The Dragon Gate: Remembering Santa Cruz’s Forgotten Chinatown

May 28

A short film from the Coastal Watershed Council tells the story of the San Lorenzo River, Santa Cruz’s Chinese American history, and the monument that now stands as a reminder.

Santa Cruz has always been shaped by the water.

The ocean gets most of the attention. The redwoods get their share too. But running through the center of town is another force that has shaped this place for generations: the San Lorenzo River.

A short film from the Coastal Watershed Council, The Story of the Dragon Gate, brings that history into focus. It tells the story of Santa Cruz’s early Chinese American community, the city’s last Chinatown, the devastating 1955 flood, and the Dragon Gate monument now standing at the Chinatown Bridge along the Riverwalk.

For many Santa Cruzans, this history is still a discovery.

Emily Chung, a San Lorenzo River neighbor and former Coastal Watershed Council board member, describes being surprised to learn that Santa Cruz had such a deep Chinese American history. She points to the role Chinese immigrants played in fishing, railroad building, and the development of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

That history is easy to miss today because the physical places are mostly gone. The film notes that Santa Cruz was home to five Chinatowns between the mid-1860s and 1955. The last was located along the San Lorenzo River, between present-day Front Street and River Street.

For George Ow, Jr., who lived in Santa Cruz’s last Chinatown, the memory is still bright. He describes it as “a hallowed space,” filled with gardens, open space, family, and the river nearby.

Georgina Wong, a lifelong Santa Cruz resident, remembers children feeding ducks and playing by the river when it felt safe, open, and welcoming. Jenny Wei, a Coastal Watershed Council volunteer, connects the story to her own family’s gardens and says the river has become a kind of public garden - a place to care for, restore, and share.

Then came the 1955 flood.

The film describes several feet of floodwater pouring through Santa Cruz, including Chinatown and downtown. It was the highest level of flooding in Santa Cruz history. By that point, the last Chinatown had already been emptying out. After the flood, it was gone.

But the story did not end there.

The Chinatown Bridge Project was created to honor the Chinese pioneers who helped shape Santa Cruz and to reconnect the community with a chapter of local history that too many people never learned. The Dragon Gate monument was completed in 2020, with concrete creator Tom Ralston constructing the gate and artist Kathleen Crocetti designing the mosaic water dragon.

“When I see the Dragon Gate along the San Lorenzo River, I am so proud to know about its history and how it came to be,” Chung says in the film.

That pride is part of the point. The Dragon Gate invites people walking the Riverwalk to pause and ask: Why is this here? Who lived here? What stories have we forgotten? And what does it mean to build a more connected Santa Cruz today?

On June 4, Laurie Egan, Executive Director of the Coastal Watershed Council, will speak at Santa Cruz Works New Tech at River Row, a gathering focused on fresh ideas, community, and riverfront activation in downtown Santa Cruz. The event takes place at River Row, just steps from the San Lorenzo River, making it a fitting setting for a conversation about what the river has meant, what it still means, and what it could become.

Tickets are available now, now including a discounted bring a friend option.

The Dragon Gate reminds us that innovation is not only about what is new. Sometimes it is about seeing what was already here - the people, places, and histories that built the ground beneath us.

And in Santa Cruz, that story runs right through the river.