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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
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was given the name of "Branciforte" after the Spanish pueblo founded there in 1797. Less than two months later, the name was changed to "Santa Cruz". Mission Santa Cruz, established in 1791 and completed in 1794, was
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destroyed by an earthquake in 1857, but a smaller-scale replica was erected in 1931. Santa Cruz means "holy cross" in Spanish.
The county is home to
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two of the wineries (Ridge Vineyards and David Bruce Winery) selected to compete in the historic Paris Wine Tasting of 1976.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,573 km² (607 mi²). 1,153 km² (445 mi²) of it is land and 419 km² (162 mi²) of it (26.67%) is water. Of California's counties, only San Francisco is physically smaller.
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.