In 1769, the Alta California land expedition led by Captain Gaspar de Portola passed through this valley and reached the Pájaro River, which they named for a large straw-stuffed bird with a six-foot wingspan found in a deserted Indian village. The expedition, which included soldiers, volunteers, Indians from Baja California, and Father Juan Crespi, also first discovered the Redwood Tree near Pinto Lake. In 1852, a small village named Pájaro was laid out along a narrow, dusty stagecoach road that wound through the Pájaro Valley and over the Pájaro River to Monterey County. Merchants, many from the mining fields, came with wagons full of goods, and tents and small rough-framed buildings rose along the main street, first called Pájaro Street. Spanish cattle were often herded through the village and stopped to graze in an open field that later became the City Plaza. Men were hanged for horse stealing and murder, sometimes from the wooden bridge crossing the Pájaro River. Pájaro was later renamed Watsonville for early Pájaro Valley pioneer Judge John Howard Watson and was incorporated in 1868.
