Principal access to the city is supplied by State Route 17 that connects San Jose and Santa Cruz.

Approximately ten thousand years ago there was a lake in the lowest elevation of Scotts Valley.

Volkov had his Russian Orthodox baptism validated in Mission Soledad in 1817, and was given the Spanish name José Antonio Bolcoff.

Bolcoff lived with and traveled with Alta California's governor Pablo Vicente de Solá, acting as an interpreter.

Becoming a Mexican citizen in 1833, Bolcoff moved his family to his 4,400-acre (18 km2) land grant building, an adobe casa historians speculate was located near present-day Kings Village Shopping Center.

Bolcoff relinquished his interest in the Rancho San Augustin, selling and accepting $400 from Joseph Ladd Majors, also known as Don Juan José Mechacas.

The house originally stood on Scotts Valley Drive, near where a Bank of America branch is now located.

[5] Beginning in the 1930s, peat moss was removed from Scotts Valley and taken to San Francisco to supply soil for difficult indoor plants such as gardenias.

When that corporation went bankrupt in 1977. the owner considered launching a Knott's Berry Farm type of complex but was denied a permit by the city of Scotts Valley, and the park closed for good in 1979.

[7] Scotts Valley's most famous resident was film director Alfred Hitchcock, who lived in a mountaintop estate above the Vine Hill area from 1940 to 1972.

Florence Owens Thompson, made famous by Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother photograph, died in Scotts Valley in 1983.

From its early years as a stop on the stage route across the mountains, the Scotts Valley area has provided services to travelers.

With the growing usage of the automobile in the early 20th century, the area became commercialized and tourism developed as a local industry.

Camp Evers consisted of a small store, gas pumps, dance hall and tents, becoming a resort and rest stop for travelers.

The Beverly Gardens were established in the 1930s and featured a collection of exotic birds and animals, a restaurant, and cabins.

Bright "life size" painted dinosaurs overlooking Highway 17 were added to the Tree Circus in 1964 when it changed its name to The Lost World.

Evidence regarding blighted conditions in the Redevelopment Area of Santa's Village and the Skypark Airport was established in the year 1990.

[9] E-mu Systems, Seagate Technology, Sessions, and Borland Software Corporation were all formerly headquartered in Scotts Valley.

In May 2016, the University of California, Santa Cruz signed a 20-year lease to occupy the former Borland headquarters establishing its Scotts Valley Center.

Federally, Scotts Valley is in California's 19th congressional district, represented by Democrat Jimmy Panetta.

[19] In the fall of 1965, Eric Nord,[20] proprietor of coffee houses including the Hungry I in San Francisco, and the Sticky Wicket[21] in Aptos, also opened The Barn (1965–1968), an art gallery and coffee house, with a large area for concerts, on the site of the Frapwell Dairy Barn (1914–1948), in Scotts Valley.

[citation needed] Tom Wolfe describes the Merry Pranksters and Ken Kesey, from La Honda, at The Barn, in the last chapter of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

At Scott's Valley Drive, just off Highway 17, The Barn as a nightclub closed by 1968, with the Baymonte Christian School taking control of the property.

Scotts Valley is located at the southern end of the WWF-designated Northern California coastal forests ecoregion.

Air in Scotts Valley is typically maritime in origin, as it moves over the land from the Pacific Ocean.

Scotts Valley has mild weather throughout the year, enjoying a Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) characterized by cool, wet winters and warm, mostly dry summers.

Due to its proximity to Monterey Bay, fog and low overcast are common during the night and morning hours, especially in the summer.