The City of Watsonville
Once a Village Named Pájaro
When the land expedition of Alta California led by Captain Gaspar de Portola passed through this valley in 1769, they reached the Pájaro River, which they named for a large straw-stuffed bird (pájaro in Spanish) with a wing span of six feet that they found in a deserted Indian village. It was this expedition which included soldiers, volunteers, Indians from Baja California, and Father Juan Crespi that also first discovered the Redwood Tree near Pinto Lake.
Years later in 1852, a small village name Pájaro was laid out along a narrow and dusty stagecoach road which wound through the Pájaro Valley and over the Pájaro River to Monterey County. Merchants came to the valley, many from mining fields, bringing their wagons full of goods. Tents and small roughly framed buildings sprang up on the main street first called Pájaro Street. Spanish cattle often were herded through the village and stopped to graze in an open field which was to become the City Plaza. Men were hanged for horse stealing and murder and sometimes they could be seen hanging from the wooden bridge that crossed the Pájaro River.
Pájaro was renamed Watsonville for one of the early pioneers of the Pájaro Valley, Judge John Howard Watson, and incorporated in 1868.
Marker is on Main Street south of Maple Avenue, on the left when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
