Aromas, California

The settlement was originally known as "Sand Cut", named from the Southern Pacific Railroad tunnel constructed nearby in 1871. The settlement was renamed Aromas, after Rancho Las Aromitas y Agua Caliente, around 1895. ==Geography==

Aromas is located in northern Monterey County and northwestern San Benito County at (36.886988, -121.641396). Is it bordered to the south by Prunedale. U.S. Route 101 runs along the southeastern edge of the community, leading north to Gilroy and south to Salinas. According to the United States Census Bureau, the Aromas CDP has a total area of . of it are land and , or 0.22%, are water. The center of town is on the south side of the valley of the Pajaro River, about southwest of where the river cuts through Pajaro Gap (Chittenden Pass) at the south end of the Santa Cruz Mountains. ==Demographics==

Aromas first appeared as a census-designated place in the 1990 United States census. The census reported that 100% of the population lived in households. There were 910 households, out of which 30.2% included children under the age of 18, 61.2% were married-couple households, 5.9% were cohabiting couple households, 19.2% had a female householder with no partner present, and 13.6% had a male householder with no partner present. 17.4% of households were one person, and 11.0% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.98. There were 693 families (76.2% of all households). 0.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas. There were 954 housing units at an average density of , of which 910 (95.4%) were occupied. Of these, 79.8% were owner-occupied and 20.2% were occupied by renters. 4.6% of housing units were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.4% and the rental vacancy rate was 5.2%. ==Schools==

The Aromas-San Juan School District has three schools – Aromas Elementary School, San Juan School and Anzar High School. Aromas has one K-8 school, Aromas Elementary School with less than 400 students, (in 2000). Heather Howell is the current principal of Aromas School. Anzar High School, which opened in 1994, was named after early area pioneers. Anzar's current principal is Angela Crawley, and the school's total enrollment amounts to 258 students. ==Economy==

Aromas is home to a Graniterock quarry, with the A.R. Wilson quarry owned and operated by the Watsonville-based company. Since 1986, Fireclay Tile has been manufacturing architectural tile in Aromas. ==Notes==