Scotts Valley, California


Scotts Valley is a small city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, about south of downtown San Jose and north of the city of Santa Cruz, in the upland slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 12,224. Principal access to the city is supplied by State Route 17 that connects San Jose and Santa Cruz. The city was incorporated in 1966.

History

Approximately ten thousand years ago there was a lake in the lowest elevation of Scotts Valley. Archeological excavations of site CA-SCR-177 in 1983 and 1987 support dates for human settlement of this area as between 9,000 and 12,000 years before present. The lake drained during the Mid-Holocene warming period forming what is now known as Carbonera Creek. When the lake drained, the people moved downslope following the lake water's transformation as in became the creek. Around 2000 BC, Ohlone people occupied areas along the remaining creeks, spring and seep areas, along with permanent and seasonal drainages, and on flat ridges and terraces. Permanent villages were usually placed on elevations above seasonal flood levels. Surrounding areas were used for hunting and seed, acorn, and grass gathering. Therefore, areas along watercourses are considered likely locations for prehistoric cultural resources. Several watercourses, including portions of Carbonera Creek, Bean Creek, and MacKenzie Creek, are within the city.
Scotts Valley was named after Hiram Daniel Scott, who purchased Rancho San Agustin, including the valley, in 1850 from Joseph Ladd Majors.
Before Majors, the property was owned by José Bolcoff. Bolcoff was the original settler and first European to claim title and live in what was to be Scotts Valley. He was born Osip Volkov around 1794 in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Siberia. Working as a fur trader around 1815, Bolcoff jumped ship on the Monterey Bay shoreline, quickly assimilated into the Spanish culture, and was well received by the Spanish authorities. Volkov had his Russian Orthodox baptism validated in Mission Soledad in 1817, and was given the Spanish name José Antonio Bolcoff. Bolcoff lived with and traveled with Alta California's governor Pablo Vicente de Solá, acting as an interpreter.
Becoming a Mexican citizen in 1833, Bolcoff moved his family to his land grant building, an adobe casa historians speculate was located near present-day Kings Village Shopping Center. Bolcoff relinquished his interest in the Rancho San Augustin, selling and accepting $400 from Joseph Ladd Majors, also known as Don Juan José Mechacas. July 7, 1846, marked the shift of power in the region from Mexico to the United States.
Hiram Scott built the Greek revival style Scott House in 1853. Situated behind City Hall, it is a Santa Cruz County Historical Trust Landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The house originally stood on Scotts Valley Drive, near where a Bank of America branch is now located.
From the 1840s, money-making activity in Scotts Valley centered on several industries: lumber, grain, the milling of grain, and most importantly the tanning of hides and working of leather. Beginning in the 1930s, peat moss was removed from Scotts Valley and taken to San Francisco to supply soil for difficult indoor plants such as gardenias. When the peat ran out, sand and gravel were quarried and sold.
The area was the site of Santa's Village, a Christmas-themed amusement park which opened on May 30, 1957, on a site which was formerly Lawridge Farm, part of the former Rancho San Augustin. "Residents" of the park included Santa, Mrs. Santa, and elves and gnomes who operated the rides and sold tickets. There was a petting zoo, a bobsled ride, a whirling Christmas tree ride, and a train ride, as well as a Fairy Tale Land. The park was sold in 1966 but continued to be operated under lease by the Santa's Village Corporation. When that corporation went bankrupt in 1977. the owner considered launching a Knott's Berry Farm type of complex but was denied a permit by the city of Scotts Valley, and the park closed for good in 1979.
Scotts Valley's most famous resident was film director Alfred Hitchcock, who lived in a mountaintop estate above the Vine Hill area from 1940 to 1972. Florence Owens Thompson, depicted in Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother photograph, died in Scotts Valley in 1983.
Netflix was founded in Scotts Valley by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in 1997.
In December 2024, Scotts Valley was impacted by an EF1 tornado. Five people were injured.

