Bonny Doon’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold just one old photo of Bonny Doon. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗It was founded in the 1850s as a logging camp. The current name can be attested back to 1902: John Burns, a Scotsman living in Santa Cruz, named Bonny Doon after a line in the Robert Burns song "The Banks O' Doon". The line is: "Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon...", and refers back to the Doon River in Scotland. Evidence of 2,600 years of occupation by Native Americans has been found in the area.
Bonny Doon has no city center or commercial shops, but features several wineries including Bonny Doon Vineyard, a church, two fire stations, a lavender farm, the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve, an elementary school, and a private-use airport. A beach of the same name is nearby.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Bonny Doon’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bonny Doon’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewSanta Cruz Lumber Company, Mill a…, 1892: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Bonny Doon, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Bonny Doon is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Bonny Doon has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Felton Presbyterian Church in Felton, 3.5 miles away.
Bonny Doon and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Santa Cruz Lumber Company, Mill and Landing (1892) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.