Coyote is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in a narrowing of

Santa Clara Valley The Santa Clara Valley is a geologic trough in Northern California that extends 90 miles (145 km) south–southeast from San Francisco to Hollister. The longitudinal valley is bordered on the west by the Santa Cruz Mountains and on the east ...

Some locals refer to this section of the Santa Clara Valley as " Coyote Valley", although it is not shown as such on maps. astride Coyote Creek, between San Jose and

Morgan Hill Morgan Hill is a city in Santa Clara County, California, at the southern tip of Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Morgan Hill is an affluent residential community, the seat of several high-tech companies, and a dining, entertainmen ...

's Madrone district, in

Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

. Part of Coyote is inside the city limits of San Jose. Its ZIP Code is 95013; there is a small

U.S. Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the Federal government of the Uni ...

. It is inside telephone

area codes 408 and 669 Area codes 408 and 669 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in the U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, eac ...

History

Once the site of the ''Twelve Mile House'' (a

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

station on the

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

route), Coyote is notable for its historic

Grange Hall The Grange, officially named The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, is a social organization in the United States that encourages families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and ...

, close to the Post Office and the

Metcalf Energy Center The Metcalf Energy Center is a 605 megawatt combined cycle power plant located in Silicon Valley, located in unincorporated Coyote Valley, south of San Jose, California and north of Morgan Hill, California. The power plant is owned by Calpine an ...

. The town's name was changed from Burnett to Coyote because residents saw many

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

s in the area.''Eye on the Bay'' television segment broadcast on September 21, 2008 on KPIX
CBS 5
The town nearly disappeared after

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

was rerouted as a

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

about one kilometer (0.6 mile) east of the town. The community was nearly absorbed by San Jose's

urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...

, until collapse of the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

canceled the city's plans. San Jose, however, still owns much of the land in the area after purchasing it prior to 2001.

Climate

Due to the moderating influence of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, Coyote enjoys a mild,

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

. Temperatures range from an average midsummer maximum of 32.3

°C The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The ...

(90.2 °F) to an average midwinter low of 0.9 °C (33.6 °F). Average annual precipitation is 480 mm (18.9 in), and the summer months are typically dry. Snowfall is rare, about once every 20 years, and is light and short-lived when it occurs. Summer months are characterized by coastal fog which arrives from the ocean around 10 p.m. and dissipates the next morning by 10 a.m. Winter months have many sunny and partly cloudy days, with frequent breaks between rainstorms. The local terrain is inconducive to

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

es, severe windstorms and thunderstorms. The local climate supports

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

and grassland

biome A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...

s, with stands of

live oak Live oak or evergreen oak is any of a number of oaks in several different sections of the genus ''Quercus'' that share the characteristic of evergreen foliage. These oaks are not more closely related to each other than they are to other oaks. ...

at higher elevations.

Transportation

*Bicycle path -

Coyote Creek Trail The Coyote Creek Trail is a pedestrian and cycling trail along Coyote Creek in San Jose, California, which continues into Coyote Valley and northern Morgan Hill. The Coyote Creek Trail was designated part of the National Recreation Trail sy ...

Major highways

Education

The

Morgan Hill Unified School District The Morgan Hill Unified School District (MHUSD) is a public school district operating eight elementary schools, two middle schools, and three high schools in southern Santa Clara County, California. Its jurisdiction covers all of Morgan Hill, C ...

serves the community.

References

External links

Coyote Post Office ledgers, 1916-1984

History of Coyote
High Desert Drifters. Retrieved 8 June 2008.

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Santa Clara County, California Seventeen Mile House Unincorporated communities in California