A railroad also came to the area in the late 1800s providing a shipping outlet for agricultural products of the coastal farmlands.Įarthquakes have affected the area destroying much of the mission church in 1857 and another doing major damage to the city of Santa Cruz in 1989 but they did not cause any significant loss of records.ġ8 February 1850: Originally as Branciforte County. California hightway route 1 passes through the county along the coast and route 17 provides a connection over the coastal mountains to the San Jose/Silicon Valley area. Two significant rivers played a role in settlement, the San Lorenzo (Santa Cruz city) and the Pajaro River (Watsonville). Geographically, the coastline gives way to coastal mountains which often come right down to the sea. When California became part of the United States in 1850, Branciforte County was one of the original counties but the name was quickly changed to Santa Cruz County. In 1797, a proprietary Spanish colony was founded near the mission church and named Branciforte. The first European settlements in Santa Cruz County began with the founding of a Franciscan mission in 1791 near the San Lorenzo River in what is now the city of Santa Cruz. *Statewide registration for births and deaths started in 1905.
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