Dunn - Santa Cruz Wharf

IMAGES
of America

SANTA CRUZ WHARF

This large string of lingcod was caught off the coast of Santa Cruz and displayed in Santa Cruz publicity around 1938. Brothers Malio J. Stagnaro (left) and Cottardo Stagnaro II flank famed West Coast cartoonist Moyer Sinclair Thommy Thompson, who often drew cartoons and sketches of the Santa Cruz waterfront for the San Francisco Call-Bulletin. (Authors collection.)

ON THE COVER: This 1,000-pound sunfish, or Mola mola, was caught off the Santa Cruz coast near Natural Bridges, on March 17, 1939. The fish was caught on a C. Stagnaro sportfishing boat, the Marie, and was displayed, along with three salmon, on the main Santa Cruz Wharf for several days. Mola in Latin means millstone and describes the ocean sunfishs somewhat circular shape. The woman is unidentified. (Authors collection.)

IMAGES
of America

SANTA CRUZ WHARF

Geoffrey Dunn

Copyright 2016 by Geoffrey Dunn
ISBN 978-1-4671-3393-7
Ebook ISBN 9781439658871

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016950347

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Legendary Santa Cruz fisherman Ah Fook, a native of Canton, China, lived in the last Santa Cruz Chinatown. This image was taken during the 1940s at the end of the wharf. Warren Skip Littlefield writes in a 1941 edition of the Sunday Sentinel-News: Ah Fook was born to fish.... For Santa Cruzans not to know [Fook] is comparable to a mountaineer spending a lifetime within five miles of Yosemite Valley and never taking the trouble to view the wonders of its waterfalls. (Santa Cruz Seaside Company.)

CONTENTS

FOREWORD AND
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have had a lifelong love affair with the Santa Cruz Wharf. Its a romance that dates back to my earliest childhood, when I would spend carefree days with my cousins roaming around various landings and catwalks, fish houses, and storage sheds. During the first half of my life, I worked in various capacities on the wharfrolling newspapers at a young age for nickels, then advancing to fish cutting and dish washing and serving as a deckhand on fishing barges and cruise boats. I cannot imagine a more delightful childhood playground, every bit as colorful as Mark Twains Mississippi River, and I count my blessings for the gift of the wharf as the social and cultural setting of my formative years.

My roots in the Santa Cruz waterfront stretch back to the late 1800sthe date is not quite certainwhen my great-grandfather Cottardo P. Stagnaro I jumped ship and eventually settled here. During the late 1890s and early 1900s, he helped to bring many members of his extended family from the small coastal village of Riva Trigoso, Italy, to the Santa Cruz waterfront. I thank each and every Rivani, past and present, who contributed to Santa Cruz Wharf history. In particular, I want to acknowledge those who formed the nucleus of my family from the 1950s into the 1980s, including my grandmother Batistina Stagnaro; my great-uncle Malio J. Stagnaro; my aunts Mary Stagnaro Herman and Stella and Gilda Stagnaro; my uncles Batista Dodie, Malio Stago, Joe, and Robert Big Boy Stagnaro; my great-uncles Robby and Risho Ghioall of whom have now passed awayand who assumed their share of childcare responsibilities for my sister, cousins, and me during our early days on the wharf.

In addition to my own family, I also want to thank members of the Cardinale clanespecially brothers Frank and Joefor whom I worked in the 1980s and who have always treated me like family. My cousin Kenneth Lamb, a poet and fish cutter, also taught me many things about life and fish cutting during my coming-of-age years. I was always particularly close to three other wharf families: the late Robby, Dante Danny, and Auggie Canepa; Batista Lily, Stefano Ghighi, and Victor Ghio; John and August Jocko Carniglia; and their still-living brothers, Aldo Canepa, Victor Carniglia, and Johnny Ghio. To them, my heartfelt love and gratitude always.

During the wharfs 100th anniversary, I served on the Centennial Committee with a host of wharf aficionados, including Josh Clevenger, Norm Daly, Mauro Garcia, Larry Jackson, Rachel Kaufman, Rose Ann Mazzone, Camille Nava, Susan OConnor Frazer, Carol Scurich, Vince and Maggie Tuzzi, Lisa Uttal, and Tiffany Wise-West. The centennial also brought me closer to Jon Bombaci and Danny Buecher, who in their capacities as wharf supervisor have expressed their love of the wharf in many ways. My longtime friend and the director of the citys parks and recreation department, Dannettee Shoemaker, was an absolute jewel to work with. Mark Gilbert, the owner of three restaurants and a gift shop (and there are, apparently, more on the way) has been a visionary on the wharf over the past decades. My friendship with Donha Lee Dunderdale dates back to her days as a waitress at Gildas in the 1980s, and her business, Made in Santa Cruz, has added a new dimension to wharf history. Lisa McGinnis, a longtime member of the citys parks department, got us off to a good start and was an early promoter of this book. Charles Prentiss and Nikki Silva have been longtime comrades in all things historical and cultural; they not only played a critical role in encouraging this book but also served as consultants on the 2014 Santa Cruz Wharf Master Plan.

I am also grateful to the Santa Cruz Seaside Company for use of several images, and I especially want to thank company archivist Jessie Durant, along with Kris Reyes and Charles Canfield, for their assistance. They love the history of the waterfront as much as I do, albeit it from a slightly different perspective from the beach. I especially want to thank Darlene Stagnaro Dyer for providing me with family photographs. Nina Simon and Marla Novo of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History have also been helpful and supportivein this book and in a variety of historic and artistic endeavors.

My title manager, Jeff Ruetsche, has been an absolute jewel to work with again in helping to guide what is now a second Arcadia project through to the finish line. Friends and local historians Sandy Lydon, Stan Stevens, Frank Perry, Dan Model, Rex Walker, George Ow, Barry Brown, and Kim Stoner have always been there when I needed an assist. The late Harold Van Gorder gifted me several of the photographs in this collection. To all those others who have lent a hand along the way, my heartfelt thanks.

This book is dedicated to Siri, Tess, and Dylan, and to my late mother, Yolanda Lindy Stagnaro Dunn.

Yolanda Lindy Stagnaro Dunn (19152014), the mother of the author, is dressed in a horse-riding outfit on the Santa Cruz Wharf in the 1930s with a large California sea bass. Lindy worked on the Pleasure Pier, serving as a ticket taker and hostess for her familys speedboat rides, but never worked in the family fish businesses. She did, however, work as a hostess at Malios restaurant in the 1960s and 1970s. (Authors collection.)