​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.
​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
Caps for sale.  One of the tasks of the Pioneers is to maintain
the signs at the entrances to Soquel. To help pay for the signs, the annual picnic, this web page andother tasks, we are selling caps with the official Soquel logo.

The caps are $15 each and can be purchased at the picnic, the Porter Memorial Library or by calling Paul or Judy Parsons at
​831-476-1871, email juudy@aol.com.

​New Video: Barbara Harlamoff McCrary daughter of Russian immigrant Ivan (John) Harlamoff tells us about growing up on a chicken ranch in the Soquel area during world was 2. 
Annual Picnic 
Saturday, ​July 29, 2017
Each year, the Pioneers sponsor a potluck picnic for the community on the last Saturday in July.
The picnic begins at 12:00 noon. Participants come early to meet and greet old and new friends and to enjoy the photos and scrapbooks provided by the pioneers. 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.
Admission of $5.00 per adult $10 for a family helps defray the costs associated with the picnic.
Picture


This year our speaker will be Stanley D. Stevens.
​His topic will be: F.A.Hihn's connection to Soquel.
​
Stanley Stevens is a Librarian Emeritus at University of California-Santa Cruz. He was the founding head of the University Library Map Collection, 1965-1993. He is ‪an amateur historian whose primary work focuses on German immigrant Frederick Augustus Hihn, a Santa Cruz capitalist about whom more is available by reference to Stevens’ essay on the website of the German Historical Institute: http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=23

​He has published over fifty works about Hihn, including F. A. Hihn and the Founding of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo; Hihn was a founding Trustee from 1902 to 1909. Hihn owned the Hotel El Paso de Robles and many acres of Paso Robles residential property.

Stevens has also indexed several journals and books, including the Slavs of Watsonville, and the Jewish Community of Santa Cruz County. He is author of several articles, including the recently published “African American Churches in the City of Santa Cruz: The Early Years.” Stevens is also compiling a dictionary of Santa Cruz County Photographers, 1850-1950.
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In 2001 he was named Historian of the Year by the History Forum of the Museum of Art & History (MAH) of Santa Cruz. He also served as the Chairman of the History Publications Committee at MAH. He has been named in Who’s Who in America, and Who's Who in the World
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He was co-author with the Publications Committee of MAH are Every Structure Tells a Story: How to Research the History of a Property in Santa Cruz County; and, The Society of California Pioneers of Santa Cruz County (Santa Cruz County History Journal No. 4). He assisted the late Donald T. Clark in the compilation of his landmark geographical dictionaries, Santa Cruz County Place Names, and Monterey County Place Names. Since retirement in 1993, Stevens is the founder of and has been the volunteer Coordinator of the Hihn-Younger Archive at the University Library’s Special Collections.

​He has lived in Santa Cruz County for more than 55 years. He is married to Carli Ann Lewis Stevens, with whom they have celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary. They adopted three children, two of whom are living. They have two grandchildren, all live in Santa Cruz County.

     
​     SEE YOU AT THE PICNIC