Santa Cruz City Museum of Natural History

The Santa Cruz City Museum of Natural History is a location visitors and residents can go to learn about people, nature, and conservation of the natural world. The museum can trace its roots to the late 1800s, when Laura Hecox began collecting a variety of natural objects for study. Miss Hecox was born in 1854 in Santa Cruz, California. She was a well known citizen and light house keeper for Santa Cruz. In 1904 she bequeathed her collection to the city.

The city placed the collection in the basement of Carnegie Library until 1905 when they built a proper home for the various sea stars, crustaceans, Indian baskets, mortars, minerals, agates, gems, petrified woods, coral, and other natural items. In 1929, Humphrey Pilkington also provided the museum with a collection of Indian artifacts. Between 1930 and 1954 the museum was housed in Seabright at The Crafts House.

In 1954, a joint library and museum project was started. Today visitors can still go to this location and view the collections. Current hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10am to 5pm. In summer they are open on Wednesdays. Admission is $2.50 for adults and $1.50 for seniors. Anyone under 18 is free.