Aptos (Ohlone for "The People")[4] is an unincorporated town in Santa Cruz County, California, United States.

The first European land exploration of Alta California, the Spanish Portolá expedition, passed through the area on its way north, camping at one of the creeks on October 16, 1769.

The expedition diaries don't provide enough information to be sure which creek it was, but the direction of travel was northwest, parallel to the coast.

Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi, traveling with the expedition, noted in his diary that, "We stopped on the bank of a small stream, which has about four varas of deep running water.

In 1853 a leather tannery was built, and the main building is a bed & breakfast inn [citation needed].

In 1875, Frederick A. Hihn and Claus Spreckels partnered to build the Santa Cruz Railroad, and routed it through Aptos where they both had development interests - Hihn with the Loma Prieta Lumber Company, and Spreckels with his Aptos Hotel resort.

The railroad tracks ran directly adjacent to the Santa Cruz Watsonville road, whose route was originally established by the 1769 Spanish exploratory expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá.

Efforts were made to localize the rapidly spreading disease, such as, barricading the roads leading in and out of San Juan Bautista.

These efforts failed however, and when cases appeared in Watsonville, Santa Cruz citizens attempted to again quarantine the disease by destroying the Aptos Bridge.

From 1880 to 1920 redwood timber harvesting became the major industry, and Aptos became a boom town.

The Loma Prieta Lumber Company logged all of what is now The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park.

On March 16–20, 1905, the Leonard Ranch near La Selva was the site of experiments with a new tandem-wing glider designed and built by John J. Montgomery.

The estuary was filled in (now Rio Beach Flats) and the SS Palo Alto cement ship was moored and converted into an amusement pier with restaurants, swimming pool, and a dance pavilion.

Both Rio Del Mar and Seacliff were popular during Prohibition as drinking and gambling were discreetly available.

[14][15] For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Aptos as a census-designated place (CDP).

Aptos is bisected northwest-to-southeast by the State Route 1 freeway and includes the ZIP codes 95001 and 95003.

[35] There were 2,711 housing units at an average density of 426.7 per square mile (164.7/km2), of which 75.6% were owner-occupied and 24.4% were occupied by renters.

The San Andreas Fault Zone passes nearby and the epicenter of the M6.9 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake lies within.

King,[43] Buddy Guy,[43] John Lee Hooker,[43] Ray Charles,[43] Leon Russell,[43] Los Lobos,[43] Gregg Allman,[43] the Doobie Brothers,[43] Bonnie Raitt,[44] and Al Green.

[52] Aptos Academy, a pre-school through eighth grade private school, closed in 2013.