Residents living in the Bonnie Brier community have lost their main access point since the part of the road leading to the bridge washed out in February 2025. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

BOULDER CREEK >> The tiny, tight-knit community of Bonnie Brier is tucked away in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Founded in 1905, today there are about 30 homes with some families that have lived there for  generations. 

The Boulder Creek neighborhood is isolated and tranquil, surrounded by trees and set back from the roads. Bear Creek flows through the neighborhood.

Like other isolated, mountain neighborhoods in the county —  in Bonny Doon, San Lorenzo Valley and the Soquel hills — Bonnie Brier is accessible only by privately owned roads and bridges. 

In February 2025, one of two ways in and out of the neighborhood failed after a rainstorm washed away part of the road. Lanktree Lane crumbled on one side of a 100-year-old bridge, cutting off some emergency services from 21 households. The only other access is across a bridge too small for full-size ambulances or firetrucks. 

A year later, the road has not been repaired and residents are racing to track down the original owner that constructed the bridge and may still be responsible for its maintenance. 

Bonnie Brier residents have invested in maintaining the bridge over the years, but the cost to repair the failed road is more than they can afford as many are low-income and seniors. The estimated cost is up to $1.5 million, according to Kathy Tracy.

Residents have turned to the county for help to repair it, but the road is privately owned despite being publicly accessible, and the county said it’s not their responsibility. 

“It’s been that way since [the roads] were created in the early 1900s and they’ve never been a part of our system,” said Matt Machado, director of the county’s community development and infrastructure department. “We don’t have any ownership.”

Their only alternative is the private Monte Vista bridge, which runs through a nearby neighborhood but has a six ton weight limit. Most ambulances weigh that much or more. 

The Boulder Creek Fire Protection District has some vehicles with basic medical supplies that can cross the Monte Vista bridge, including SUVs, pick-up trucks, and a Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV). These are likely the vehicles to be used in the case of an emergency where the department will have to cross Monte Vista bridge but no major firefighting equipment would be able to access those residents.

“A year ago, on about the fourth of February, I was the last person to drive over the road and the bridge, and then the whole road collapsed, the abutments went backwards,” said Kathy Tracy, a retired special education teacher who moved to Bonnie Brier 32 years ago. 

With the safety of their community at risk, Tracy and other residents formed an executive committee within the Bonnie Brier Improvement Association, which she said has been around since the 1950s. The five-person committee has spent nearly a year researching the history of the area and believe the bridge was originally owned by a family. 

Tracy’s husband, Terry, has amassed hundreds of pages of historical documentation on Bonnie Brier. They are also working with an attorney to track down the family lineage and discover who is responsible for it today.

Until ownership is determined, the bridge will likely remain unusable, with parts of the fallen concrete road still littered at the creek’s edge.

From left, Terry and Kathy Tracy and Roberta McPherson pose for a portrait at Bonnie Brier bridge in Boulder Creek. They each have a role in the Bonnie Brier Improvement Association. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

History of Bonnie Brier 

J.C. McMullen founded the Bonnie Brier subdivision in the early 1900s, according to an article from the Santa Cruz Mountain Echo published in 1916. The earliest bridge on a map was recorded in 1905, when Bonnie Brier received its name and seal. It was in 1916 that the bridge was officially acknowledged by the County as a public highway, because technically half of the bridge is on Brier Drive. 

McMullen, who was President of the Oakland State Savings Bank, developed Bonnie Brier. Bonnie Brier is made up of three subdivisions. From Tracy’s research on the area, she said Bonnie Brier’s main bridge was originally a wagon bridge before it was recognized as an official bridge.

When trying to attract visitors to the area, McMullen advertised Bonnie Brier in local papers as a summer getaway for people working in Oakland and San Francisco. 

At the time, Bonnie Brier was for people who “love the restful woodland county, but who shrink from the supposed horrors of ‘roughing it,’” according to The Santa Cruz Mountain Echo article. The article stated 20 plots of land had been sold to “some of the best people in Oakland and vicinity, all of whom have bought with the intention of building villa homes.”

Roberta McPherson, 79, is the current Treasurer of the improvement association. When McPherson moved to Bonnie Brier with her husband in 1967, she remembers paying $10 dues to the association. As a young couple, they were drawn to the area because they wanted to live somewhere where their Alaskan Malamute would have enough space. 

“Back then, most of the houses were vacation homes, and they were empty most of the year. There weren’t fences around all the yards, and the dogs went from one neighbor to the other,” McPherson said. “We would have dogs come visit us, and our dog would go and visit our neighbors.” 

Some of her favorite memories include spending time with her husband in nature and raising their daughter together. There were a lot of kids growing up alongside each other at that time, she said. 

“The thing that is the most special is the neighbors. I have wonderful neighbors, and I really enjoy being a part of this neighborhood,” McPherson said.

McPherson’s husband, Fred, passed away seven years ago. She now lives alone in the house they bought together. Before his death, the pair would often spend time in nature photographing native plants and wildlife. 