Economy

Tourism

From its early years as a stop on the stage route across the mountains, the Scotts Valley area has provided services to travelers. With the growing usage of the automobile in the early 20th century, the area became commercialized and tourism developed as a local industry.
In the early 1920s, Edward Evers established Camp Evers at the junction of the State Highway and Mt. Hermon Road. Camp Evers consisted of a small store, gas pumps, dance hall and tents, becoming a resort and rest stop for travelers.
Image:Circus Tree at Gilroy Gardens.jpg|thumb | A "Circus Tree" now located at Gilroy Gardens near Gilroy, California
The Beverly Gardens were established in the 1930s and featured a collection of exotic birds and animals, a restaurant, and cabins.
Axel Erlandson opened The Tree Circus in 1947, featuring trees grafted and trained in strange and unusual shapes. Bright "life size" painted dinosaurs overlooking Highway 17 were added to the Tree Circus in 1964 when it changed its name to The Lost World. Surviving trees have since been moved to Gilroy Gardens.
Santa's Village, one of three locations in America's first theme park chain, was established in 1956. It was the most popular of the many attractions, attracting millions of visitors to Scotts Valley for over twenty years, and it was the last of Scotts Valley's theme parks to close its doors, in 1979. H. Glenn Holland, who had already developed a Santa's Village elsewhere the previous year, leased at the former Lawridge Farm, which was a portion of the former Rancho San Augustin for the Scotts Valley location of Santa's Village. The park maintained a historically correct team of Mexican burros that lived on the back field. Four reindeer from Unalakleet, Alaska, pulled Santa's sleigh. All the buildings were designed to look like log chalet-type structures, replete with snowy roofs and gingerbread trim. One chalet housed a legendary fresh gingerbread bakery. Theme-appropriate music flowed from speakers hidden in towering redwood trees. In 1977 the Santa's Village Corporation had filed for bankruptcy, and in 1979 the park's gates were finally closed. The site, for years a playing field at the former headquarters of Borland, now contains houses and townhomes.
Scotts Valley is also near Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, and Roaring Camp Railroads. The town is surrounded by coast redwood forests. The city of Santa Cruz lies to the south. A relatively large municipal skateboard park, where pro skateboarder Eric Costello died in October 2005 due to improper helmet use, is near Skypark, the site of a former airport, in central Scotts Valley.
Three hotels operate in Scotts Valley: a Best Western hotel located near the Granite Creek entrance to Highway 17, a Four Points by Sheraton located on Scotts Valley Drive, and a Hilton hotel located near the Mount Hermon junction with Highway 17.

Redevelopment and high technology

Evidence regarding blighted conditions in the Redevelopment Area of Santa's Village and the Skypark Airport was established in the year 1990.
E-mu Systems, Seagate Technology, Sessions, and Borland Software Corporation were all formerly headquartered in Scotts Valley.
Zero Motorcycles manufactures all-electric motorcycles in Scotts Valley.
Netflix's first headquarters were established in Scotts Valley by Reed Hastings, a Stanford graduate, in 1997. The headquarters were later moved to nearby Los Gatos, California.
In May 2016, the University of California, Santa Cruz signed a 20-year lease to occupy the former Borland headquarters establishing its Scotts Valley Center. The center serves as the professional offices for three of its divisions — Information Technology services, Business and Administrative services, and University Relations.

Top employers

According to Scotts Valley's 2023 annual comprehensive financial report, the top employers in the city are:
#Employer# of Employees
1Threshold Enterprises347
2Central California Alliance for Health309
3Bay Photo Lab279
4Zero Motorcycles227
5Fox Factory165
61440 Multiversity115
7Bell Sports, Inc104
8Permanente Medical Group95
9The Camp91
10Digital Dynamics76

Demographics

2020

The 2020 United States census reported that Scotts Valley had a population of 12,224. The population density was. The racial makeup of Scotts Valley was 75.3% White, 0.7% African American, 0.6% Native American, 6.8% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 4.7% from other races, and 11.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12.8% of the population.
The census reported that 98.6% of the population lived in households, 1.2% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0.1% were institutionalized.
There were 4,690 households, out of which 34.6% included children under the age of 18, 55.4% were married-couple households, 6.0% were cohabiting couple households, 25.2% had a female householder with no partner present, and 13.5% had a male householder with no partner present. 22.9% of households were one person, and 14.1% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.57. There were 3,287 families.
The age distribution was 22.2% under the age of 18, 7.0% aged 18 to 24, 21.5% aged 25 to 44, 30.1% aged 45 to 64, and 19.2% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 44.5years. For every 100 females, there were 93.3 males.
There were 4,934 housing units at an average density of, of which 4,690 were occupied. Of these, 74.1% were owner-occupied, and 25.9% were occupied by renters.
In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that the median household income was $140,887, and the per capita income was $79,348. About 0.7% of families and 4.8% of the population were below the poverty line.