The Koi Pond
The Koi Pond: A Fish Story
Lisa Gerencher and Yesenia Robles
(Editor’s Note: I first discovered the Buddha Pool (as it was called then) in the early 1990’s, thanks to a running friend who showed me its location during a run along Spring Trial in Pogonip. I had been running in Pogonip for years oblivious to its existence. It was one of those warm summer days in Santa Cruz. After admiring the strangeness of what appeared to be maybe six goldfish in the spring box, I remember cupping my hands to scoop the cool water from the pool and pouring it over my neck. A wide wooden swing hung by sturdy rope nearby and I tried a few swings over the stream. The stone Buddha that had given the pool its name was gone by then, but ferns, calla lilies and wild irises flourished by the stream in this wonderful microclimate. At a recent visit to the Koi Pond, I found a family of three, with a black Labrador, admiring the fish. The dog was wet from having plunged into the pool. I told them what I knew of the fish story and guessed there were three-dozen fish and at least two large koi swimming in the pool. The family’s delight at finding the fish in this unlikely spot gave me hope that others would experience this odd wonder for many years to come. Since this visit, I returned to discover the small Buddha I’d left in the crook of a redwood tree to meditate over the pool was gone but the laughing Buddha remained smiling at the corner of the pool.)
If you came back to the UC Santa Cruz campus five years from now, where would you visit? Many might say Santa Cruz City’s Pogonip Park, a former country club, especially the cement pond located within it. This 6’ by 6’ concrete box collects fresh spring water, and it is home to three large koi and over two-dozen goldfish. Some know it as the Buddha Pool, the koi pond, or more formally, Spring Box. Located inside the 614-acre park, spring boxes, or cement watering holes, collect fresh spring water in a couple of different locations. These spring boxes are almost as mysterious as the origin of the fish living within them. Hiking this incredibly beautiful park, opportunities and surprises lay just a trail away. Although there is no sign that leads to the Koi fish and goldfish, it is one of those places that hikers and runners have discovered over the years. The exact location of this spring box and the fish living there will not be disclosed in hopes to keep this magic place from being removed. The Koi fish living in Pogonip reside in a beautiful place, truly a surprise-hidden treasure that anyone can find and be refreshed.
[image: A few of the some three dozen fish in the Buddha Pool.]
The system of spring boxes might go further back to the era of Cowell ranch. In the mid-1860’s, Henry Cowell’s land holdings expanded to 10,000 acres in Santa Cruz, which now are part of the University campus and Pogonip Park. The land was used for timber, cattle ranch, and the manufacture of lime using limekilns (whose ruins are still present in the park). As yet, there has not been a comprehensive historical study that maps out the spring’s system. In the late 1800’s of Pogonip, there were portable water uses and irrigation that could have served the grazing livestock and possibly oxen that supplied transportation on old kiln and logging roads.
According to Susan Harris, a planner for the city of Santa Cruz parks and recreation, “Historically, the system of spring boxes has been used to collect spring water in order to serve a residence on the property and the Pogonip clubhouse.” However, just who constructed the particular spring box where the Koi live is still unknown. Neither research nor speaking with an advisor for the master plan of Pogonip revealed the builder’s identity. We do know that the water source in Pogonip for the above uses was fresh spring water. Thus the whole system that includes spring boxes and old pipes served as an aqueduct to deliver spring water to the main meadow area, where the historic Pogonip clubhouse is still located, though now boarded up. Although there are not designated paths to each, all the boxes were located close to a trail. This includes another spring box along “Spring Trail” and the “Spring Box Trail,” where the Koi and goldfish can be found. Since Spring Box Trail has been rerouted, it is not located in the same place as illustrated on the official trail map. Inconspicuous beneath one of only four first-growth redwoods in Pogonip, the spring box and the fish are hidden treasures, but with a little searching anyone can find them.
For at least the past ten years, goldfish and Koi have been living in the spring box. In the past, the city has removed the fish, yet they keep coming back. As Harris explains, “The city prefers to keep the spring box in its native state. Therefore, we do not promote the “Koi Pond”; we discourage it and have removed them in the past. Yet people keep putting them back. We actually downplay it. If too much attention is called to it we are going to get asked to remove them again since this is not their native habitat.”
The “Koi pond” is not actually located on a designated trail; however, a simple trail leads to the stream that flows into it. There is no sign that says “Koi pond”; rather it has been one of those places that people have discovered over the years, just like many of the unnatural sites on the upper campus. As for the fish, we don’t know who first put them in the pool; perhaps it’s the same person who keeps putting them back. One theory is that a UCSC student donated his goldfish to the spring box before leaving for the summer. Whatever their origin, since some visitors have reportedly removed the fish themselves, it is important to reveal the pool’s location only to fish friends.
Despite concerns about the fate of the fish, we do not want to discourage anyone from visiting the site. Pogonip, the spring box, and the Koi fish are genuine treasures; moreover, it is a wonderful place to hike and escape to, a refuge from school, and only a few minutes walk from campus. As one former student explains, “Walking through Pogonip you get a sense of how beautiful this place is. With its green and golden meadows, steep wooded hillside, quiet, and magnificent Oaks and Redwoods.”
The hike to the spring box is like retreat into a bit of wilderness and seeing the Koi is an added bonus. The Koi and goldfish living in the spring box at first comes as a surprise, quiet and lovely; it is a place where anyone can go to be alone or with special friends. The hike through Pogonip is an opportunity to find inner peace and tranquility. Everyday worries become irrelevant as you can step back to relax and admire the Koi. “Revealing the location of this secret, magic place,” Harris suggests, “may lead to the removal of the fish and putting a fence around it, so no one can go there again.” That is why it is important to be careful. We need to treasure this simple gift of fish in the spring box in order to nurture the intimate relationship between humans and the natural environment.
