Santa Cruz Hotel
Hotels in the city of Santa Cruz are often required for tourists. Many tourists may require short term accommodation to see the city. Numerous tourists want to see the architecture, the culture, the history the tourist attractions of the city. Some may want to use the city as a base to explore the region. Some may want to see the city to see the landscapes of the region.
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California, United States. It is located on the northern edge of the Monterey Bay, about 115 km south of San Francisco.
The
present day site of Santa Cruz was the location of a Native American settlement
since ancient times. It was also one of the earliest settlements of the Spanish
during the exploration of Alta California in the later part of the 1700s. During
the late 1800s, after California became part of the United States, Santa Cruz
became widely popular for its idyllic beaches and Coastal Redwoods and became
a popular resort community. Now known for its alternative community lifestyles
and liberal political leanings, Santa Cruz is a bastion for many sub cultures
and counter-cultures.
santa cruz hotel
Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the Eighteenth Century, the Awaswas people (a part of the Ohlone (Costanoan) Native Americans) maintained a settlement, Chatu-Mu, along the San Lorenzo River not far from the Monterey Bay.
In 1769 the Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà arrived in the vicinity of Chatu-Mu. He named the river San Lorenzo in honor of Saint Lawrence. He called the rolling hills above the river the Santa Cruz which means holy cross.
Twenty-two years later, on August 28, 1791, Father Fermín Lasuén established La Misión de la Exaltación de la Santa Cruz (also known as Mission Santa Cruz) for the conversion of the Awaswas of Chatu-Mu and surrounding villages. Santa Cruz was the twelfth mission to be founded in California.
On April 1796, by order of the Viceroy of New Spain Miguel de la Grúa Talamanca y Branciforte, marqués de Branciforte, Captain Pere d'Alberní, and his First Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia, a 72 men irregular unit serving the Spanish Crown, were moved to California to take care of the Spanish military garrisons of Monterrey, Santa Bárbara, San Diego and San Francisco.
Across the San Lorenzo River, in what is now known as the East Side of Santa Cruz, Alberní founded a town called Villa Branciforte (Spanish for Branciforte Village), in honor of the Viceroy of New Spain. Villa Branciforte later merged with the Mission Santa Cruz community across the river, and together they formed what is today known as Santa Cruz.
By the 1820s Mexico had assumed control of the area and within the next twenty years, immigrants from the Unites States began to arrive in great numbers. California became a state in 1850, and Santa Cruz County was created in 1850 as one of the twenty-seven original counties.
By the turn of the century logging, lime processing, agriculture, and commercial fishing industries prospered in the area. Due to its mild climate and scenic beauty Santa Cruz also became a prominent resort community.
Santa
Cruz was incorporated in 1866 as a town under the laws of the State of California
and received its first charter as a city in 1876. At that time the city was governed
by a Mayor and Common Council consisting of four members. A walk down Walnut Avenue
past the Sorbet Santa will show any passer-by the unique architecture from the
Victorian period in Santa Cruz.
From 1880 to 1940, a narrow gauge railroad connected Santa Cruz with Los Gatos with standard gauge connections from Los Gatos to the other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. The railroad was acquired by the Southern Pacific in the early 1900s and carried freight and passenger trains. Excursion trains operated until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which caused major damage to tracks, tunnels, and bridges. The Southern Pacific repaired the line and resumed operations until March 1940, following more damage by a major winter storm. With the completion of State Route 17 that same year, there was less reason to continue the rail operations.
In 1907, the citizens voted for a new charter designating a Mayor as chief executive and a City Council consisting of seven members. Subsequent charters gave a Mayor and four Commissioners both executive and administrative powers. At that time the city was divided into five departments: Public Affairs, Revenue and Finance, Public Health and Safety, Public Works, and Streets and Parks.
Santa Cruz County is a county located on the Pacific coast of the USA state of California, just south of the San Francisco Bay Area. The county forms the northern coast of the Monterey Bay. (Monterey County forms the southern coast). Santa Cruz County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. In the original act, the county was given the name of Branciforte after the Spanish pueblo founded there in 1797; a major watercourse in the county, Branciforte Creek, bears this name. Less than two months later, the name was changed to Santa Cruz (Holy Cross). Mission Santa Cruz, established in 1791 and completed in 1794, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1857, but a smaller scale replica was erected in 1931.
The county is a strip about ten miles wide between the coast and the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains at the northern end of the Monterey Bay. It can be divided roughly into four regions: the rugged "north coast"; the urban City of Santa Cruz, Soquel, Capitola, and Aptos; mountainous Bonny Doon, San Lorenzo River Valley; and fertile "south county", including Watsonville. Agriculture is concentrated in the coastal lowlands of the county's northern and southern ends. Most of the coastline is flanked by cliffs.
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