Ohlone Amah Mutsun community. Photo credit: unknown original source, local source: Gilroy Historical Museum
the San Benito River northwest, likely along the course of today’ s Y Road, a landmark fork where trails led west toward Watsonville or north toward the Santa Clara Valley.
Font described the Gilroy Valley as prone to flooding, forming shallow lakes in winter. Near the Gavilan hills he counted about twenty huts, a small Ohlone village, where most people fled at the Spaniards’ approach, though some offered food and arrows in peace. The Spaniards noted Uvas Creek, named for its wild grapevines, and its southern stretch known as Carnadero, likely from Indigenous rabbit drives witnessed by the early
Juan de Anza Adobe, San Juan Bautista. Photo credit Cristiano Tomas, National Park Service
This was the homeland of the Matalan Ohlone, whose main village lay near Laguna Seca. Abundant acorns, wetlands, and springs supported thriving communities. Along the route, they came upon a sacred site near today’ s San Martin Avenue where an altar still bore offerings of feathers, food, and arrows. Font also remarked on sulfur vapors near Aromas and“ spruce” trees on the ridges, almost certainly the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The expedition passed near Chitactac, an Amah Mutsun village on Uvas Creek where sandstone outcrops preserve hundreds of acorn-grinding mortars. Archaeology confirms a population of more than 500, and Padre Palou had earlier recorded seeing hundreds there. By Anza’ s passage, Spanish contact was already altering village life, and within two decades the people of Chitactac would be absorbed into Mission San Juan Bautista and Mission Santa Cruz. As they traveled, Anza and Font observed many Indigenous people— some fleeing, others offering food— capturing in their journals the first impressions of a valley soon transformed by colonization.
From Coyote Valley, the expedition continued north along the corridor that would become El Camino Real. They identified the sites for Mission Dolores, Mission Santa Clara, the Presidio of San Francisco, and the Pueblo of San José, foundations laid between 1776 and 1777. In June, Lieutenant Moraga led the full colonist caravan northward. Families paused at the“ Lomitas de las Linares” near Gilroy, remembered as the place where Gertrudis Linares, weary from travel, rested with her infant Salvador. The settlers then reached San Francisco Bay, where Anza’ s vision of Spanish settlement became reality just as the American colonies declared independence.
Anza and Font returned to Monterey in April 1776, their work accomplished. Padre Font’ s expansive journal and his 1777 map of the Monterey and San Francisco Bay regions remain invaluable records, capturing the landscapes, the Indigenous peoples, and the decisive moment when Spain secured Alta California by land. Their crossing of the Pajaro, their camp at Las Llagas, and their passage through Gilroy and Coyote Valley preserve a remarkable snapshot of a region rich with wetlands, oak plains, and thriving Ohlone villages— places that remain etched into California’ s history.
Californios. The Pajaro River itself formed a natural and cultural boundary between the Ausaima, Mutsun, Unijaima, and Calenderuc Ohlone.
That evening, March 24, the party camped at Las Llagas Creek, just north of today’ s San Martin. Font described their descent from low hills to the arroyo, where an altar erected months earlier by Padre Palou still stood. They used it again for Mass, and the site, dedicated to the wounds of St. Francis, became a notable landmark.
On March 25, Anza’ s company pressed into the Coyote Valley. Font wrote of the Llano de los Robles— the plain of oaks— where valley oaks and live oaks spread across the landscape.
Notes: This is an abridged and edited version of a the full story by local Historian Mike Monroe. Read his complete story on our website at: gmhtoday. com
For further study: Who Was Juan Bautista de Anza? De Anza College / The De Anza Name Exploration Project: https:// www. deanza. edu / califhistory / anzascalifornia. html
Book: Juan Bautista de Anza: The King ' s Governor in New Mexico Paperback – November 8, 2018 by Prof. Carlos R. Herrera https:// www. amazon. com / Juan-Bautista-Anza-Governor- Mexico / dp / 0806161914
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