RECOGNITION Jeff Helmer has turned the Byrne-Milliron Forest on the outskirts of Corralitos into one of the area’s strangest and most interesting parks. (Photo by Chip Scheuer)
The Santa Cruz Mountains have their fair share of offbeat destinations—the Mystery Spot and the Bigfoot Museum, for example. One of the lesser known, and equally intriguing spots, is the Byrne-Milliron Forest, which is nestled in the outskirts of Corralitos.
It is, at first glance, a hiking destination like any other. But after a short hike, it’s clear that it’s so much more—a unique melding of park and an art museum. There are works of art—big and small—scattered throughout the trails. At several spots, visitors can sit down and read poems or one of the guest books, where visitors leave whatever random thoughts they feel like writing. At the two vistas, there are an assortment of thrift store tables, grade-school desks and hand-carved chairs, instead of standard park benches.
The park isn’t federally owned, or run by the state. Rather, it’s owned privately by the local non-profit organization, the Land Trust of Santa Clara County—one more example of what has put them at the forefront of a revolutionary model for land conservation.
Meet the Curator
What truly makes the park unique, though, is Jeff Helmer, who was appointed almost 30 years ago to be the park’s sole caretaker.
“I’ve always tried to get away from the norm. If you’re supposed to be a certain way, I would always want to be just the opposite. I’m just real artsy. Fortunately, the Land Trust is OK with that,” Helmer says.
One of his more unusual ideas was to put a great big Victorian door right in the middle of the trail, situated so that people would turn the corner and see it suddenly, with little notice.
“It just made for a nice surprise. People are ready for a hike in the woods and here is this door. What’s this? Most people appreciated it,” Helmer says.
Though the door isn’t there anymore, there are still plenty of creative art pieces integrated throughout the park. Some of them are so subtle and carefully concealed that they are missed by a good number of visitors— like for instance a carved eagle that sits on a tree, or some small art pieces hidden inside fallen trees.
Building a Shrine
One of the most impressive displays is the Cathedral, which is one of the spots with poems and a guestbook to read. Right next to the bench is a display Helmer calls “the shrine,” which is a raised dirt bed with an assortment of art and memorabilia.
“It started off when I found a dead coyote in the water and just laid the carcass up there,” he says.
Helmer continued to leave small meaningful objects in that spot. Through the years, visitors joined in and left many different objects, including old photographs of loved ones, which in some cases Helmer has laminated to help preserve them.
The park was purchased by the Land Trust of Santa Cruz in 1984. Helmer was one of about 100 people who applied for the position as land steward, and the decision to add art was his. Within a few years, he had added three wooden carvings of bears at the beginning of one of the trails. He was thinking about his son, who was in kindergarten at the time. He’d bring the whole class up there for field trips.
“I wanted it to be like a fairy tale for them,” Helmer says.
Before stewarding the Byrne-Milliron Wilderness, Helmer did a little bit of everything. He believes he found his calling here, and plans to steward this property as long as he can.
“I was blessed to get this job. I could care less about money. I had a very dysfunctional family—we had money. I figured there’s got to be something else to life besides money,” Helmer says. “I may have gone a little too far in the other direction. But that’s okay. I got exactly what I needed spiritually, and that was this mountain here.”
