Valle Atravesado, (Crossed Valley), a small, east-west running
valley
A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...
that crosses the north-south running valley of the upper reach of
Mississippi Creek Mississippi Creek is a tributary stream to Pacheco Creek in Santa Clara County, California.
Its mouth is located at an elevation of at its confluence with the North Fork Pacheco Creek. Its source is located at on the south flank of Bear Mounta ...
in the
Diablo Range
The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley are ...
, 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 ...
.
History
Valle Atravesado was so named because it lay across the north-south running
La Vereda del Monte La Vereda del Monte (Spanish language, Spanish for "The Mountain Trail") was a backcountry route through remote regions of the Diablo Range, one of the California Coast Ranges. La Vereda del Monte was the upper part of La Vereda Caballo, (Spanish fo ...
in and east-west direction from to . It was an overnight camp that with steep slopes and a brush
corral made it an overnight stop for the droves of
mustangs
The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticated animals, they ...
of
mesteñeros Mesteñeros, or mustang runners, were people in Western North America in the 19th and early 20th century, usually vaqueros or cowboys, that caught, broke and drove wild horses, called mesteños or mustangs, to market in the Spanish and later Mexican ...
from the early 1840s to drive
Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
horses to
Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
for sale.
[ Frank F. Latta, JOAQUIN MURRIETA AND HIS HORSE GANGS, Bear State Books, Santa Cruz, California. 1980.] It was also used in the early 1850s when mustangs and stolen horses were held here overnight by
Joaquin Murrieta
Joaquin Murrieta Carrillo (sometimes spelled Murieta or Murietta) (1829 – July 25, 1853), also called the Robin Hood of the West or the Robin Hood of El Dorado, was a Mexican-American figure of disputed historicity. The novel '' The Life and A ...
's horse gang as they drove them down the rest of La Vereda Caballo to Sonora for sale.
[
The valley has been subsequently flooded when Mississippi Creek, that runs southward through it, was dammed in the 20th century on the south side of Valle Atrevesado and is now a reservoir. This reservoir was originally named Murray Lake, named after its builder Murray Hopkins, who not only built the reservoir but the 59 miles of County Line Road along the divide of the Diablo Range between ]San Antonio Valley
The community of San Antonio Valley, also called San Antonio or San Antone, is located along the Diablo Range in eastern Santa Clara County, California. The locale is bordered by Alameda County to the north and Stanislaus County to the east. ...
and Fifield Ranch.[
]
Today
Today the reservoir is called Mississippi Lake
Mississippi Lake is a lake in Lanark County in Ontario, Canada. Ontario's Mississippi River flows northeast and north through the lake. Several small creeks including Cranberry Creek, McCrearys Creek, and McGibbon Creek drain into the lake from ad ...
and the dam, Mississippi Dam. Henry Coe State Park – Backpacking into the Orestimba Wilderness by Richard Perkins
from richard-rowland-perkins.com accessed 12/06/2108. See mention of Mississippi Lake and Dam in the hiking journal of the author in Day 2 and Day 4 where he visited it. See also the included topographic map for Day 4 travel.
References
{{coord, 37, 11, 51, N, 121, 25, 06, W, display=title
Geography of Santa Clara County, California
Diablo Range
La Vereda del Monte