A first overall baseball draft pick grew up here. A physicist's failed faster-than-light proposal helped produce the no-cloning theorem. A working collection of early computers filled a redwood barn, where Steve Wozniak once signed a new iMac on his way out.
The people below had different relationships to Boulder Creek: childhood, residence, work, or a documented visit. Two ground rules apply:
- No addresses. We don't publish anyone's home address, parcel, directions, or current routine. A public connection to this town isn't a license to point at someone's house.
- Boulder Creek is not the whole valley. Felton, Ben Lomond, Brookdale, Big Basin, and Santa Cruz are identified separately.
Raised here
Pat Burrell: Raised in Boulder Creek
Born in 1976 in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, Burrell grew up in Boulder Creek and played San Lorenzo Valley Little League. He was the first overall pick in the 1998 MLB draft, taken by the Philadelphia Phillies, and won World Series championships with Philadelphia in 2008 and San Francisco in 2010.
Burrell attended San Lorenzo Valley High School in Felton for his freshman year, then transferred to Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose, where he graduated. Boulder Creek has no high school of its own. His local connection is that he was raised here.
Paul Locatelli, S.J.: Raised in Boulder Creek; birthplace disputed
Born September 16, 1938, Locatelli grew up on the family ranch in Boulder Creek. Obituaries differ on the birthplace itself, some giving Boulder Creek and at least one giving Santa Cruz. His father ran Locatelli Brothers Lumber, and the family also grew walnuts and grapes, an upbringing that sits right at the intersection of this town's timber and agricultural history.
He became a Jesuit priest and an accountant, and served as the 27th president of Santa Clara University from 1988 to 2008, then as its chancellor and as Secretary for Higher Education for the Jesuits worldwide. He died July 12, 2010, in Los Gatos.
Former residents
Cora Evans: Former Boulder Creek resident
A Catholic convert from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Evans was a reported mystic and stigmatist who promoted a devotion she called the Mystical Humanity of Christ. She moved to Boulder Creek in the summer of 1956 and died here on March 30, 1957, at age 52. She completed her final manuscript, I Was a Pilgrim in History, in Boulder Creek.
Her canonization cause is active. Bishop Richard Garcia announced his intention to open it on June 15, 2010. Rome granted the nihil obstat on March 29, 2012, and the Diocese of Monterey formally opened the cause that November. The diocesan phase closed at San Carlos Cathedral in Monterey on January 22, 2023, sending the documentation to Rome. Her title is Servant of God, the first stage of the process. She has not been declared Venerable, Blessed, or a saint.
Christopher Hills: Founded a Boulder Creek institution; former resident
Hills (1926–1997) settled in Boulder Creek in the early 1970s and founded University of the Trees, a non-profit school and communal residence built around consciousness research, which granted its own degrees. University of the Trees Press, founded in 1976, published his books and resident students' research. The institution closed in 1994 for financial reasons, and Hills died in Boulder Creek on January 31, 1997.
He was also, improbably, a major figure in the global spirulina industry, sometimes called "the father of spirulina," with ventures in Santa Cruz, Israel, Taiwan, and Mexico, and donations of the algae to Afghanistan, Vietnam, Ethiopia, and Sri Lanka.
His papers are held at Stanford as the Christopher Hills papers, M2705, in Special Collections. The finding aid dates University of the Trees Press to 1976 and the school's state accreditation to 1977, but gives no founding year for the school itself. Secondary sources put that at 1973.
Publicly documented residents
Nick Herbert: Publicly documented resident
A physicist and author based in Boulder Creek from at least the early 1980s, Herbert wrote Quantum Reality (1985), Faster Than Light (1988), and Elemental Mind (1993) here. He was part of the Fundamental Fysiks Group, the Berkeley-area circle of the late 1970s that pushed on the philosophical foundations of quantum mechanics, and later served as Fringe Science editor at Mondo 2000. He was also a figure in a Boulder Creek poetry scene known locally as the Bistroscene.
His most consequential idea is also the one most often described wrongly. Herbert's FLASH proposal (First Laser-Amplified Superluminal Hookup) suggested amplifying one photon of an entangled pair so its polarization could be read without collapsing the state, which would have allowed faster-than-light signalling.
It does not work. It was published in 1982 in Foundations of Physics on the recommendation of referee Asher Peres, who knew it was flawed and argued the flaw would be instructive. He was right. Rebuttals by Wootters and Zurek, and independently by Dieks, showed the required perfect copying is impossible, and those 1982 papers are what established and named the no-cloning theorem, now foundational to quantum information science. A 1970 paper by James Park had already proved the same impossibility and gone unnoticed.
So the accurate framing isn't "Boulder Creek physicist invented FTL communication." His publicly refuted error helped produce one of quantum mechanics' load-bearing theorems. Sources disagree on whether he was a core or peripheral member of the Fundamental Fysiks Group.
Jordan Hubbard: Publicly documented resident
A co-founder of FreeBSD in 1993, Hubbard wrote the Ports collection, the package tools, and sysinstall, later served as Apple's Director of Unix Technologies, was CTO at iXsystems, and now works at Nvidia. The Boulder Creek connection comes from his own self-listed professional location.
