Felton, California
Encyclopedia
2010
The 2010 United States Census reported that Felton had a population of 4,057. The population densityPopulation density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 891.2 people per square mile (344.1/km²). The racial makeup of Felton was 3,691 (91.0%) White, 25 (0.6%) African American, 29 (0.7%) Native American, 69 (1.7%) Asian, 11 (0.3%) Pacific Islander, 60 (1.5%) from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 172 (4.2%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 283 persons (7.0%).
The Census reported that 99.4% of the population lived in households and 0.6% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters.
There were 1,700 households, out of which 450 (26.5%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 795 (46.8%) were opposite-sex married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 124 (7.3%) had a female householder with no husband present, 69 (4.1%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 154 (9.1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships
POSSLQ
POSSLQ is an abbreviation for "Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters," a term coined in the late 1970s by the United States Census Bureau as part of an effort to more accurately gauge the prevalence of cohabitation in American households....
, and 27 (1.6%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 474 households (27.9%) were made up of individuals and 130 (7.6%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37. There were 988 families
Family (U.S. Census)
A family or family household is defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes as "a householder and one or more other people related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. They do not include same-sex married couples even if the marriage was performed in a state...
(58.1% of all households); the average family size was 2.89.
The population was spread out with 738 people (18.2%) under the age of 18, 300 people (7.4%) aged 18 to 24, 1,048 people (25.8%) aged 25 to 44, 1,560 people (38.5%) aged 45 to 64, and 411 people (10.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44.0 years. For every 100 females there were 101.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.5 males.
There were 1,895 housing units at an average density of 416.3 per square mile (160.7/km²), of which 69.5% were owner-occupied and 30.5% were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.1%; the rental vacancy rate was 3.0%. 72.8% of the population lived in owner-occupied housing units and 26.6% lived in rental housing units.
2000
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 1051 people and 517 households in the CDP. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,133.0 people per square mile (436.3/km²). There were 173 housing units at an average density of 189.3 per square mile (214.6/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 90.58% White, 0.67% African American, 0.57% Native American, 1.43% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 3.33% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 3.33% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.14% of the population.
There were 393 households out of which 29.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.2% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 8.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.9% were non-families. 25.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.06.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 26.5% under the age of 18, 10.8% from 18 to 24, 29.7% from 25 to 44, 23.3% from 45 to 64, and 9.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 104.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.4 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $48,102, and the median income for a family was $55,625. Males had a median income of $35,833 versus $26,346 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the CDP was $21,488. About 8.3% of families and 15.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.0% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.
Politics
In the state legislatureCalifornia State Legislature
The California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...
Felton is located in the 15th Senate
California State Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...
District, represented by Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Abel Maldonado
Abel Maldonado
Abel Maldonado is an American politician who was the 48th Lieutenant Governor of California. On November 23, 2009, then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Maldonado as his nominee for Lieutenant Governor to fill the vacancy created by John Garamendi's election to the United States House of...
, and in the 27th Assembly
California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. There are 80 members in the Assembly, representing an approximately equal number of constituents, with each district having a population of at least 420,000...
District, represented by Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Bill Monning
Bill Monning
William "Bill" Monning is an American educator, lawyer and politician. Monning was elected to the California State Assembly from the 27th Assembly District in the 2008 Assembly election....
. Federally, Felton is located in California's 14th congressional district
California's 14th congressional district
California's 14th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California. It is located between San Francisco and San Jose. The district includes portions of San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties and most notably contains part of Silicon Valley. Major cities in...
, which has a Cook PVI
Cook Partisan Voting Index
The Cook Partisan Voting Index , sometimes referred to as simply the Partisan Voting Index , is a measurement of how strongly an American congressional district or state leans toward one political party compared to the nation as a whole...
of D +21 and is represented by Democrat Anna Eshoo
Anna Eshoo
Anna Georges Eshoo is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, which includes part of Silicon Valley, includes the cities of Redwood City, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto...
.
History and facts
John B. Felton
John Brooks Felton ....
, a former Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
mayor, a judge and a San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
investor in his day, the town is a historic logging community, which served as the end of the Boulder Creek lumber flume.
Nearby Mount Hermon
Mount Hermon, California
Mount Hermon is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California. Mount Hermon is home to extensive conference facilities that include rope courses and rock climbing walls.-History:...
was the site of California's first water-powered sawmill (circa 1841).
In 1875, the Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad rolled into town. By 1880, a second rail line came down from Alameda, California
Alameda, California
Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...
and San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
. A new depot was constructed at "New Felton" using salvaged materials from a dismantled portion of the Boulder Creek flume. The railroads, limekiln
Limekiln
A lime kiln is used to produce quicklime through the calcination of limestone . The chemical equation for this reaction is...
s and forest in this area provided a majority of the repair materials for the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
. The standard gauge railroad line came into Felton by 1909.
In 1927, the Felton community of Lompico, California
Lompico, California
Lompico is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California. Lompico sits at an elevation of . Lompico shares the 95018 ZIP code with Felton. Lompico was founded in 1927. It is in area code 831...
was established.
In 1963, the steam-powered Roaring Camp railroad began tourist operations on the Big Trees Ranch out of the old Felton depot. The company later constructed a replica logging camp and another depot further down the property, and in 1985, took over operations on the old SPC/Southern Pacific standard gauge line to Santa Cruz. Roaring Camp is a re-creation of an 1880s logging camp and home to the original South Pacific Coast (later Southern Pacific) Felton depot and freight shed, as well as two unique railroads — the Roaring Camp and Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad
Roaring Camp and Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad
The Roaring Camp & Big Trees Railroad is a narrow gauge tourist railroad in California that starts from the Roaring Camp depot in Felton, California and runs up steep grades to the top of nearby Bear Mountain, a distance of 3.25 miles The travel is through a redwood forest.The steam engines date...
, a steam-powered line up Bear Mountain, and the Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway
Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway
The Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway is a freight and heritage railroad in Northern California.It uses diesel locomotives to haul excursion trains over an route between Olympia, California and an interchange with the Union Pacific Railroad at the Santa Cruz Wye, though the line is now...
.