Santa Cruz, California

Book excerpt: Located on Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz's mild climate and natural resources have drawn entrepreneurs and visionaries, as well as tourists, since its earliest days. Over time, Santa Cruz city and county became home to a classic seaside amusement park, luxury hotels and beachside mansions, cottage cities and revival camps. Captains of industry, inventors, movie stars, and mountain men all made their homes here. Captured in over 200 photographs is a visual history of this notable California city. Santa Cruz County was created in 1850 as one of the new State of California's original counties. Santa Cruz received its city charter in 1876 and developed quickly. The photographic history presented here highlights the shift from pioneer Santa Cruz to its numerous pre-tourism industries, up to the tourist trade of the 20th century. It features many rarely seen images of the boardwalk and beach, early silent-movie making, the therapeutic baths and sanitariums, earthquakes and floods, and the early era of tourism.