About the Pioneers

​Organized in 1938, Soquel Pioneer and Historical Association is a community organization that sponsors an annual picnic each July to commemorate the town’s history and its role in the development of Santa Cruz County. There are no membership restrictions.

Everyone interested in sharing and preserving Soquel history is invited to participate in the annual picnic celebration that keeps the past alive.

We also maintain a History Room at the  Porter Memorial Library on Porter Street. The room is open to anyone who wants to explore Soquel history through displays. books and scrapbooks.

Contact us

Have a question about membership, our mailing list, or Soquel history?

Email us at SoquelPioneers@gmail.com
​Click here to order the book
Images of America
​ Soquel
Historical Photos. Most of the pictures on this site are cropped versions of historical photos from our collection. Original copies can be found in scrapbooks at the Porter Memorial Library or at our picnic, or in our book.
The Soquel Pioneer and Historical Association committee worked four years to create a history of Soquel. The long-awaited book is part of the Arcadia Publishing Company Images of America Series. It may be obtained for a donation of $22 at the Soquel Porter Memorial Library.

The book includes many of the pictures archived in the Pioneers library. As a gift to Soquel, Stan Stevens, Librarian Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz, compiled an index that is now available for the cost of printing, $3. with the book purchase.


Library hours are 12 to 4 P.M. Monday through Friday and 10 to 2 on Saturday
Jim Hobbs tells the amazing story about his ancestors' journey to Soquel.
Jim is the current president of the Soquel Pioneer and Historical Association. 

He is the son of Marion Hobbs, former Soquel Postmaster and Francis Hobbs, former Soquel Elementary School secretary.

​ Annual Picnic.
​ 
Our July picnic is in the planning stages

Hopefully ​we will see you
in July


​Each year, the Pioneers sponsor a potluck picnic for the community on the last Saturday in July.
The music begins at 11:30, listen to the music of The Open Heartstrings, an old time string band with fun instrumentals by banjo, fiddle, guitar and bass and to meet and greet old and new friends and to enjoy the photos and scrapbooks provided by the pioneers. We will start the food service at about 12:00. We hold a raffle featuring items donated by local merchants. The highlight of the afternoon has always been a talk by a local historian.
Please bring a potluck dish.
A donation of $5.00 per adult $10 for a family helps defray the costs associated with the picnic.
This year our speaker will be Dr. Traci Bliss
Murder, Mayhem, and Mistaken Identity
Soquel in the 1880s:  JFJ Bennett served as county clerk, auditor, and superintendent of schools in addition to managing several flour mills while his wife Jane Rice Bennett was adept at managing their hotel and saloon on Porter Street. But the well-established Bennett family was turned upside down in 1888. That year, notorious Jesse Graham—swashbuckling son of Isaac Graham—went on trial for murder and the Bennett family would never be the same.  What was the perilous connection and how did our speaker discover the well-hidden skeleton in Soquel’s closet?  
 
Dr. Traci Bliss, a lifetime member of the Society of California Pioneers, is an award- winning emerita  professor of education. She has authored several books, most recently the best selling Santa Cruz’s Seabright with co-author Randall Brown. Her forthcoming book Evergreen Cemetery of Santa Cruz (May, 2020), includes the gripping story of why her ancestors donated the cemetery land in the 1850s. Traci also has deep and  cherished roots in Soquel as the great, great granddaughter of JFJ Bennett and Jane Rice Bennett.