Ben Lomond's Park Just Earned a Blue Plaque, and Mill Street Has a Calendar to Match

The last Village Market of the 2026 season is this Saturday, October 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It fills Ben Lomond County Park and the stretch of Mill Street beside the San Lorenzo River. After that, the next one is June.

The market has run on the first Saturday of the month since June. In that time the park has picked up a Museum of Art & History Blue Plaque, a second annual Scottish Day, and a run of community potlucks, while Highway 9 has added a Friday pizza night. Each of those has a host and a date. Together they show how the Ben Lomond Village Alliance goes about improving the village.

A Park That Has to Show It's Used

Ben Lomond County Park sits at 9525 Mill Street, and the Santa Cruz County Parks Department runs it. The Ben Lomond Library and Wilder Hall, where the Kreative Kids program meets, are on the county's side of the street. Across from them is Park Hall, the 1923 community hall at 9400 Mill Street that the town itself keeps up as a performance space.

The San Lorenzo Valley Post laid out the funding logic in 2024, when the Village Alliance was newly formed. County Parks is underfunded, and the way to get a project onto the county's list is to show that people want it and will use the space. Facilities that see heavy use get attention first. Quieter ones wait.

Read that way, the calendar is doing double duty. A market in the park is a Saturday morning with live music and a coffee in hand. It is also the kind of proof of use the Alliance described needing. The same goes for the potluck tables, the permanent dance slab the Lucky Steppers use, and the shortbread contest. That 2024 article records the group's thinking at the start, and the county's current priorities are the county's to state. Still, the pattern the Alliance chose is easy to see in what it has built since.

The recognition that arrived in September fits the same pattern. The Blue Plaque naming the park a Historic Landmark was celebrated at the September 5 market, with local historian Ronnie Trubek sharing the park's history at noon. The history is specific. In the 1920s, Ben Lomond decided as a community to create public river access, and property owners along the river donated their land to the county to build the park. The land was given to be used, and the Alliance's calendar puts it to use.

Alliance president Sarah Jansen-Mount said the timing felt right because the park was becoming "a gathering place for a new generation."

Her stated goal is more chances for neighbors to connect while the park's history stays in view.

What the Market Itself Looks Like

The Village Market has live music, local produce, baked goods, prepared foods, handmade crafts and community organizations. The June opener had music by Railroad Richard, massages from the Center for Healing and a tumbling area run by the Boulder Creek Recreation and Park District. The September market brought the same district back with a tumbling station and added a Brick Lab station for kids.

The Alliance has passed 1,000 members, according to its June newsletter. When it formed in 2024, its stated focus was Town Beautification, Events and Promotion, Economic Vitality and Long Term Planning. The market covers the events and promotion part. The street work covers the rest, and it comes up below.

Where the Calendar Touches Down

Most of the addresses worth knowing sit on Mill Street or Highway 9.

The event and hours details come from the Alliance's June newsletter, so confirm days and hours before you head out. The one line in that newsletter that changes how you get there is about parking. There is none on Mill Street in front of the park during the market. The Alliance suggests walking if you live nearby, or using public parking on Highway 9 and the surrounding streets.

This Week and Next

Here is how the days line up between now and the middle of October.

1. Friday, October 2. First Friday at Santa Cruz Mountains Art, 9341 Mill Street. The gallery's June reception ran from 5 to 7 p.m., and county-wide First Friday listings for October 2 run 5 to 8 p.m. Coffee Nine's Friday pizza night at 9505 Highway 9 and Aroma's patio music at 9600 Highway 9 were listed as weekly events in June, so confirm they are still running before you go.
2. Saturday, October 3. The final Village Market of 2026, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Walk in, because Mill Street has no parking in front of the park during the market.
3. Through Friday, October 9. The San Lorenzo Way Bridge in Felton stays under a full, 24-hour closure that began September 15. The county closed it so crews could remove trees and relocate utilities ahead of the bridge replacement. That work is scheduled to begin in 2027. Until the closure ends, drivers heading to San Lorenzo Way or Rose Acres Lane use the detour at the southern end of Mount Hermon Road.
4. Tuesdays, Felton. The Felton Farmers' Market meets at 120 Russell Avenue from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. It started in 1987 and is the second oldest market in the county. Listings disagree on whether it stops at the end of October or continues, so check the Santa Cruz Farmers Markets schedule before making the drive.

What Already Happened, and What Comes Next

Scottish Day came and went on September 19. It ran from 1 to 5 p.m. at the park, with falconry and sword-fighting demonstrations, a shortbread contest with a $100 prize and four categories, a silent auction, and beer and wine. The first Scottish Day was in October 2025, so the event has now repeated once.

The name suits the town. According to San Lorenzo Valley historian Ronnie Trubek in the San Lorenzo Valley Post, Scottish settler John Burns named the mountain Ben Lomond in 1851 after his ancestral home. In 1877 the settlement was called Pacific Mills after a sawmill owner named James P. Pierce. In 1887 it applied for a post office and took the mountain's name. A Scottish festival in the park picks up a thread that is more than 170 years old.

A planning committee for the 2026 holiday tree lighting has been meeting at the Ben Lomond Library, according to the community calendar. No date has been posted there, and benlomondvillage.org is where the Alliance lists its events.

The Streets Are Getting Some Attention Too

The Alliance has also taken its case to the street itself. On May 14, its president and its Better Streets & Beautification co-chairs, Jamie Helmer and Tina Castle, walked Mill Street, Highway 9 and part of Glen Arbor Road with Matt Machado, the county's Community Development & Infrastructure Director. The next steps they agreed to pursue were these:

• An engineering study on lowering the Mill Street speed limit to 15 or 20 mph
• Scoping a conceptual design for a walkway along Glen Arbor Road connecting Highway 9 and Pine Street
• An "Adopt a Planter Strip" program along Highway 9, with volunteers and business owners helping with weeds, irrigation and replanting
• A possible grant application to the Measure Q Oversight Committee for 2027 funding

These are proposals and next steps, and none of them is approved or funded yet. Machado suggested quarterly check-ins, so progress reports could come through the year. The plan has the same shape as the park's calendar. Each item is small and visible, and each one gives the county something concrete to respond to.

A Saturday That Has a Reason to Be There

The park on Mill Street was given to the county a century ago so that people could reach the river. This fall it has a plaque, a calendar and a 1,000-member group behind it. On Saturday, walk down Mill Street, catch the live music, pick up something from the market and look for the Blue Plaque before the season closes.

If a Saturday on Mill Street has you thinking about what comes next for your own place in the San Lorenzo Valley, Mike and Tara at Mike O'Boy are glad to talk it through. Connect With Us Today.