PM. "All Club Meetings were to be held Saturday evenings on or before the full moon" in the (old) Happy Valley School.⁷ Ninety-seven individuals signed the first roster. Many were members of families and all present signed. Adult males were charged dues of twenty-five cents per meeting. Women were free. (At one point there was a ten-cent charge but that was eliminated at the next meeting.) The janitor cost $0.75; coal oil was also $0.75; and dues to the Chamber of Commerce were $1.00. The rest of the dues were, I presume, used for the purchase of refreshments and coffee at the discretion of the powerful Refreshment Committee.
      The little schoolhouse on upper Branciforte Drive, no converted into a private residence, must have been packed at that first meeting. Attendance was always good except when the weather was bad. The male memebers were mostly farmers and fruit growers. All the female memebers were housewives, and the young people who lived with their parents were also members. Everyone knew everyone else and if they didn't they would soon. It was a "tight" community. That didn't prevent feuds between neighbors, usually about water rights, that have continued to this day.
      Issues that concerned the membership during the "business" portion of the meeting involved the rabbit plague, billboards, telephone service, road maintenance, and other problems associated with living on the banks of Branciforte Creek. And then it was time to socialize with refreshments and coffee provided by the Refreshment Committee. Sometimes there would be a program of music from the young people. At least once the meeting did not adjourn until midnight such a good time was being had by all.
      At the first meeting of the Get Together Club a committee of three, consisting of Mesdames Rose Rostron and Jane Stocking and Mr. Herman A. Widemann, was formed "to see what could be done about changing the name of Blackgburn Gulch to a more 'euphonius one.⁸ At the second meeting in August, Herman Widemann, the first secretary of the club (and also a member of the committee), noted, "Report of Committee on name not quite satisfactory." The committee was given more time to make a further report. Later in the meeting, however, under New Business, Mr. Frank A. Brown suggested Blackburn Drive as a "suitable euphonius name." It was moved by Mr. William Foster to have it [name] Blackburn Drive. Then Mr. Hubert Stocking moved to call it "Happy Valley Drive." The new club was in confusion. The question was laid on the table until the next meeting for a final decision.
      Sure enough, at the next meeting of the Get Together Club, it was decided that members should have their choice of Blackburn Drive or Branciforte Drive. (Happy Valley Drive was dropped from consideration, although later a branch road from Branciforte Drive acquired that name.) The vote was nineteen for Blackburn Drive and twenty-two for Branciforte Drive. A resolution was made to present the name change to the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors. It looked like a done deal.
      Other matters were considered at the fourth meeting and the secretary made no mention of the resolution. Nonetheless something must have been going on in the community, for at the firth meeting in November (attendance was low because of the weather), "It was moved and seconded that the question of changing the name be resopened." I was glad that the good citizens of Happy Valley were going to reconsider. Bu, again, there was a spread of four votes. The tally result was thirteen for Branciforte Drive, and nine for Blackburn Drive. However, the meeting was not over. Someone disgruntled by the outcome proposed a new motion and found a second. The minutes read, "Unless two thirds of the reseidents living on the road signed the petition it should not be presented to the Board of Supervisors."⁹ Chairman Frank Brown, perhaps sensing further dissension, ruled this motion out of order.
      There was no further notice of any discussion regarding the name change. At the next meeting of the Board of Supervisors, the name Branciforte Drive was approved. Did the majority of those who voted for the name change at both meetings think about the future residents of Happy Valley having to spell out "Branciforte" as well as emphasize "Drive" instead of "Avenue" every time an address was requested by someone outside the valley?

Guess not.

Notes:

1  Donald Thomas Clark, Santa Cruz County Place Name, (Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz
    Historical Society, 1986), p. 32.
2  Ibid, pp. 32-33.
3  David W. Heron, "Branciforte: The Viceroy from Sicily," Santa Cruz County
    History Journal Issue Number 3, Special Branciforted Bicentennial Edition,     (Santa Cruz: Museum of Art & Hisotry, 1997), p. 59. The whole issue is     interesting and gives insights into the history of Branciforte Villa and the rogue     viceroy from Sicily after whom it was named.
4  Clark, Santa Cruz County Place Names, p. 43.
5  Ibid, pp. 42-45
6  What a treasure! One copy, the original is in Special Collections, University     Library, UC Santa Cruz. The other is in my possession but I plan to return it to     the Happy Valley School archives. It is a bound book dated 1913-1917. Peggy     Stern (grand niece to LaSalle Bachelder) writes, "In clearing out material left     by my aunt, LaSalle Bachelder, I found pictures of various classes, some with     dates on the back which might be of historical interest. Mrs. Bachelder was     your first teacher. Also found a book of minutes which may be of interest to     you or to an appropriate historical group...Please discard if no one wants them.     Sincerely, Peggy Stern."
7  Happy Valley Get Together Club Minutes, 1912, (Special Collections, Univerity     Library, UC Santa Cruz, p. 10.
8  Ibid, p. 11.
9  Ibid, p. 15.

BAD BOYS of BRANCIFORTE
In 1997 Peggy Townsend wrote an article for the Santa Cruz Sentinel titled, Bad Boys of Branciforte Drive. While not directly related to Happy Valley, the "bad boys" were definitely neighbors. Take a look at the PDF version of the article.

OIL IN HAPPY VALLEY?
Download an article about the Oneto brothers drilling for oil on what is now the Happy Valley Farm on Happy Valley Road as a PDF document.