His Boulder Creek location is self-reported in his professional material rather than established by an independent profile.
Martan Mann: Publicly documented resident; works in Boulder Creek
A jazz pianist and educator with a master's from San Jose State, Mann is a past Improvisation Chairman of the Music Teachers' Association of California and the author of Jazz Improvisation for the Classical Pianist, New Age Improvisation for the Classical Pianist, and Improvising Blues Piano. He teaches privately from Boulder Creek and has served as house pianist for the Jazz Society of Santa Cruz jam, the latter in Santa Cruz, not here.
Institutions and the people who came to them
DigiBarn Computer Museum: Founded a Boulder Creek institution
Founded by curator Dr. Bruce Damer and Allan Lundell, DigiBarn housed a personal-computing collection inside a 90-year-old old-growth redwood barn at Ancient Oaks Farm in Boulder Creek. The collection ran from a 1962 LINC through the homebrew era to 1990s networked computing, and included a Cray-1, a Xerox Alto, and Apple and Atari machines, many kept in working order.
It survived the CZU fire. DigiBarn's own site puts it plainly: "The DigiBarn survived the 2020 CZU fire inferno!", and adds that "the fire was stopped a mile from here." That near miss changed the project's direction. Damer credits the Internet Archive for storing the museum's Apple documents collection during the emergency, and the museum has since turned toward digital preservation, "starting with an initiative to scan and preserve the rarest documents, all to be provided to you online."
Visiting the physical collection requires checking its current status:
- It never kept regular walk-in hours. DigiBarn ran scheduled public open houses that anyone could sign up for, and outside those, access was by arrangement with the curator: scholars, computing figures, serious press.
- The physical collection is on long-term loan to the Computer Museum at System Source in Hunt Valley, Maryland. That's DigiBarn's own statement, current as of its 2022 site update rather than confirmed for this year. The virtual museum at digibarn.com remains online.
On the founding date. DigiBarn's own about page dates the museum to May 7, 2001, when Bruce Damer, JM Valera, and Allan Lundell bought the first pieces of the collection. The barn itself was bought in August 1998, which is what the site's "our 25th year" line for 2022 counts from.
DigiBarn's front page is current through 2022, so the loan status is confirmed as of that update rather than for today.
Steve Wozniak: Documented visitor, December 14, 2006
The Apple co-founder visited Ancient Oaks Farm and DigiBarn on December 14, 2006, for a Discovery Channel interview shoot and his first tour of the collection. Present were the Discovery crew, curator Bruce Damer, Allan Lundell (who had worked with Wozniak on the 1982 US Festival), and Sellam Ismail of the Vintage Computer Festival. Filming took place among the redwoods and inside the barn, around the Cray-1, the Xerox Alto, and the Mac collection. He signed a newly delivered 24-inch iMac on his way out.
Worked and filmed here
Beatriz Michelena: Worked and filmed in Boulder Creek
One of the first Latina stars of American silent film, and co-creator of the Poverty Flat movie set built outside town in 1915. She headed her own production company from 1917 to 1920. Full profile.
Mary Pickford: Filmed in Boulder Creek
The biggest star in the world in 1917, when she shot exteriors for Cecil B. DeMille's A Romance of the Redwoods on the Poverty Flat set. She did not live here. Full profile.
Historical figures
Joseph Wilbur Peery: Early settler; founded a Boulder Creek institution
Built a small sawmill across from Bear Creek in the early 1860s, around which the settlement of Boulder grew. He became the first postmaster when the Boulder Creek post office opened in 1872, the act that fixed the town's name. In January 1875 he founded Lorenzo, the rival town a mile south that the railroad ultimately doomed. See how the name was settled.
Share a documented connection
If you are listed here and want an entry corrected, expanded, or removed, contact us. For a missing person, include the specific Boulder Creek connection and the source or firsthand knowledge behind it.
The stories continue in how Boulder Creek got its name and the Poverty Flat movie set. At DigiBarn, one visit left a smaller physical trace: Steve Wozniak's signature on a newly delivered 24-inch iMac.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the most famous person from Boulder Creek?
Pat Burrell is the most widely known person raised here: first overall pick in the 1998 MLB draft and a two-time World Series champion. Paul Locatelli, S.J., who grew up here on the family ranch, led Santa Clara University for twenty years.
Did Steve Wozniak visit Boulder Creek?
Yes, on December 14, 2006, for a Discovery Channel shoot and a tour of the DigiBarn computer museum. The visit is documented with dated photographs by DigiBarn itself.
Can I visit the DigiBarn museum?
No. It never kept regular walk-in hours; visits came through scheduled open houses or by arrangement with the curator. DigiBarn states that the collection is on long-term loan to the Computer Museum at System Source in Hunt Valley, Maryland. The virtual museum remains online at digibarn.com. The barn itself survived the 2020 CZU fire, which stopped about a mile away.
Is Cora Evans a saint?
No. Her title is Servant of God, the first stage of the canonization process. The diocesan phase of her cause closed in January 2023 and the documentation went to Rome. She has not been declared Venerable, Blessed, or a saint.
