Davenport, CA

Davenport is a tiny Santa Cruz County coastal CDP about nine miles north of Santa Cruz, where Highway 1 runs between the Pacific and the Santa Cruz Mountains. The 2020 census counted 388 residents. The place began around Captain John Pope Davenport's 1860s landing near Agua Puerca Creek, then grew around a wharf, a cement plant, rail shipping, and the farm-and-coast roads that still define the north county. On a clear day, the ocean and mountains seem to squeeze the settlement into one strip.

ATTRAliceWonder / CC0

Today the local map is a mix of working fields, bluff-top trails, beaches, tide pools, and old industrial remnants. Davenport Landing and San Vicente Creek keep the shoreline story close at hand, while the North Coast route leads toward Waddell Beach, Wilder Ranch, and Cotoni-Coast Dairies. The one-room Davenport Jail, built in 1914, is a wonderfully odd landmark for a place this small. Davenport's local scoop is a Pacific-edge village where cement, farming, trails, and surf all share the same narrow strip of coast.