The town of Soquel can trace its beginning to 1846, when pioneers John Daubenbiss and John Hames built a sawmill for Soquel Rancho grantees Martina Castro and her husband, Michael Lodge. The mill, along with a storage yard and millpond dam, were located on Soquel Creek just below the present site of the Soquel Lions Park on South Main Street. The mill was washed away in a storm during the winter of 1847, and later rebuilt further upstream. This photograph shows the vicinity of the original mill about 1895, when a bridge connected West and East Walnut Streets.