Valle Hondo (Deep Valley), a small

flat Flat or flats may refer to: Architecture * Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries Arts and entertainment * Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch * Flat (soldier), ...

in the canyon along the course of North Fork Pacheco Creek in

Henry W. Coe State Park Henry W. Coe State Park (often known simply as Henry Coe or Coe Park) is a state park of California, United States, preserving a vast tract of the Diablo Range. The park is located closest to the city of Morgan Hill, and is located in both Sa ...

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 ...

. It lies at an elevation of . Formerly a Native American rancheria, then an overnight camp along

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 ...

, and then for local ranchers, it is now the site of Pacheco Camp in the state park and is located where the Pacheco Creek Trail meets Coit Road, which borders the flat on its south side.

History

At one time the flat was the location of a Native American rancheria. Later

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 used it as an overnight camp for their droves of wild and stolen horses who were enclosed within a brush corral for the night and called it Valle Hondo. Other horses might be added into the drove there. The droves were brought down from Valle Atravesado on the main trail of La Vereda del Monte along the divide of 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 ...

where County Line Road runs today. The droves of horses were driven down from the main course of the trail, across

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 ...

to this meadow for the night and driven back up to La Vereda in the morning before following the route of County Line Road southward passing Mustang Peak to their next rest and water stop at Estación Romero, that later became the Fifield Ranch. Frank F. Latta, JOAQUIN MURRIETA AND HIS HORSE GANGS, Bear State Books, Santa Cruz, California. 1980.

References

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