Her parents, Adna and Margaret Hecox, traveled overland from Illinois to California in 1846 and settled in Santa Cruz the following year.

Young Laura soon began collecting seashells, minerals, fossils, Indian artifacts, and other specimens and curios, turning part of the lighthouse into a private nature museum.

On weekends she gave public tours of the lighthouse including her personal natural history museum.

There were displays of dried sea stars and crustaceans, Indian baskets and mortars, Eskimo artifacts, minerals, agates, gems, petrified woods, coral, bird nests and eggs, turtle and tortoise carapaces, and several cases of shells, including two hundred local species.

In a short speech, Laura Hecox said that she did not feel that she was losing anything in giving the collection but rather was merely taking everyone else into partnership with her in the enjoyment of it.

In 1929, Humphrey Pilkington bequeathed his large collection of Indian artifacts to the City of Santa Cruz under the condition that a museum be established to store and display it.

In 1930, the Pilkington collection was set up at the Crafts House in Tyrrell Park in Santa Cruz's Seabright neighborhood.

This gave the museum formal legal status within city government and paved the way to someday expand and hire a staff.

During his twenty-nine years at the museum, programs, staff, collections, and exhibits continued to improve and expand.

Jenifer Lienau-Thompson joined the museum in 1998 as well, stepping into a lead role in 2005 when Moyce moved to Oregon to pursue a career in exhibit design.

In the fall of 2019, after a yearlong search, the board of directors was excited to recognize one of the local emerging leaders in the region and decided to make a promotion from within the organization.

Director Van Stolk looks forward to building on the museum's recent successes increasing scientific literacy and appreciation of the natural world among local residents and visitors alike.

“It’s an exciting time to work at the museum as we expand our programs to serve a more diverse population and become a regional leader in environmental education."

In 1986 the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum was established as a satellite facility at the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse.