Santa Cruz History

In the time before the arrival of the Spaniards, over 10,000 Native Americans lived in the coastal areas between San Francisco and Monterey (present-day San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties). Although at the time the population was comprised of a variety of small tribes with distinct languages and cultures, the native people of the area have more recently been considered part of the Ohlone tribe. They were principally hunters and gatherers, living on the abundant game and plants of the California coastal region.

The first European to discover Monterey Bay was the explorer Sebastian Vizcaino in 1602. The first Europeans in Santa Cruz County were explorers with the Portola party trying to reach the Monterey Bay over land. Due to fog and sickness, they did not achieve their goal. They did stay in a Native American village of 300 residents, and then returned the next year to succeed in their goal. They established the Santa Cruz mission, which was charged with the tasks of settling the area and converting the Indians. They had the least successful conversion rate of any of the missions, and ceased receiving funds from Spain in 1811.

When the nation of Mexico was founded in 1822, Alta California became a province of the new country. Mexico closed the Santa Cruz mission in 1834 and gave the land to the Indians and Spanish settlers. Alta California was ceded to the United States in 1848 and thus the American city of Santa Cruz was born. The first non-Spanish settlers started to come into the region in the 1850's. The city of Watsonville was established in 1852.

Of the many colorful early settlers was the legendary Mountain Charley, who reportedly killed "hundreds" of the plentiful bears of the region. Although the early residents of Santa Cruz County were predominently of Spanish and English descent, settlers were from a variety of ethnic groups from Europe and beyond. The 1860 U.S. Census reveals that there were 32 African Americans living in the county.

An ethnic group that flourished in the mid-eighteenth to -nineteenth centuries were Chinese immigrants who came to the "gold mountain" looking for work and a new life. At the peak of the Chinese community in Santa Cruz, there were four Chinatowns. These were centers for business activities both legal and illicit. The Chinese suffered from the discrimination that was growing around the country, however, and from the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese women from entering the country. As local authorities cracked down on the Santa Cruz Chinatowns and fires and natural disasters took their toll, the local community dwindled. By 1952, nearly all of the residences in the Chinatowns had been vacated.

After the first world war, tourism became an important focus in the growth of Santa Cruz. Many majestic hotels and fine summer homes in the City of Santa Cruz became popular destinations, along with more "remote" locations, such as the Bayview Hotel of Aptos, built in 1878 and now the oldest surviving hotel in Santa Cruz County. The Santa Cruz Boardwalk, built in 1904, became a center of tourist activity. Pacific Avenue was so named to guide tourists to the ocean.

Santa Cruz still boasts many attractions from its history. The still-popular Boardwalk runs vintage wooden rollercoasters, and the site of the old Mission has some of the original buildings. Architecture in Santa Cruz runs the range from the Spanish era to the modern, including examples of many architectural styles: Spanish (1700s), Pioneer, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival (mid-1800s), Italianate, Stick, Eastlake, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Shingle (late 1800s), Mission Revival (early 1900s), and California Bungalow (1920s).