Paradise Park, California
32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1902 and the latest in 1998. It stands in the Santa Cruz census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95060. It stands on Powder Mill Creek. The Survey maps it on the Felton quadrangle. 367 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 92 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1902 to 1998The same ground, surveyed 96 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
2 figuresParadise Park fell from 389 to 367 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 389 | |
| 2020 | 367 | -22 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
15 surveys from 32 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1902 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
- 1947 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Felton quadrangle1:24000, 6 printings
- 1955 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1991 USGS Felton quadrangle1:24000
- 1998 USGS Felton quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
642 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 642 fires within 5 miles of Paradise Park between 1992 and 2020, burning about 318 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 70 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 307 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 109 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 70 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 41 |
| Smoking | 37 |
| Debris and open burning | 30 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 27 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 13 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 4 |
| Other causes | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Firearms and explosives use | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | HERMON |
| 9 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 9 September 1994 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | P.G.&E.#14 |
| 8 September 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 8 September 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | ROAD |
| 8 September 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | QUAIL HOLLOW |
| 8 September 1992 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | PG&E #4 |
| 7 September 2013 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | HWY 9 FELTON |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 44 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 44 workings within 5 miles of Paradise Park: 22 past producers, 10 producers, 8 occurrences, 4 unknowns. 10 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold, Limestone, General, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felton Quarry | Stone | Producer | ||
| Bachellor Ranch Quarry | Granite | Occurrence | ||
| Calplatti Quarry | Limestone, General | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Decomposed Granite Pit | Granite | Occurrence | ||
| Decomposed Granite Pit | Granite | Occurrence | ||
| Felton Pit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Henry Cowell Lime & Cement Co | Limestone, General | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Henry Cowell Lime & Cement Co | Limestone, Dimension | Past Producer | ||
| Holmes Lime & Cement Co | Limestone, Dimension | Past Producer | ||
| Ixl Quarry | Limestone, Dimension | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 2017Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Paradise Park in 3 storm reports between 2017 and 2026: 2 flood, 1 debris flow. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2026 | Flood | Paradise Park | - | Flooding was reported on both lanes of Empire Grade at the Santa Cruz Waldorf School. |
| December 2024 | Flood | Paradise Park | - | Mud, dirt, and rocks were blocking half of the southbound lane of State Highway 9 near Paradise Park. |
| January 2017 | Debris Flow | Paradise Park | - | Large boulders blocking one lane of hwy 9 and several other boulders falling into roadway junction of old times rd. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rincon | 0.5 miles | 32 | |
| Pasatiempo | 1.0 miles | 32 | |
| Beulah Park | 1.1 miles | 32 | |
| Pueblo de Figueroa (historical) | 2.3 miles | 16 | |
| Camp Evers | 2.4 miles | 32 | |
| Santa Cruz | 2.6 miles | 16 | |
| Allegro Heights | 2.7 miles | 16 | |
| Mount Hermon | 2.9 miles | 32 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Paradise Park | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6060803 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1656207. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.














