Felton is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 4,057 as of 2010 census and according to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 4.6 square miles (12 km2), all of it land.
Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park is a state park of California, United States, preserving mainly forest and riparian areas in the watershed of the San Lorenzo River, including a grove of old-growth coast redwood. It is located in Santa Cruz County, primarily in the area between the cities of Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley, near the community of Felton and the University of California at Santa Cruz. The park includes a non-contiguous extension in the Fall Creek area north of Felton. The 4,623-acre (1,871 ha) park was established in 1954.
The Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway is a freight and heritage railroad in Northern California.
The Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad is a 3 ft narrow-gauge tourist railroad in California that starts from the Roaring Camp depot in Felton, California and runs up steep grades through redwood forests to the top of nearby Bear Mountain, a distance of 3+1⁄4 miles (5.2 km).
Vasona Lake County Park is a park located in Los Gatos, California and part of the Santa Clara County Parks system.
The Coast Line is a railroad line between Burbank, California and the San Francisco Bay Area, roughly along the Pacific Coast. It is the shortest rail route between Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
The South Pacific Coast Railroad (SPC) was a 3 ft narrow gauge steam railroad running between Santa Cruz, California and Alameda, with a ferry connection in Alameda to San Francisco. The railroad was created as the Santa Clara Valley Railroad, founded by local strawberry growers as a way to get their crops to market in San Francisco and provide an alternative to the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1876, James Graham Fair, a Comstock Lode silver baron, bought the line and extended it into the Santa Cruz Mountains to capture the significant lumber traffic coming out of the redwood forests. The narrow-gauge line was originally laid with 52-pound-per-yard (26 kg/m) rail on 8-foot (2.44 m) redwood ties; and was later acquired by the Southern Pacific and converted to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge.
Swanton is a small community in an unincorporated area of Santa Cruz County on the Pacific coast, situated about 5 miles (8.0 km) north of the town of Davenport, to the east of State Route 1 on Swanton Road. The US Geological Survey designates Swanton as a populated place located at latitude and longitude 37.06417°N 122.22639°W with an elevation of 135 ft (41 m). The ZIP Code is 95017 and the community is inside area code 831.
The Ocean Shore Railroad was a railroad built between San Francisco and Tunitas Glen, and Swanton and Santa Cruz that operated along the Pacific coastline from 1905 until 1921. The route was originally conceived to be a continuous line between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, but the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, financial difficulties, and the advent of the automobile caused the line to never reach its goals, and remain with a Northern and Southern division.
Bean Creek is a 9.1-mile-long (14.6 km) stream that rises on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains and discharges to Zayante Creek. This stream traverses relatively rugged, forested lands and is the locus of an important fossil bearing formation. These fossils are embedded in the Lower Santa Margarita Formation and include Astrodapsis spatiosus;also rare species of gastropod Thais cf. lapillis, and shark teeth The watershed area is 8.81 square miles (22.8 km2) and the peak flow of Bean Creek has been measured at 1,380 cubic feet (39 m3) per second. Since 2001 the Scotts Valley Water District has monitored regularly at three stations within Bean Creek for heavy metals and nitrates. Significant groundwater recharge occurs in the streambed of Bean Creek.
The Alameda Mole was a transit and transportation facility in Alameda, California for ferries landing in the East Bay of San Francisco from 1878 to the 1930s. It was located on the west end of Alameda, and later became part of the Alameda Naval Air Station. It was one of four neighbouring moles. The others were the Oakland Mole, the WP Mole, and the Key System Mole. The purpose of the mole was to extend tracks of rail-based transportation lines beyond the shallow mud flats along the shore of the East Bay into water deep enough to accommodate the passenger and rail ferries to San Francisco.
Wrights, California is a ghost town in unincorporated west Santa Clara County, California. It is located near Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains, on the north bank of Los Gatos Creek, east of State Route 17.
Glenwood, California, is an unincorporated area of Santa Cruz County. It is located at coordinates 37°6′29″N121°59′8″W, and is 891 feet above sea level.
Clems, California is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County with an elevation of 790 feet. It is located a latitude 37055N, longitude 1215947W; decimal degrees: latitude 37.09806, longitude -121.99639.
Zayante is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California. It is a residential area located on Zayante Creek. Zayante sits at an elevation of 699 feet (213 m). The 2010 United States census reported Zayante's population was 705.
Rancho Zayante was a 2,658-acre (10.76 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Cruz County, California. The grant, measuring one league by one-half league, straddled Zayante Creek and the San Lorenzo River. It included most of the present-day communities of Felton, Mount Hermon and Olympia, along with parts of Ben Lomond, Quail Hollow and Brackney, but not Zayante.
The Santa Cruz Railroad was a narrow gauge railroad that ran 21 miles from Santa Cruz to Pajaro, California. It started operation in 1874, running from the east bank of the San Lorenzo River to Soquel, California. With completion of a bridge over the San Lorenzo, it began operation over its full length in 1876 and was sold in foreclosure in 1881.
The Swanton Pacific Railroad Society operates an historic one-third scale, 19 in gauge, railroad at Swanton Pacific Ranch in Davenport, California, 15 miles north of Santa Cruz, California. The mile-long railroad lies along the Ocean Shore Railroad right-of-way that was to run from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. The scenic trip, through a valley in the coastal mountains, crosses Scott Creek on the Ed Carnegie Bridge, passes a Christmas tree farm, and ends at a wye where passengers observe railroad operations that turn the locomotive.
Olympia is an unincorporated community in Santa Cruz County, California, located north of Felton on Zayante Creek. Olympia was established after the South Pacific Coast narrow-gauge railroad completed a line over the Santa Cruz Mountains from Los Gatos in 1880. Olympia remained a scheduled stop after the Southern Pacific railroad took over the line in the later 1880s, using it until the line shut down in 1940. A siding served a nearby sand and gravel quarry. In 1915, a post office was closed at Eccles and moved 1/2 mile to Olympia. The name survives in Olympia Station Road, a short dead-end road off Zayante Road that crosses the tracks.
The Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Railroad (SCMB), or Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line, was a historic railway running through Santa Cruz County, California. It ran from Davenport to the Watsonville Junction where it connected to the Union Pacific Coast Line.
