Olympia, California

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Olympia is an unincorporated community in Santa Cruz County, California, located north of Felton on Zayante Creek (a tributary of the San Lorenzo River). 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. [1] 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. [2] The name survives in Olympia Station Road, a short dead-end road off Zayante Road (which parallels the creek) that crosses the tracks.

Santa Cruz County, California County in California

Santa Cruz County, California, officially the County of Santa Cruz, is a county on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 262,382. The county seat is Santa Cruz.

Felton, California census-designated place in California, United States

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.

San Lorenzo River river in Santa Cruz County, California

The San Lorenzo River is a 29.3 miles (47.2 km) long river whose headwaters originate in Castle Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains and flow south by southeast through the San Lorenzo Valley before passing through Santa Cruz and emptying into Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

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Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park

Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park is a state park of California, USA, 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.

Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway

The Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway is a freight and heritage railroad in Northern California.

Vasona Lake County Park

Vasona Lake County Park is a park located in Los Gatos, California and part of the Santa Clara County Parks system.

Redwood Estates, California human settlement in United States of America

Redwood Estates is a rural unincorporated community along State Route 17 in the coastal Santa Cruz Mountains in Los Gatos, California, United States. The Census Bureau includes it in a census-designated place named Lexington Hills. It lies inside the confines of Santa Clara County. The area is about eight miles from downtown Los Gatos and nine miles from the Santa Cruz County community of Scotts Valley.

South Pacific Coast Railroad

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 12 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.

Branciforte Creek is a 5.8-mile (9.3 km) long watercourse in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. Branciforte Creek rises on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains and discharges to the San Lorenzo River, which in turn empties into the Pacific Ocean. Within the State of California Branciforte Creek is classified within the Central Coast Basin. As of the year 2002, the State of California has designated Branciforte Creek as impaired with respect to turbidity and pathogens. The Branciforte watershed consists of 6,231 acres (25.22 km2), approximately 70 percent of which is covered with mixed evergreen forest, conifer forest and other undisturbed habitats.

Zayante Creek is a 10.3-mile-long (16.6 km) stream within the San Lorenzo River watershed in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The U.S. government has designated Zayante Creek as impaired with respect to sediment. Lompico Creek, a tributary of Zayante Creek, is listed for impairment by pathogens. In the period 1998 to 2000 a restoration project was conducted for this stream to improve anadromous fish passage, rearing and spawning. There has been a permanent U.S. Geological Survey gauging station on Zayante Creek which has operated since the year 1959; the mean altitude of the Zayante Basin, carved within the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains, is 1,000 feet (300 m). Significant tributaries to Zayante Creek are Lompico Creek and Bean Creek.

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.

Butano Creek is a principal river in San Mateo County, California, and carries a large amount of the runoff of the Santa Cruz Mountains into the Pacific Ocean after joining the Pescadero Creek delta at Pescadero Marsh. The creek is 15.0 miles (24.1 km) long.

Wrights, California Ghost town in California, United States

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.

Alma, California Ghost town in California, United States

Alma is a ghost town and drowned town in Santa Clara County in California, United States. It lies beneath the waters of the Lexington Reservoir above Los Gatos. The location is latitude 37.18N and longitude 121.98W. It was 551 feet above sea level.

Patchen, California ghost town in California, United States

Patchen is a ghost town nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains, in unincorporated west Santa Clara County, California. It is located along the Old Santa Cruz Highway, east of State Route 17.

Glenwood, California Unincorporated area in California, United States

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, California census-designated place in California, United States

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.

Eccles, California is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County, near Felton, east of Ben Lomond. It was near where Lompico Creek flows into Zayante Creek.

San Vicente Creek is a 9.3-mile-long (15.0 km) northern California coastal stream which flows entirely within Santa Cruz County and discharges to the Pacific Ocean. Its waters rise on the west facing slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and its mouth is at the unincorporated community of Davenport.

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.

Patchen Pass

Patchen Pass is a low mountain pass through the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, connecting the Santa Clara Valley to Santa Cruz and the Pacific coast via California State Route 17.

References

  1. Porter, Jon Pullman, 60 Years Mark The Passing of Southern Pacific's Mountain Line , retrieved 2017-05-31
  2. Gudde, Erwin Gustav (1960), California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names, University of California Press, p. 228

Coordinates: 37°04′16″N122°03′32″W / 37.071°N 122.059°W / 37.071; -122.059

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.