Swanton is a small community in an
unincorporated area
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
of
Santa Cruz County on the
Pacific coast
Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean.
Geography Americas North America
Countries on the western side of North America have a Pacific coast as their western or south-western border. One of th ...
, situated about north of the town of
Davenport
Davenport may refer to:
Places Australia
*Davenport, Northern Territory, a locality
*Hundred of Davenport, cadastral unit in South Australia
**Davenport, South Australia, suburb of Port Augusta
**District Council of Davenport, former local govern ...
, to the east of
State Route 1 on Swanton Road. The
US Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...
designates Swanton as a populated place located at latitude and longitude with an elevation of . The
ZIP Code is 95017 and the community is inside
area code 831
Area code 831 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan for a small region of the U.S. state of California. The numbering plan area (NPA) comprises Monterey County, San Benito County, and Santa Cruz County. The area code w ...
.
The community has numerous small residences and two big occupants – Big Creek Lumber Company and the
Swanton Pacific Ranch campus of
California Polytechnic State University
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or Cal Poly) is a public university in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States, - Cites the location of the university and shows that the university ...
. Swanton is home to
Swanton Pacific Railroad, a one-third-scale small-gauge railroad that runs on of track through the
Scott Creek valley using locomotives and cars from the San Francisco
Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915.
History
Ranched with dairy cattle since the
California Gold Rush
The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
, the area was first known as Laurel Grove, and was later renamed after
Fred Swanton
Fred Wilder Swanton (1862–1940) was an American entrepreneur and Real Estate Developer, real estate developer who served as mayor of Santa Cruz, California from 1927 until 1933. He promoted the expansion of Santa Cruz as a beach resort city. T ...
, builder of a hydroelectric power plant on nearby Big Creek. Swanton later created what is now the
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is an oceanfront amusement park in Santa Cruz, California. Founded in 1907, it is California's oldest surviving amusement park and one of the few seaside parks on the West Coast of the United States.
Description
...
. The community was the ''northern terminus'' of the southern branch of the
Ocean Shore Railroad
The Ocean Shore Railroad was a railroad built between San Francisco and Tunitas Beach, Tunitas Glen, and Swanton, California, Swanton and Santa Cruz, California, Santa Cruz that operated along the Pacific coastline from 1905 until 1920. The rou ...
until it closed in 1922. Swanton had its own post office from 1897 to 1930, and its own elementary, Seaside School, until 1960.
In 2009, Swanton was heavily impacted by the
Lockheed Fire that burned for two weeks and consumed nearly , forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents.
It was the first major fire since 1948, $26 million was spent fighting it and it destroyed 13 structures and many millions of dollars of prime
timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...
land, but no houses.
In August 2020, Swanton suffered major damage from the
CZU Lightning Complex fires
The CZU Lightning Complex fires were wildfires that burned in Northern California starting in August 2020. The fire complex consisted of fires in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, including fires that had previously been separately tracked a ...
.
Further information
* ''Davenport oral history,'' (video-recording, series), Community Action Board, (Santa Cruz: Community Television of Santa Cruz County, 1998).
References
Further reading
*
External links
Oral History of Swanton Pacific Ranch
Unincorporated communities in California
Unincorporated communities in Santa Cruz County, California
Populated coastal places in California
{{SantaCruzCountyCA-geo-stub