And as if all this were not enough, Nature has endowed the inland valleys with such soil and climate that agriculture flourishes on a tremendous scale.
Santa Cruz grew from the mission of the same name, founded in 1791, and the settlement of Branciforte, established six years later. It might have been any other community in pastoral California until the Gold Rush, but then the newcomers demanded vegetables, which the Santa Cruz area was able to supply, and lumber, for which the redwood forests in the nearby mountains were raided.
Surf and sea-fowl, cliffs and rocky islets, characterize Monterey and Santa Cruz areas. View above is from Lighthouse Point, Santa Cruz.
Even in the seventies, however, this was known as a resort region, where the nabobs from San Francisco came to take their ease and recuperate from the strains of their latest coups of high finance. It came into full stature with the building of its first beach casino in 1906. Though this promptly burned, it was as promptly replaced with the ornate structure the public sees today. This has been further improved and renovated in recent times, as has also the Coconut Grove dancing pavilion which is an outstanding beach feature. Beside the mile-long beach of white sand with its beautifully clear water there is an indoor salt-water plunge and a boardwalk which runs eastward to the San Lorenzo River. These, with a varied assortment of rides and concessions, drew 2,000,000 visitors last year and bid fair to excel that figure by a fifth this season.
The city has other claims to fame in that it is the scene of the annual Miss California contest and the terminus of a yearly yacht race from San Francisco.
In the Santa Cruz Art League Galleries is a life-size waxwork, “The Last Supper,” modeled on DaVinci’s famous painting of the same name. In four years it has been visited by more than 260,000 persons.
Blue and Peaceful or Bleak and Storming, the Ocean Wields a Never-Ending Influence Over the Region
