Santa Cruz County California

Santa Cruz County. Organized in 1850. Bounded north by San Mateo, northeast by Santa Clara, south by Monterey and the Bay of Monterey, and southwest by the Pacific Ocean. Area, 432 square miles. Assessed valuation of property for 1874, $7,250,650. County seat, Santa Cruz. Principal towns, Corrallitos, Felton, Sequel and Watsonville. The wealth of the small area indicates great natural resources. These are agriculture, including fruit-growing and manufactures. The county is quite mountainous. The Santa Cruz range rises in the southern portion and running northwest forms the peninsula of San Francisco, its summit being the dividing line between it and Santa Clara, and its base, generally reaching to the sea, sometimes in gentle slopes, in table lands or precipitous points, with lovely valleys included. Majestic forests of redwood, some trees approaching in grandeur of proportions their congener of Calaveras and Mariposa, crown the summit and grace the western flank of the mountains. In the valley of the San Lorenzo, north of the town of Santa Cruz, is a grove of these mammoth trees, some of which are fifty feet in circumference, and are great curiosities to visitors. This county is one of the first in the State in the importance of its manufactures, which includes leather, glue, soap, powder, fuse, and beet sugar, and the manufacture of lumber and wooden ware from its abundant and noble forests. The redwood furnishes lumber, the oak supplies the bark for the tanneries, the laurel and madroflas are used by the cabinet maker, and the hazel and willow are turned into charcoal for the powder works. The beet sugar establishment that for several years operated at Alvarado, in Alameda County, was, in 1874, transferred to Soquel, in Santa Cruz County, where land and fuel were cheaper. The quality of the land for producing beets and the success of the experiment have not yet transpired. The principal portion of the lime used in Sau Francisco comes from the quarries and kilns of Santa Cruz. A fine quality of limestone is obtained in the Cañada del Rincon, two miles northwest of the port, and every demand of the market supplied. The climate of this section is equable and salubrious, the fierce winds that prevail further north not being felt here to such an extent as to render them unpleasant. Being adjacent to the coast, the fogs and dews of the ocean keep the soil fresh, and a spring-like verdure covers the ground throughout the year. A narrow-gauge railroad, from Santa Cruz to Watsonville, is in course of construction, which will, with the Southern Pacific, open direct communication by rail with San Francisco.
Officers: F. J. McCann, County Judge; H. E. Makinney, Clerk, Recorder, and Auditor; A. Craig, District Attorney; R. Orten, Sheriff and Tax Collector; A. R. Meserve, Treasurer; C. R. Hoff, Assessor; Peter McPherson, Surveyor; F. E. J. Canney, Coroner and Public Administrator; W. H. Hobbs, Superintendent Public Schools.

California Gazetteer | AHGP California

Source: Pacific Coast Business Directory for 1876-78, Compiled by Henry G. Langley, San Francisco, 1875