The Santa Cruz Moose Lodge #545 was chartered into the Loyal Order Of Moose on April 2nd, 1911. The Original Moose lodge was on Pacific Ave. in downtown Santa Cruz, CA. This picture shows the Pacific Ave. Moose Lodge Burning. The sign in the left of the picture is for Cathcart St.. I don't really know anything about this picture but we're working on that. The Santa Cruz Moose Lodge was in the downtown Pacific Ave. area untill 1968.

During the time that the Moose Lodge was downtown Santa Cruz, Our present location was owned by Zanze's Rocky Falls Restaurant. An article shown in the picture on the right from the Santa Cruz Riptide Newspaper printed July 4th 1952 shows a map to the best local Restaurants and Resorts in Santa Cruz County. Among the list of Restaurants is Zanze's Rocky Falls and the well known Shadow Brook and Ideal Fish Restaurant that are still locals favorites to this day.

On Friday, February 16, 1968 The Santa Cruz Moose Lodge started its 3 day grand opening celebration in its then "new" location on 2505 Cabrillo College Dr. in Aptos, CA. Taking over an established and successful location that was called The Driftwood Restaurant, the Moose Lodge's new location was an immediate hit. The picture on the left is page 8 from a Lodge Bulletin that was printed in 1968. It shows the Lodge had room for 400 people and Dining & Dancing every Saturday night for Members. The Lodge remained at this location until 1970 when it moved here to Scotts Valley. Some of the old timers still talk about the good times they had at that lodge!

This picture on the right is a Moose Membership Application from 1968. I thought it was an interesting example of how the Moose Organization has evolved with the times for the better. The fine print by your signature in 1968 used to read "I hereby certify that I am of sound mind and body, being a member of the Caucasian, white race, and not married to one of any other race, and a believer in a Supreme Being". You'll obviously find very different "fine print" on our Membership Applications now. The Loyal Order Of Moose accepts all People into their fraternity. Another Interesting fact about this Application is that the Membership Dues were only $10 a year back then, perhaps somethings are best unchanged? ;)

On April 7th, 1970 The Santa Cruz Moose Lodge #545 moved to its current location, 2470 El Rancho Dr. in Santa Cruz. The Lodge is just outside the city limits of Scotts Valley, CA. Our Lodge was Built in 1918 and was originaly owned by Zanze's Rocky Falls Restaurant.

This page is a work in progress, I am commited as Moose Webmaster to preserve digitally the history of our Santa Cruz Moose Lodge #545. If you have any interesting history about our local lodge, please e-mail me at webmaster@scmoose545.org.