Not having access to the Bonnie Brier Bridge hasn’t scared McPherson off, and she chooses to stay like many of her neighbors. She’s dealt with many hardships during her time in the neighborhood. In the 1970s, there was a snowstorm that was heavier than usual. Then in the 1980s there were the mudslides and the ‘89 earthquake. And in 2019 after her husband’s death, she dealt with the CZU fires.

Now, the community is faced with the impacts of their damaged bridge. She said it could be something that tears a community apart — but not this one.

“We have a really good neighborhood, good neighbors, and we have a real desire to take care of each other,” McPherson said. 

The fallen bridge

The bridge connects Lanktree Lane with Brier Drive, with most of the 65 residents on the side of the bridge that is no longer accessible. Brier Drive was shown as a public highway on original maps and land deeds from 1905. On the Lanktree side is where part of the asphalt road washed out and fell into Bear Creek, which flows beneath the bridge. 

Prior to the bridge collapsing, the bridge had been through decades of slow erosion, compounded by annual rainstorms. Still, the redwood deck that wagons and eventually cars would cross is still intact. Green moss can be seen growing out of the cracks. There are still chunks of asphalt and other debris in the creek leftover from when it collapsed last year.

Chunks of asphalt and other debris lay in Bear Creek on Feb. 10. Bonnie Brier residents jumped into action the moment the bridge was damaged by a buildup of rain water from previous storms. “We call ourselves the Bonnie Brier Improvement Association. It’s all voluntary. We go out and clean the roads and maintain the roads. We’ve done all of that for years and years and years, as long as I know and longer. But bridge collapsed, we don’t have the money for that,” said Kathy Tracy, resident and member of the association. 

Boulder Creek Fire Protection District Chief Mark Bingham said he was aware of the situation from the moment the bridge failed, and sent an emergency response team to the scene. His priority was to alert everyone in the area that the bridge was no longer an accessible exit.

Bingham, who’s worked for Boulder Creek Fire Protection District since 1998 and has been chief since 2020, said the district works tirelessly to keep isolated communities like Bonnie Brier safe. Boulder Creek has many hard-to-reach communities, he said, and the district has recently invested in smaller, four-wheel drive vehicles instead of traditionally large fire engines to navigate the rough terrain — and potentially small bridges.

“We’re constantly looking at what the right model is for our firefighting apparatus,” Bingham said.

Chief Mark Bingham at the Boulder Creek Fire District station on Mar. 11. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

The Bonnie Brier advocates 

Kathy Tracy is a woman who cares a lot. She is passionate about where she lives, and this passion has propelled her into leading the effort to protect Bonnie Brier. One example of her dedication to the community is her application to Firewise USA. 

Firewise is a voluntary national program under the National Fire Protection Association, and Tracy felt that being part of it would help to make Bonnie Brier residents safer as they wait for a new bridge. Becoming a Firewise community helps neighbors organize to mitigate wildfire risk and make homes safer, in an effort to also bring down the cost of insurance.  

Her house, which she lives in with her husband, Terry, is surrounded by about 50 redwood trees on their property, she said. A tall staircase leads to her front door and upon entering, where visitors are met with beautiful works of art and spilling light filling up the living room through the many windows.

Kathy and Terry are proud of the home they’ve built up together. Now in their 60’s, they have been through a lot while living in Bonnie Brier. From repairing their roof, to creating an enclosure for their rescued pet parrot, they’ve taken on many projects. They also enjoy the simple enjoyment that comes from walking their dog together. 

But beyond their home projects, the Tracy’s are also leading the way on the bridge repair effort. Both Kathy and Terry have their roles in the Bonnie Brier Improvement Association. Kathy is secretary and Terry is president. The association, including McPherson and others, has worked nonstop on solutions since the bridge was lost. They’ve held monthly association meetings, met with different government agencies and worked on grant applications, and now are waiting for the lawyer to track down the potential owner.

The resounding fear Kathy hears from neighbors is the financial toll self-investing in the bridge repairs will have if they can’t secure funding elsewhere. But she said they also fear not having easy access to emergency services and relying on one way out – leaving the community in a bind. 

“People are saying they’re going to have to take out second mortgages. They’re going to have to take from their retirement funds in order to help pay for this, which our community, for the most part, is going to try to do their best because we all know we need fire service,” Kathy said. “We need ambulance services here, but it’s going to take a big hit, and we might lose a lot of residents once that bridge is fixed.”

Lanktree Lane, which connects to Bonnie Brier’s bridge, is still washed out in Boulder Creek on Feb. 27, 2026. The Bonnie Brier neighborhood is made up of three subdivisions and spans across Bear Creek.

Bonnie Brier neighborhood in Boulder Creek on Feb. 10. The bridge connects Lanktree Lane with Brier Drive, with most of the 65 residents on the side of the bridge that is no longer accessible.

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