Felton is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California, United States.

Most of the Sayant were sent to Mission Santa Cruz and the area of the San Lorenzo Valley remained unpopulated except for occasional travelers.

[2] The rancho subsequently passed to Francisco Moss in 1839,[citation needed] then Joseph L. Majors on April 22, 1841.

[4] These miners, combined with lumbermen and their families, began a community known in early days as "San Lorenzo."

[5] Although the railroad was never built, Felton continued to grow as a town focused on the lumber, lime, and mining industries.

[6] and when formally opened in October 1875 was augmented by a new rail line to transport logs to the wharf in Santa Cruz.

[7] To enable it to negotiate on better terms with the South Pacific Coast Railroad, Felton was incorporated as a town by the Legislature on March 8, 1878.

[8] This gamble did not pay off and the new railroad established a depot across the San Lorenzo River at a site nicknamed "New Felton" by locals.

[10] In 1963, the steam-powered Roaring Camp Railroad began tourist operations on the Big Trees Ranch out of the Old Felton Depot.

[11] The company later constructed a replica logging camp and another depot farther down the property, and in 1985, took over operations on the old SPC/Southern Pacific standard gauge line to Santa Cruz.

Roaring Camp is a re-creation of an 1880s logging camp and home to the original South Pacific Coast (later Southern Pacific) Felton depot and freight shed, as well as two unique railroads — the Roaring Camp and Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad, a steam-powered line up Bear Mountain, and the Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway.

Scott Krueger, Josh Payne, Kyle Morris, Clint Gorman and Taylor West were known as the “Quail Hollow 5.” Their success was helped by the students who would regularly attend their games and called themselves, “The Red Sea.” On August 20, 2020 at 8:00 AM Pacific Time, due to the CZU Lightning Incident fires of 2020, Felton was ordered to evacuate by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

[This section needs expanded] The 2010 United States Census[15] reported that Felton had a population of 4,057.

There were 1,895 housing units at an average density of 416.3 per square mile (160.7/km2), of which 69.5% were owner-occupied and 30.5% were occupied by renters.