The first group of settlers of note to be mentioned were led by Vasco Gil Sodré, a former resident of Montemor-o-Velho, who arrived from Terceira accompanied by his family and servants around the middle of the 1450s.

In a few years a nucleus formed in the northern coast near Barra and Santa Cruz, in order to take advantage of the sheltered coves and access to potable waters from the tidal ponds/wells.

After 1485 the Captaincy of Graciosa was unified under the administration of Pedro Correia da Cunha, Second Captain of Porto Santo (Madeira) and brother-in-law of Christopher Columbus.

[3] The change caused an influx in settlers from Beiras, Minho and Flanders (in the Habsburg Netherlands) permitting the installation of the first municipal structures (in this case the construction of the Santa Cruz lighthouse in 1486).

With low costs that permitted easy offloading in multiple ports and with a small population to the island prospered, and becoming the target of attacks by pirates and privateers during the 16th and 17th centuries.

The island's position in the Central Group and its proximity to Terceira made Graciosa, deliberately or not, an important point along trans-Atlantic navigation.

Several historical figures passed through the waters of Santa Cruz including the Father António Vieira, a victim of a shipwreck near Corvo who was deposited in the regional capital by a Dutch privateer.

In 1879, Prince Albert I of Monaco, while visiting the Azores on-board his yacht Hirondelle, made port in Graciosa during his oceanographic studies of marine life.

He visited Furna do Enxofre, in the center of the Caldeira, and was the first to remark that the area should be given adequate installations to provide tourist access to the geological site.

The type of volcanism altered radically around 350,000 years ago with the formation of the central volcano (and later caldera) associated with a different magma chamber, resulting in greater explosivity and giving rise to thick sheets of pumice that layered Serra Branca.

The formation of the Santa Cruz Platform comes from the more recent geological volcanism associated with lower explosive basaltic eruptions resulting in numerous cones and sub-aerial deposits that cover the center and northern portions of the island.

The last phase of the geological history of Graciosa occurred 2,000 years ago, forming Pico Timão and the basaltic flows that are located in the surrounding areas.

Graciosa has a mixed humid subtropical-Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Cfa-Csa) with mild to warm temperatures year-round, it is also one of the driest islands of the Azores owing it to its relatively low topography.

In addition to this, the island has benefited from infrastructural investments that have included the re-qualification of the secondary school, the construction of a new milk factory and fishing port.