Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Davenport, CA

Davenport is a small unincorporated census-designated place on the north coast of Santa Cruz County, sitting at an average elevation of 177 feet along Highway 1.

The town is named for Captain John P. Davenport, a whaling captain who founded the settlement in 1867-1868 and built a wharf of about 400 feet at the mouth of Agua Puerca Creek to load timber, tanbark, cordwood and cedar posts onto coastal ships.

The wharf was abandoned in 1880 as the harbor silted up, and the town declined until the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company began operating its plant in 1906, reviving Davenport for another century.

Cement from the Davenport plant went into rebuilding San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and into the Panama Canal, the Golden Gate Bridge and Pearl Harbor.

The plant, last operated by Cemex, closed permanently in 2010, and because Cemex had paid roughly half the cost of running the town's water and sewer systems, the roughly 100 households in Davenport faced steep utility rate increases.

The 2020 census counted 388 people in Davenport.

Big Creek Lumber's sawmill in Davenport still operates today, keeping the town's original timber industry alive alongside the beaches and protected open space of the north coast.

Davenport is also known for Lundberg Studios, a premier art glass manufacturer that has operated in the town for decades.

Local children attend Pacific Elementary School, whose district board once included members of the Gregory family that ran Davenport's gas station and served the volunteer fire department for decades.