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 this traditional celebration that keeps the past alive.
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.
Featured Video

​Ted Maddock, July 10,1929 - April 13, 2016
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
This is a biographical video made in 2015 of Soquel native Ted Maddock of the Maddock/Parish family. Ted is being interviewed by Frank Perry who is the curator of the Capitola Museum.
Annual Picnic 
Saturday, ​July 30, 2016
Each year, the Pioneers sponsor a potluck picnic for the community on the last Saturday in July.
all are welcome and there is no charge although donations are gratefully accepted. 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.
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This year our speaker will be Carolyn Swift. Carolyn is a native of Watsonville, and worked as a reporter for the Register-Pajaronian starting in 1969. Sharing stories about local history quickly became an ambition.
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 In 1975, she took a course in the history of Santa Cruz County from regional historian Sandy Lydon. Two years later, they co-authored a history of Capitola.

A second book, a project completed with historian and author Judith Steen, inserted women’s history into the story of Santa Cruz County’s past. Women’s rights advocates Georgiana Kirby and Eliza Farnham were interpreted to reshape what had been a male-dominated historical account.

Swift earned a degree in Community Studies from UC Santa Cruz, contributed to five history books, compiled the historic context statement for the City of Capitola, and contributed 150 newspaper articles published in papers throughout the county. Her 2013 retirement coincided with the publication of her book Capitola in Arcadia’s Images of America series.

She became the Capitola Historical Museum director in 1993. It was her task to oversee displays, provide educational tours, and conduct research. She devised exhibits, and managed the museum’s outstanding collection of historical digital images that touch every aspect of Santa Cruz County.
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In retirement, history still captures her interest. Swift particularly enjoys finding unknown “news bits” in the files of vintage papers that help explain how and why things got to be the way they are in Santa Cruz County. “Ah-ha!” moments of historical research, she finds, are the best. 
Soquel Caps for sale.  One of the tasks of the Pioneers is to maintain the signs at the entrance to Soquel. To help pay for this and other taskesk, we are selling caps with the official Soquel logo.
The caps are $15 each and can be purchased at the picnic or the Porter Memorial Library.