Seacliff State Beach

Seacliff State Beach is a state beach park on Monterey Bay, in the town of Aptos, Santa Cruz County, California. It is located off Highway 1 on State Park Drive, about 5 miles (8 km) south of Santa Cruz,. The beach is most known for the concrete ship SS Palo Alto lying in the water. North of Seacliff State Beach is New Brighton State Beach.HistoryThe beach was originally home to the Ohlone people. Spanish missionaries established the Mission Santa Cruz about eight miles west of here.In 1821, when Mexico gained independence from Spain the area was divided up into land grants. The area of the beach was a part of the Rancho Aptos grant to Rafael Castro in 1833. Castro worked with Claus Spreckels to establish the Castro-Spreckels wharf. The beach soon became a successful shipping port. The logging industry also thrived here with the local coast redwood trees.The port facilitated major trade with the Kingdom of Hawaii. In 1838, King Kamehameha III requested that Mexican vaqueros from California travel to Hawaii to teach Hawaiians how to manage herds of wild cattle. Seacliff became a popular place to recruit vaqueros, who were known as paniolos by the Hawaiians.