By Ross Eric Gibson

At statehood, California was not a part of the East Coast circus circuits. Yet the first circus west of the Mississippi was Joseph A. Rowe’s Olympic Circus, run by a renowned equestrian. He arrived in San Francisco from Panama Oct. 12, 1849 and put on a circus Oct. 29, 1849. We don’t know how early he may have visited Santa Cruz, having little coverage until the Sentinel arrived in 1856. But California had no railroad circuses in those days, as it was not until 1856 that the state’s first railroad was built out in the Sacramento Valley. So circuses moved in caravans, carting gear and animals, but not bringing the larger animals.

The first circus heading to Santa Cruz from San Jose needed to use a Santa Cruz Mountains toll road. The toll taker usually charged by the head of people, horses, oxen or cattle, but per-head of circus animals and beasts in cages seemed too steep a price, so the circus turned back, leaving Santa Cruzans sore at missing a circus.

The first traveling show we know of that reached Santa Cruz, was the Lee and Marshall Circus from Stockton in 1856. This caravan show had equestrians, clowns and a “California Menagerie” of native wild animals. Locals who’d survived a grizzly bear encounter had no desire to see another live grizzly, even in a cage. Yet it wasn’t the viciousness of these animals that drew attention.

In the side show was a mountain man named Grizzly Adams, who always dressed in fringed buckskin, moccasins and a fur hat. Yet his freakishness was taming grizzly bears with kindness, to perform playful acts. He collected the various animals on display with the help of his Indigenous companions. The full collection included grizzlies, black bears and cinnamon bears, wolf, coyote, mountain lion, bobcat, lynx, tule elk and bighorn sheep. But most remained at Adams’ just-opened Mountaineer Museum in San Francisco, which quickly moved to larger quarters due to public demand. It was the first zoo in the state, called a menagerie, 50 years before California’s first zoo opened in Sequoia Park in 1907. The side show was a good place for Adams, because it was the stories he told about his adventures and love of animals that did not translate into an action-packed big top act. For this show, he introduced his animals, told stories about them and accepted questions from the audience.

Adams’ history

John Adams was born in Massachusetts 1812 to a family related to two presidents and the revolutionary Samuel Adams. John became an apprenticed shoemaker at age 14 but also had a talent caring for animals. In 1833 the 21-year-old got a job training animals for the circus and zoological institutions, with collecting expeditions to Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. He acquired a small troupe of exotic animals to train. Then his Bengal tiger seriously mauled him, leaving Adams bedridden during a year’s recovery, which returned him to the cobbler’s bench.

In 1849 when the California Gold Rush was heralded, Adams invested his life savings to sell shoes to the ’49ers but lost his entire inventory in a tragic dock fire, causing his father’s suicide. Adams sought to recoup his losses in the California gold fields, and if that failed, he could at least capture the exotic wildlife in the pristine wilderness. He tried mining and supplying wild game to miners. He made enough money to buy a ranch 13 miles south of Stockton. Then he went broke in 1852 and sold his ranch to Henry C. Lee and John R. Marshall, owners of the newly established Lee and Marshall Circus. Their ranch manager David Howard promised to care for Adams’ menagerie, and Adams departed on an expedition to find more animals.

Adams went into the Sierra for the winter, made friends with the Miwok, who helped him build a cabin. And like a good cobbler and leatherworker, Adams fashioned buckskin clothing and moccasins to wear. He hired Indigenous men to help find and capture animals alive, a new kind of “hunting” called “collecting.” Adams rescued a 1-year-old grizzly he named Lady Washington, whom he slowly tamed. She would follow him without urging, then she began to carry a pack, then pull a loaded sled. They instinctively cuddled in the cold, and eventually the bear allowed Adams to ride on her back. He adopted two orphaned Yosemite grizzly cubs, naming one Ben Franklin. Adult grizzlies typically measure 3 to 9 feet, and weight 300-700 pounds, sometimes 1,000 pounds. In 1854, Adams captured the largest California grizzly known, weighing 1,510 pounds, and named him Sampson. Charles Nahl painted his portrait, an image that would later end up on the California state flag of 1912.

In 1855, Adams was savagely attacked by a wild grizzly, dislodging his scalp, twisting his neck, and biting a hole in his skull. He would have died, except his bear Ben came to Adam’s rescue, fighting off the grizzly, at cost of serious injuries. Lady Washington had an encounter with a bear in heat and gave birth to a cub in 1856. Adams named the cub General Fremont, after the man who organized the state Republican Party and was running for president as an abolitionist.

