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A Day at the Beach with Santa Cruz Trains

Following a very busy year that saw two inaugural publications in two new series, 2024 is off to a very good start. The success of SIDETRACKED: Laurel & Glenwood made it clear that small-format, photo-heavy books are a great means of providing readers with more depth than is possible in the larger Santa Cruz Trains books while also showcasing a wider range of imagery. Thus, this year I have released SIDETRACKED: The Santa Cruz Beach… Read More »A Day at the Beach with Santa Cruz Trains

SIDETRACKED: The Santa Cruz Beach to 1903 cover

Press Release: SIDETRACKED: The Santa Cruz Beach to 1903

The second SIDETRACKED book by Derek R. Whaley reveals the history of the Santa Cruz Beach before the Boardwalk SANTA CRUZ, CA, May 17, 2024—Exactly 100 years ago, the Giant Dipper on the Santa Cruz Beach opened to an excited public. It was a groundbreaking milestone in a history that stretched 75 years into the past, to a time when California was not even a state. SIDETRACKED: The Santa Cruz Beach to 1903 explores the… Read More »Press Release: SIDETRACKED: The Santa Cruz Beach to 1903

Lowell Bready, Sutton Christian, George Moorad, Ernest Otto, and Laura Rawson in the Sentinel office, 1938
Lowell Bready, Sutton Christian, George Moorad, Ernest Otto, and Laura Rawson in the Sentinel office, 1938.

The Memories of Ernest Otto

There was a time once when the only book I imagined writing or editing was my own fantasy series. Santa Cruz was a place, trains were cool but irrelevant, and history was a fun hobby but nothing more. One by one, those dominos fell. In 2003, I shifted my major from Media Communications to History. In 2011, I began writing blog posts about Santa Cruz County’s railroading history. And in 2019, I embarked upon a… Read More »The Memories of Ernest Otto

Our Old Santa Cruz... Volume 1 cover

Press Release: Our Old Santa Cruz… By Ernest Otto

New book series Our Old Santa Cruz… by Ernest Otto unveils the captivating history of Santa Cruz in the late 1800s SANTA CRUZ, CA, November 15, 2023—Our Old Santa Cruz… is a compelling retrospective book series that gazes into the history of Santa Cruz, California, through the eyes of the late Santa Cruz Sentinel reporter Ernest F. Otto. Each book in this new series paints a vivid picture of the city’s bustling life at the… Read More »Press Release: Our Old Santa Cruz… By Ernest Otto

SIDETRACKED: Laurel & Glenwood cover

Getting Sidetracked with Santa Cruz Trains

Thank you to everyone who came to my talk on March 25 at the Felton Branch Library, “Off Track in Scotts Valley: Exploring the curious absence of railroads in Scotts Valley.” It was definitely one of my stranger talks, considering it was actually about why a railroad wasn’t built there rather than the history of a current or former railroad line. A YouTube version of the talk should be available sometime in late June. Most of… Read More »Getting Sidetracked with Santa Cruz Trains