it San Bernardino de Sena, so that this
saint may intercede for the conversion of
these” natives. Typically, the Spanish and
Mexican explorers always referred to the
native peoples as ‘heathens’, a prejudice
or inherent bias because of how radically
different the Amah Mutsun people viewed
their lives in the natural world.
From the expedition journal of Fr.
Crespi, with Captain Fages in the lead, the
party camped just below Llagas Creek near
Old Gilroy on March 22nd and then cut
west along the valley floor, through San
Martin, watchful for an easy crossing point
of Llagas Creek “ascending a pass through
some low hills which jut across the valley”
(Silveira Hills). This pass is where Santa
Teresa Boulevard crosses Llagas Creek and
because of an ever-present spring fed pool
of water came to be known as Las Llagas.
Subsequent Spanish expeditions, including
the Anza party in 1776, always stopped
at Las Llagas because of water availability
and the ease of fording the stream at this
location. Fages and Crespi made camp on
March 23rd near Coyote and Laguna Seca.
They crossed Coyote Creek the next day at
Coyote Narrows calling the expansive oak
covered plain to the north “Llanos de los
Robles” and stopped the next day
near Milpitas.
There have always been variations to
exact route of the El Camino as travelers
always had trouble crossing the Pajaro
River and early bridges were often washed
away. The location of Old Gilroy or San
Ysidro had a lot to do with its proximity
to Pacheco Pass and its slightly higher
elevation above the marshy San Felipe or
Soap Lake. John Gilroy settled in the area
in 1813, marrying into the Ortega family.
Yet when heavy rains caused Llagas Creek
to flood, Old Gilroy would usually suffer
as well. James Houck was the first resident
of what is today downtown Gilroy when he
built a small split redwood inn and stable
close to the intersection of Lewis Street and
Monterey Road. There is a sculpture of Mr.
Houck on Monterey at 4th Street with a
plaque that reads “ Travelling north by foot,
horse or cart along the El Camino Real was
several days journey from southern Santa
Clara Valley to the nearest town. James
Houck began a stage service and by nailing
an empty cigar box to the porch railing
fashioned a mail drop and became the
first postmaster.”
It was not until the 1860s when the
Butterfield Stage line used the current
Monterey Road followed by the railroad
extension pushing through to Sargent
Station that the new section of Gilroy and
the El Camino really came to life. Henry
Miller, Mr. Rea and other early Gilroy
settlers began the task of building drainage
canals in an effort to dry out the land in
South County as historically it was often-
times waterlogged. As a side note, in 1868
John Muir walked from Oakland following
the old El Camino south from San Jose on
his way to Yosemite, and camped near Old
Gilroy singing praises about the landscape
and starting his climb of Pacheco Pass.
The railroad corridor had a significant
impact on the placement of the El Camino
Real and the development of small towns
that were train stops. At Coyote Narrows,
near the Metcalf Energy Plant, high water
from Coyote Creek would always challenge
travelers along the current Monterey Road.
It was the construction and uplifting of
the railroad bed that helped our current
Monterey Road become the major
thoroughfare of the El Camino. Prior to
the railroad, people often utilized a trail
through a low pass in the Santa Teresa
Hills for travel between San Jose and
South County.
Before the railroad, when the only non-
Californios families residing in Morgan
Hill and San Martin were the Fishers, the
Murphys and the Tennants in the early
1850’s. They employed ranch hands of
Indian and/or Mexican descent who had
previously worked the large land grant
ranchos after the collapse of the Mission
G M H T O D A Y M A G A Z I N E
MARCH / APRIL 2015
system. With the advent of the Gold Rush,
the saying goes that the world rushed in and
it has seldom slowed. There are so many
stories that have involved the El Camino in
some manner – the cattle drives of Henry
Miller to San Francisco markets, the bandits
such as Tribuco Vasquez lying in wait for a
robbery attempt, and the planting of black
walnut trees all along the route from south
San Jose to Gilroy.
What I found particularly interesting is a
description of the El Camino Real running
through Morgan Hill as related by Mildred
Brooke Hoover in the “Historic Spots in
California.” The El Camino was not only
known as Monterey Road if you were
traveling south but also was called the San
Jose Road if you were heading north.
“On southward, th