One of the great things about the Aptos History Museum is that I get to interact with people who stop by. Some people have questions, and some people have new stories to tell. Sometimes I have already learned the answers that people want to hear and sometimes I get to be a detective. Fortunately, I […]
Round and Round We Go By John Hibble
The traffic circle/roundabout at the foot of Rio Del Mar Boulevard was the solution to the problem of four roads and a parking lot converging at a single point. The intersection is now able to deal with nine lanes of travel that must also accommodate fire trucks and busses. This was not always the case. […]
Highway One, a Blessing and a Curse By John Hibble
The construction of Highway One in the late 1940s has had a profound impact on our Aptos community. Before there was a Highway One there was the Santa Cruz-Watsonville Road which passed right through Aptos Village. Today the old highway is called Soquel Avenue where it connects to Santa Cruz, Soquel Drive in the mid […]
Polo in Aptos? By John Hibble
How did the Polo Grounds Regional Park get its name? The park has a total area of sixty-two acres with forty hidden acres of flat alluvial plain located between Valencia Creek on the west and oak woodland hillsides on the north and east sides, topped by Huntington Drive. The valley empties out to the intersection […]
The Seawalls of Seacliff Beach by John Hibble
When Seacliff Beach is exposed to heavy surf, a jigsaw puzzle of metallic construction rises from the sand. That always brings up questions of what that might be. The answer is that they are the remains of the original seawall. After the death of Claus Spreckels, his Aptos Ranch was sold during the roaring twenties […]