Purchase “A Bobcat’s Tail”
A fanciful children’s book imagines how Jerry Harwin, a young bobcat, and local kids helped create Elings Park.
A Bobcat's Tail
Sales benefit our community’s 230-acre nonprofit park.
Purchase “A Bobcat’s Tail”
A fanciful children’s book imagines how Jerry Harwin, a young bobcat, and local kids helped create Elings Park.
Sales benefit our community’s 230-acre nonprofit park.
“A Bobcat’s Tail”
Children’s Book Released on Elings Park’s 40th Anniversary
A new children’s book reimagines the inspiration for Santa Barbara community efforts to turn their town dump into a public park.
Based on the real-life Jerry Harwin, who in the 1960s began to lead efforts to create what is now Santa Barbara’s 230-acre Elings Park, now enjoyed by more than 200,000 visitors annually.
The book is published by and benefits Elings Park, and is released on November 18, 2025, the 40th anniversary of its opening.
Story by Bruce Giffin and Dean Noble
Illustrated by Laura-Susan Thomas
18 pages, 8” x 10” hardback, full color
Picture book, suitable for ages 4 and above; self-readers in grades 1 to 3
How to Buy the Book
$19.95
Sold at:
Chaucer’s Bookstore in Santa Barbara
Tecolote Book Shop in Montecito
Elings Park Administration Office (credit cards only)
Photo: Las Positas Canyon before Elings Park was created. In the lower left, Las Positas Tennis Courts, opened in 1972 by City Parks and Recreation.
“Jerry Harwin may not have found a sick bobcat, but he certainly inspired the Santa Barbara community. Bobcats are among the many animals that still live here, and the park now has softball and soccer fields, tennis, BMX, summer camps, weddings, and much more, just as the founders intended.”
Dean Noble, co-author and executive director of Elings Park
Highlights from the Book
Real-life Jerry Harwin loved to hike in Las Positas Canyon, and enjoyed seeing the animals that called it home. Most of it was undeveloped, but part of the canyon contained the City Dump.
Jerry learns that taking care of a bobcat isn’t easy. Caring for the sick wild animal inspires him to start a community effort to transform the City Dump into a public park.
The fanciful tale follows Jerry and local children as they rally to get park plans approved. They meet with the mayor (real), and “Puff,” the bobcat, plays a hilarious role (fiction).
It took a long time, but “A Bobcat’s Tail” has a happy ending and shows humans and animals playing and living side-by-side in Elings Park, just as Jerry had envisioned.
Illustrations of any other animals are scattered throughout the book, and its endpapers feature a few of the animals and plants that live in Elings Park.
About the Creative Team
Co-author Bruce Giffin is the co-founder of Giffin & Crane and a longtime Elings Park supporter. He is chair of the EPIC! Capital Campaign Committee, which has raised $11 million for improvements since 2020. Other committee members also contributed ideas for the book.
Co-author Dean Noble became Elings Park’s executive director in 2019. He has overseen EPIC projects, including $3 million Tennis Center renovation, softball and soccer field bathroom upgrades, trail improvements, a new park entry, planting native trees and plants, and more.
Illustrator Laura-Susan Thomas spent 11 years as a Disney Imagineer working on designs for theme parks. She has published books and created illustrations for the LA Times and other publications. An Orcutt resident, she is a professor of fine arts at Allan Hancock College.
The “Real” Jerry Harwin
Jerry Harwin’s family moved to Los Angeles when he was 12 years old. After attending USC, he worked in the family’s jewelry business and served in the Merchant Marines. In 1944, he moved to Santa Barbara to open Harwin’s Jewelry, a community mainstay for 63 years.
He co-founded the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table, was active in the Lions Club and Elks, was named an honorary alumnus for his support of UCSB athletics, and was a key figure in bringing the Santa Barbara Dodgers minor league baseball team to Santa Barbara.
Jerry did not find a sick bobcat at the City Dump in Las Positas Canyon, but he did lead the community effort to secure the site and build the private nonprofit park. Elings Park’s main road is named Jerry Harwin Parkway in his honor.
Jerry passed away in 2012, just months after his 100th birthday.
Co-author Bruce Giffin Talks about Jerry’s Legacy
Paper From Opening Day
Support the Park
Elings Park is not operated by the city or county. We depend on user fees and public donations to maintain and improve the park. You can help.
