The Boulder Creek area is in the traditional tribal territory of the Achistaca, an Awaswas-speaking people[10] of the Ohlone cultural unit, who were a group of contiguous bands that inhabited the coastal region of present-day California from the San Francisco Bay to the Monterey Peninsula and down to San José and Salinas Valley.

[10][12][13] The earliest European presence in the area was a Spanish exploratory party in 1769, led overland from Mexico by Don Gaspar de Portolá and Father Juan Crespí.

Although Spain had not awarded land grants in the Santa Cruz area, the Mexican government started issuing them in 1822 when it took over the administration of California.

Following the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848 and the California Gold Rush of 1848, the area steadily grew in population, including considerable immigration.

While the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending the War obliged the United States to honor Mexican land grants,[15] the process took many years of court hearings.

There were few large operations in the upper San Lorenzo Valley, leading the pioneers to develop their own systems of harvesting and transporting to the lumber and tanning markets.

[1] By the late 1850s, early settlers and lumbermen were using the Turkey Foot floodplain as a gathering point for their mule and oxen teams.

Daniel Crediford and his sons Wilfred and Stephen moved about four miles (6.4 km) up Boulder Creek to the Sequoia district in 1867.

[14] West Virginian Joseph Wilbur Peery also settled in the Boulder area in 1867 and began a small-scale logging project along the San Lorenzo River.

It also marked the completion of the United States government's survey of all land not held by grants in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which was then opened for purchase and homesteading.

The lumbermen and their families moved into scattered cottages and homes around the periphery of Peery's Two Bar Creek sawmill, while a general store, livery stable, and blacksmith shop arose nearby to support the mill and its visitors.

[16] The increase in the number of families with children determined the need for a school, the first one of which was started in a small building on Alcorn's land[18] on what is now West Park Drive.

[16] With an access point to the greater San Francisco Bay Area came the establishment of a post office named Boulder Creek in 1872, with Peery becoming the first postmaster.

Boulder Creek served as the upper terminus of the San Lorenzo Valley Logging Flume terminating in Felton, which began construction in 1874 and, when formally opened in October 1875, was augmented by a new rail line to transport logs to the wharf in Santa Cruz.

Boulder Creek has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) characteristic of California's coast, with moist, mild winters and dry summers.

Located about 15 miles (24 km) inland, the Boulder Creek skies can be overcast due to moisture from the Pacific Coast marine layer.

The rainy period of November to April is slightly cooler, with the normal monthly mean temperature reaching its lowest in December at 38.0 °F (3.3 °C).

A Santa Cruz Surf newspaper article from January 25, 1890 mentioned the San Lorenzo River being at its highest known since 1849, with Boulder Creek having received 90 inches (2,300 mm) of rainfall up to that date during the 1889-90 winter season.

[28] In an April 19 article of the San Francisco Examiner that same year, Boulder Creek held first place in the season's precipitation with 122.11 inches (3,102 mm) of rain received.

[29][30] According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel-News, Boulder Creek recorded 32.42 inches (823 mm) of rain during that storm.

During the El Niño winter of 1996 and 1997, higher concentrations of debris flows were observed in the area around Boulder Creek.

[33] Two conflagration-sized fires nearly destroyed downtown Boulder Creek and the nearby village of Lorenzo on July 17, 1891.

Due to a change in wind conditions, these separate fires merged together and rapidly spread through nearby communities, including Boulder Creek.

The CZU fire incident was finally contained on September 22, after destroying a number of houses but sparing the town's historic main street.

Route 236 then continues westward from Boulder Creek and into Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

Most famous are the annual Fourth of July Parade, Halloween Trick-or-Treat Street, and the town tree lighting and Santa Comes to Town celebration (now called Boulder Creek Winter Festival) first weekend of December, as well as the annual Reindeer Run 5k race on Christmas Eve.

Boulder Creek is an unincorporated[54] community, a status it has held since being dis-incorporated during the 1915[55] session of the California State Legislature.

Its executive and legislative governing body is the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors[56] and in the county-wide elections, Boulder Creek forms part of District Five.

Because of its unincorporated status, Santa Cruz County provides land use planning, parks, public works, and economic development services and regulations.

[58] From sixth to twelfth grades, Boulder Creek students attend San Lorenzo Valley Middle and High Schools, both located in Felton.