The Treasure of El Toro by Robin Shepherd and Peter Anderson
El Toro is an iconic Morgan Hill landmark and the inspiration for the city ’ s logo . Standing 1,420 feet high , it adds a touch of drama to the skyline . Yet El Toro has also been the subject of mistaken identity . To set things straight , let ’ s explore the history and geology of this iconic mountain .
Naming the Mountain
For years , visitors to Morgan Hill have mistakenly assumed the
City is named for the mountain we call El Toro . In fact , the City is named for a man named Hiram Morgan Hill , and the land on which the City is built was inherited by his bride , Diana Murphy from the Murphy family ’ s vast rancho , which included El Toro . In their day it was called Murphy ’ s Peak , and Martin Murphy Sr . was known to enjoy an occasional horseback ride up to the summit for a view of his land . Given the area ’ s cattle ranching heritage , it is fitting that Murphy ’ s Peak eventually became known as El Toro (“ the bull ”). Legend has it that 19th century American poet Bret Harte coined the name after scaling the summit to find two bulls fighting there .
along a great rift at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean over 100 million years ago . Some 5,000 miles west of Morgan Hill and south of Hawaii , two of the Earth ’ s tectonic plates were “ rifting ” apart . Along the rift , hot lava erupted and as it came in contact with the cold sea water , hardened into pillow-shaped deposits of volcanic rock , followed by deposits of limestone , stretching tens or hundreds of miles across .
El Toro Mountain . Circa 1904 . Photo Courtesy of Morgan Hill Historical Society
Digging deeper , geology reveals more about El Toro ’ s true identity . The mountain ’ s conical shape gives it the appearance of a volcano , and we find that it is composed mostly of volcanic rock . Even so , El Toro is not a volcano , and the mountain actually got its start eons ago , far away from Morgan Hill .
Moving the Mountain
According to local geologist Peter Anderson , the rock composing El Toro originated from a series of volcanic eruptions
Volcanic eruption from beneath the ocean floor . Sea water cools the lava to form “ pillows .” Volcanic rocks are pushed up over millions of years to form mountains .
T
he oceanic plate upon which El Toro ’ s volcanic rocks and limestone beds were deposited is called the Juan de Fuca Plate . Juan De Fuca was a Greek maritime pilot who served King Phillip II of Spain . He is credited with exploring the channel of water that flows between Vancouver Island , B . C . and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State in 1592 . The channel came to be known as Juan de Fuca Strait . Its center forms part of the international boundary between the U . S . and Canada . In 2009 , the Strait was designated as part of the Salish Sea in recognition of the Chemainus First Nation people indigenous to that area .
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