ABSTRACT
The foundation for the Santa Cruz growth coalition was created in early February 1848 by Elihu Anthony, a thirty-year-old blacksmith from Indiana and one of the Euro-American entrepreneurs to reach the area after the United States took California away from Mexico. Hihn and the many smaller landowners in and around Santa Cruz needed a railroad to transport timber and limestone from their mountain landholdings, and they wanted a railroad with connections to San Francisco and San Jose to bring in tourists from inland cities. Technological advances in harnessing steam and electric power meant industrial decline for Santa Cruz because sawmills and paper mills were no longer dependent upon river currents. Having met the overblown threat posed by the local Socialist Party, the Santa Cruz power structure looked ahead with eager anticipation to a period of continuing growth for the local economy.
