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Third Annual
Harvest Festival:
Celebrating Our Agricultural Heritage on October 7
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Join us on Saturday, October 7 from 10am - 3pm for our 3rd annual Harvest Festival. Shop for plants and pumpkins, enjoy a farm tour and live music, or create a farm craft and milk a demonstration cow! Bring the whole family for a day of celebrating the harvest season.
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From my tractor seat:
Our journey from working family farm to historical agricultural park continues
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By Eric Goodrich, Park Manager
Whether you are a regular visitor to Martial Cottle Park or new to our agricultural focused environ, we have many new and exciting things to share with you this issue.
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Master Gardeners:
Community Education Center Summer Update
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By University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Program of Santa Clara County
Progress is occurring everywhere on our parcel and we could not be happier. The Community Education outdoor training facility that was funded by an Open Space Authority Measure Q grant is finished!
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Sunset 4-H Club:
Our ranch is growing!
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By Sunset 4-H Ranch Project Leaders
and Members
The beef cattle and market goats that were raised on the 4-H Ranch this year were brought to the County Fair, where the youth showed them in market classes and participated in showmanship competitions.
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Collections and Archives:
A treasure trove of family artifacts
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By Betty Ward, Park Volunteer
The Martial Cottle Park Visitor Center provides a special place for the public to learn the 150-year history of the Cottle/Lester family’s agricultural life on the land. Displays of their personal items and memorabilia help to tell this story. As objects are catalogued, more material will become available to create future exhibits.
The long journey of preserving each item for future generations has just begun. Park staff spent many months studying museum best practices, piloting methods, and setting up proper protocols.
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Tractor power
on the Cottle Ranch
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By David Zittlow, Park Lead Volunteer
Outside the Visitor Center, you can see an 1887 photograph of the Cottle family posing with their horse-drawn farm implements. Horse power was the most efficient way to work the fields at the time.
Around the world and in California, inventors in the 19th century were searching for a way to make the stationary steam engine movable so that farm work could be mechanized.
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Across the U.S. with “Duke” and “George”
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By Carolyn Schimandle, Parks Program Coordinator
On October 3, 1922, two Cottle family members boarded an eastbound train in San Jose. Monte Cottle (Martial Cottle’s fourth child) and his brother-in-law Sam Cobb were headed to Washington DC to visit Monte’s cousin, Representative Arthur M. Free. They stopped over at other spots along the way, and took a jaunt beyond Washington to New York City and Niagara Falls.
It seems to have been the trip of a lifetime for both of them. When County Parks acquired the Cottle house in 2014, enlargements of trip photos still decorated the dining room, momentos were in every room, and more photos were found in albums and envelopes.
The family also saved at least four letters from Sam to his wife, Leora Cottle Cobb. Journey with them as she did, via photos and excerpts from the letters. Along the way you will get a sense of early 20th century travel, how the big cities looked to a San Jose native back then, and of a close, loving—and sometimes funny—family.
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Find more articles below!
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Agricultural Memories:
My farm story
By William Dreisbach, Park Volunteer
I spent only a short time during my childhood on the farm. I was only seven years old when my dad decided to retire from farming and moved our family into town.
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A missive from the Martial Cottle Park Visitor Center
By Chuck Rose, Park Lead Volunteer
Thanks to our growing park visitation and the dedication of our volunteers, Martial Cottle Park’s Visitor Center opened seven days a week in May 2017 for the first time in park history.
Since then, our volunteers have
- Hosted an average of over 600 guests each month,
- Contributed over 738 volunteer hours as Visitor Center hosts, and
- Provided 34 Martial Cottle Park Experience programs
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Spotlight on Volunteers:
Joyce Chesnos
By Diane Bacon, Park Volunteer
As one of Martial Cottle Park’s first volunteers, Joyce Chesnos is heavily involved in the park’s operations, including volunteering as a Land Steward, Visitor Center Host, and School Program Docent...
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It’s good for what ails you!
By William Dreisbach, Park Volunteer and
Lisa Pappanastos, Park Ranger
As you look around the Cottle estate and the farmland, you can’t help but wonder how physically hard it must have been to maintain it all, plow the fields, bale the hay, care and feed the animals, and nurture all the crops. There must have been a lot of physical aches and pains, accidents, cuts, burns, allergies, headaches, indigestion, and general stress. Sickness and disease would also have been a part of life, as it is today.
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Attend a gardening workshop, learn about the Cottle family and their ranch, or how composting works! Many classes, programs and special events await you.
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There are 5 reservable picnic areas at Martial Cottle Park that are perfect for your next birthday party, family reunion, shower, or team building event, whether you have 30 people coming, or 300.
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Park Hours: 8:00am to sunset
Trail Hours: Sunrise to sunset
Visitor Center Hours: 10:00am – 4:00pm, 7 days a week
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Martial Cottle Park | Santa Clara County Parks
5283 Snell Avenue | San Jose, CA 95136 | Park Office: 408-535-4060
Reservations Office (Monday-Friday): 408-355-2201
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