What is the history of Santa Cruz, California?
In 1769 the Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà discovered the land area which is now known as the City of Santa Cruz. When he came upon the beautiful flowing river, he named it San Lorenzo in honor of Saint Lawrence. He called the rolling hills above the river Santa Cruz, which means holy cross. Twenty-two years later, in 1791, Father Fermin de Lasuen established a mission at Santa Cruz, the twelfth mission to be founded in California. Across the San Lorenzo River, in what is now known as the East Side of Santa Cruz, Villa de Branciforte was established. It was founded by the Spanish as one of three civil settlements or pueblos in California. The other pueblos were San Jose and Los Angeles. Villa de Branciforte later merged with the Mission Santa Cruz community across the river. By the 1820s Mexico had assumed control of the area and within the next twenty years, Americans began to arrive in great numbers. California became a state in 1850, and Santa Cruz County was created in 1850 as
