The scenic coastline of northern Monterey Bay has enthralled residents and visitors alike for well over a century, yet storms and relentless waves over time have taken their toll. The authors' collection of amazing historical images is juxtaposed with photos of those same sites today, to document the slow-motion drama of Santa Cruz County's ever-changing edge.
Many of California’s most alluring attractions are found along the coast from San Francisco Bay to Monterey Bay: Alcatraz Island, San Francisco’s waterfront, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and Point Lobos. This easy-to-use, up-to-date, comprehensive guidebook is the essential companion for visitors—sightseers, hikers, swimmers, surfers, campers, birders, boaters, and anglers—who want to explore California’s fabulous shoreline. The book describes some 350 shoreline destinations, including every known publicly accessible beach along the coast of Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Monterey Counties. It also lists wildlife reserves, marinas, and public parks, and includes descriptions of plants and animals, places where dogs are welcome, nature centers, aquariums, and much more. The guide features: • 53 color maps that show topography, roads, trails, bicycle routes, and other features • 299 color illustrations • Sidebars on shipwrecks, railroads, aviation, and other aspects of California history • Descriptions of geologic formations, wildflowers, tidepools, and beaches • Information on recreational outfitters, whale-watching trips, surf shops, and more
“I work everyday in these fields, I am ankle-deep in mud, all I smell is pattume, and in a couple of hours il vento will blow dirt and debris in my face. Next month the rains will come; they will soak me through, and I will have to carry those wet sprout sacks up and down these muddy rows. I work ten to twelve hours every day for very little money. My young son is sick and I cannot pay the doctor. My young wife is pregnant and our second baby is on its way. Where will I get the money to feed another mouth? I promised my beautiful wife an easy life in America; all she got was hard work and desperate times. If there is a God up there, why doesn’t he show himself? Why doesn’t he make my son well? Why doesn’t he help me? I need more money! O God, if you are up there, why don’t you wave your hand, and make things better for me?” Not really expecting an answer, the rancere lowered his head and with his shavola slowly returned to working the soil. Then from out of the thick, eerie mist, he thought he heard someone, perhaps a woman, say in a soft and gentle voice: “O rancere mi. Don’t you know? You live su per la costa—not Heaven.”
Once there was an endless redwood wilderness, populated by only the hardiest of people. Then, the sudden blast of a steam whistle echoed across the canyons and the valleys-the iron horse had arrived in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Driven by the need to transport materials like lumber and lime to the rest of the world, the railroad brought people seeking out new ways of living, from the remote outposts along Bean and Zayante Creeks to the bustling towns of Los Gatos and Santa Cruz. Bridges and tunnels marked the landscape, and each new station, siding and spur signaled activity: businesses, settlements, and vacation spots. Summer resorts in the mountains evolved into sprawling residential communities which formed the backbone of the towns of the San Lorenzo Valley today. Much of the history of the locations along the route has since been forgotten. This is their story. Third Revision (February 2016) Addenda available at http://www.whaleyland.com/downloads/addenda1.3.pdf Exclusive CreateSpace Discount: Enter MU236Q6V into the coupon code field and get this book for $5.00 off! Offer only valid through CreateSpace. Review this book at GoodReads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25144919)
Santa Cruz is located on the northern tip of Monterey Bay on California's central coast. Surfing was first introduced to the U.S. mainland in Santa Cruz by three visiting Hawaiian princes in the late 1880s. Since those early days, the Santa Cruz surfing culture has blossomed into a thriving lifestyle. Many of the world's most highly regarded surfers hail from Santa Cruz. In fact, Santa Cruz, or "Surf City" as its known, has become a popular destination for surfing aficionados of all ages. Surfing in Santa Cruz is a concise historical overview of the diverse and colorful surfing culture inhabiting the area.
For the first time a thorough history of Santa Cruz Island's tumultuous past is provided. In pre-Columbian times it was a source of wealth to the indigenous peoples--the place where they made their shell bead money. During the Spanish-Mexican period it was a smuggler's haven, where fur hunters avoided the customs officials.
A human and global take on a beloved vacation spot. The crash of surf, smell of salted air, wet whorls of sand underfoot. These are the sensations of the beach, that environment that has drawn humans to its life-sustaining shores for millennia. And while the gull’s cry and the cove’s splendor have remained constant throughout time, our relationship with the beach has been as fluid as the runnels left behind by the tide’s turning. The Lure of the Beach is a chronicle of humanity's history with the coast, taking us from the seaside pleasure palaces of Roman elites and the aquatic rituals of medieval pilgrims, to the venues of modern resort towns and beyond. Robert C. Ritchie traces the contours of the material and social economies of the beach throughout time, covering changes in the social status of beach goers, the technology of transport, and the development of fashion (from nudity to Victorianism and back again), as well as the geographic spread of modern beach-going from England to France, across the Mediterranean, and from nineteenth-century America to the world. And as climate change and rising sea levels erode the familiar faces of our coasts, we are poised for a contemporary reckoning with our relationship—and responsibilities—to our beaches and their ecosystems. The Lure of the Beach demonstrates that whether as a commodified pastoral destination, a site of ecological resplendency, or a flashpoint between private ownership and public access, the history of the beach is a human one that deserves to be told now more than ever before.
Almost all US cities are controlled by real estate and development interests, but Santa Cruz, California, is a deviant case. An unusual coalition of socialist-feminists, environmentalists, social-welfare liberals, and neighborhood activists has st...
"Seabright, located atop towering sandstone cliffs and bordered by the Santa Cruz Small Craft harbor and San Lorenzo Point, overlooks the famous Santa Cruz Boardwalk and a state beach where locals and lifeguards have performed many valiant acts of ocean rescue. Originally a Victorian-era campground, the neighborhood features special amenities, including a natural history museum, thanks to a long tradition of community activism. The creation of the Santa Cruz harbor in the 1960s completed Seabright's transition from a summer resort to a year-round neighborhood. The beach doubled in size due to the littoral drift of sand blocked by the harbor seawall, protecting the vulnerable cliffs from the assault of winter waves." -- From cover.
