Bull and Bear Fights

Bull and Bear Fights. . This is the location of one of the last known bull and bear rings in California, where the animals were placed in a wooden stockade and local settlers would bet on the outcome of their fight., Bull and Bear fights were brought to Santa Cruz by the settlers of Villa de Branciforte, established here in 1797 by the Spanish government of Mexico. Villa de Branciforte, centered on Branciforte Avenue in East Santa Cruz, was the last secular settlement in Alta California, as residents of the pueblo were not bound by a Catholic Mission. , Many festivities of the early Californios revolved around contests between animals. Branciforte Avenue doubled as a horse-racing track where vaqueros tested their horses' speed on a course measuring more than a mile long., Bull and Bear baiting at this site continued until July 13, 1867. The practice was eventually outlawed, but the history lives on in the Wall Street terminology of bull or bear markets.