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ement since 1791
The present-day site of Santa Cruz was the location of Spanish settlement beginning in 1791, including Mission Santa Cruz and the pueblo of Branciforte. Following the Mexican–American War of 1846–48, California became the
31st state in 1850. The City of Santa Cruz
was chartered in 1866. Important early industries included lumber, gunpowder, lime and agriculture. Late in the 19th century, Santa Cruz established itself as a beach resort community.
Prior to the arrival of Spanish soldiers, missionaries and colonists in
the late 18th century, the Santa Cruz area was home to the Ohlone Native Americans. The Ohlone had no written language, and lived in small villages scattered around the Monterey Bay and San Francisco Bay regions. Within fty years of the Spaniards’ arrival, the Ohlone culture and way of life had virtually disappeared in the Santa Cruz area. The only remnants of their spoken language are three local place names: Aptos, Soquel and Zayante.
In 1769 the Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà accidentally arrived in the vicinity. He named the river San Lorenzo for Saint Lawrence and he named a local creek “Arroyo de Santa Cruz” which translates as “Holy Cross Creek”. In 1791, Father Fermín Lasuén declared the establishment of La Misión de la Exaltación de la Santa Cruz (also known as Mission Santa Cruz), the twelfth mission to be founded in California. In the 1820s, newly independent Mexico assumed control of the area. Following the secularization of the Mission in 1834, the community that had grown up around the Mission was renamed Pueblo de Figueroa. The name didn’t catch on, however, and reverted back to Santa Cruz.
By the 1860s, Paci c Avenue had become the main street of downtown Santa Cruz, and remains so today. The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 destroyed nearly all of the 19th-century buildings in the downtown area, including the 1894 Richardsonian Romanesque-style former courthouse, renamed and reopened in the 1970s as the Cooper House. The Cooper House was at the center of the Paci c Garden Mall, and functioned as the heart of the downtown area. After the Loma Prieta earthquake, the Paci c Garden Mall theme was eliminated, and an updated downtown design plan was implemented.
Santa Cruz is best known for the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and
the Coconut Grove ballroom, a popular seaside amusement park
since 1907, seafood restaurants and cafes, and the University of California Santa Cruz: the “Slugs.” Santa Cruz is part of the 11-county San Francisco Bay Area Combined Statistical Area but not within the traditional 9-county de nition of the San Francisco Bay Area, as it is not in a county that touches the San Francisco Bay. Primarily, Santa Cruz is counted as part of the Monterey Bay region.
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