Bracken Brae and silent films

In the early 1900’s, Boulder Creek was the set of a number of silent films.  George Middleton Jr, whose uncle was a timber baron in Boulder Creek, was married to Beatriz Michelina, an actress and singer in the silent film era.  Together they owned the California Motion Picture Company. 

The Middleton family owned a lot of property in Boulder Creek including a section of West Park and 320 acres directly to the north and east of Bracken Brae.  They built a sizable set of a rustic town on West Park and used it extensively as one of the locations in their films.

While watching the 1915 silent film Salomy Jane, I was surprised when I found a scene which was filmed in the same location as two old postcards of Bracken Brae.  In addition, I believe it confirms my theory that the log in the picture was some sort of foot bridge across the creek.

The footbridge was located somewhere in the “Boulder Creek Gorge”.  The gorge runs from the western most border of Bracken Brae all the way to the Golf Course and is characterized as having solid granite walls 20 or more feet high, straight up.  The only way in is to ‘rock hop’ up the creek or repel down the walls.