Tag Archives: Mount Charlie

The Legend of Mountain Charlie

The informant tells of the legend of a man named, literally, Mountain Charlie, in the 1850s. The man, a hunter in Santa Cruz, California, suffered a near-fatal  bear mauling in 1854 that disfigured the man. According to the informant (although there are variations of the details), Mount Charlie temporarily repaired his wounds as he lay stranded on the mountain by applying to them pesos which he had melted with an impromptu campfire. The informant uses acute details, such as “he got a five-by-three inch chunk of his face ripped off”. Additionally, the informant says there are many stories online about Mount Charlie, and that Mount Charlie has since been used as an explosions-testing site in the United States during World War II, as there is a weapons and ammunition factory up in the mountain that the informant has seen firsthand.


Although the details of Mount Charlie’s claim to fame are disputed, he remains an urban legend of Santa Cruz. The mountain at which he was attacked has since been named “Mount Charlie”, and a nearby road “Mount Charlie Road”.