Returning from a collecting safari, Adams traveled up what’s now the Highway 101. At San Miguel, people showed such interest in his cargo that Grizzly Adams put on impromptu shows of bears and other animals, narrating their history and habits. This drew such crowds, Adams realized he had a great attraction. And he repeated these unscripted shows all the way home, performing in Santa Clara, San Jose and finally San Francisco.

Adams returned to Santa Cruz in 1857, this time as part of the West’s first circus, Joseph Andrew Rowe’s Pioneer Circus, which had bought out the Lee and Marshall Circus. His menagerie was now the Pacific Museum in San Francisco, predating by 50 years the first California zoo (Sequoia Park in 1907). Rowe’s Pioneer Circus went broke in its 1857 season. So in January 1860, Adams loaded much of his menagerie in a ship, taking this Noah’s Ark around Cape Horn. But during the three-month journey, one of his bears reopened his 1855 head wound.

Adams reached New York City in April, paraded 60 of his animals down Broadway, and was granted a contract by P.T. Barnum himself. His mountain man appeal was quite popular with audiences. But between shows he needed a nurse to help him, for his old wound had become infected, and by autumn, he couldn’t perform at all. His wife urged him to return to Boston, where he would be surrounded by family. Adams celebrated his 48th birthday, then died three days later on Oct. 25, 1860. Lincoln was elected two weeks after, and Barnum paid for Adams’ funeral and tombstone.

War circuses

The Dan Rice Circus arrived in Santa Cruz May 18, 1860, a clown and pony act combined with Sands & Nathan’s Elephant Exhibition. These were probably the first elephants seen in Santa Cruz since the Ice Age, as caravan circuses seldom brought their larger animals over bad roads. Dan Rice originated a stars and stripes costume, that signified Rice’s adult-oriented comedy, commenting on the politics of the times. The ringmaster played the authority figure, or straight man, who at times sparred with naive Dan’s character, even whipping him like a bad employee.

As a Peace Democrat, Dan Rice opposed Lincoln and the Abolitionists, but equally denounced the Secessionists, becoming the only circus that traveled through North and South safely during the Civil War, waving the American flag. He promoted himself as “Dan Rice’s Great Show,” which inspired P.T. Barnum to dub his own circus “The Greatest Show on Earth!” Some believe cartoonist Thomas Nast, who appeared at the Santa Cruz Opera House in 1888, loosely based his hayseed character “Uncle Sam” on the costume of Dan Rice in an 1869 cartoon.

After the Civil War commenced April 12, 1861, Bassett called his show the United States Circus (for unity), visiting Santa Cruz May 14, then returning Aug. 21, now combined with Bartholomew’s Circus. They featured the famous tightrope walker “Blondin,” who crossed Niagara Falls by rope. Two other circuses came in 1864 during the war.

With the coming of the railroad, Santa Cruz started having spectacular shows, such as the Montgomery Queen Circus in 1874. They were the first in Santa Cruz adapting an exotic fantasyland look. Their shows were top notch, and they were quite inventive describing their menagerie. They had a hoggapotamus (large hippo), a ruffled Mouflon (Caspian ram), a camelopardalis (camel-leopard or giraffe), a Persian Tiger-Horse (a breed used in tiger hunts), etc. The meritorious music was from Emidy’s Trans-Continental Band. Cornetist/conductor Joseph A. Emidy was the first to arrange music for the individual circus acts.

From their circus grounds just off Pacific Avenue, a 21-year-old cornetist in Emidy’s band fell in love with Santa Cruz, its scenery and its friendly people. This was George Hastings, who directing one of the band’s units. Hastings returned to Santa Cruz with Montgomery Queen Circus May Day 1875, and May Day 1876, when the circus did their National Centennial Tour. The street parade had a number of patriotic wagons and tableau floats. Hastings returned to Bloomington, Illinois, to marry his sweetheart, then came back to Santa Cruz in 1883. He opened a music store which sold and repaired jewelry, clocks and instruments. He became organist for the Congregational Church, but few bought his store’s music supplies, because no one played an instrument.

To remedy this problem, Hastings started the Hastings Band. At first, they wore cast-off Civil War uniforms. The band started giving public concerts, and the assistant band leader, Lou Williams, conducted the pit orchestra at the Unique Vaudeville theater. Hastings’ brother Scott and William’s son Rinaldo were big league baseball players. The band performed at the boardwalk, ball games, parades and shows. Hastings founded a 50-piece orchestra, plus a Brownie Orchestra for child musicians. For some, the circus never left Santa Cruz, with its spirit of discover, natural wonder, music and play!