The Pajaro Valley
Located
on the Central California Coast, Pajaro Valley runs from the Coast Range to the Sea or as
its known, the Monterey Bay. Comprised of some of the best agricultural farm land in
the world, the Pajaro Valley supplies Lettuce, Strawberries, Apples and cut flowers to
name a just few of the crops grown here.
The city of Watsonville is located almost in the middle of
the Pajaro Valley with the following communities scattered about the Valley. Freedom,
Pajaro, Salsipuedes, Corralitos, Aromas, Las Lomas, Pajaro Dunes, and La Selva Beach. Moss
Landing is on the edge of the Valley, and is sometimes included as
part of the Valley.
Running almost down the center of the valley is the Pajaro
River. During the winter months, it can become quite a raging and sometimes flood
treatening beast. The rest of the year, if you wander along the river, it looks to
be dry, but don't let it full you, it merely goes underground, to reappear
further down stream.
From the City of Watsonville Website comes this bit of
info: "Explorers with the first Portola expedition in 1769 reported seeing a large
straw-stuffed bird at one river's mouth and decided to name the river after the Indian
symbol: Rio Del Pajaro, or River of the Bird."
The center of the river bed, also performs another job
besides that of a river. Way back in the Valleys history, when the counties of the state
of California were laid out, the powers that be back then decided to set the Santa
Cruz/Monterey county line as the center of the river bed. They never realized that in the
short history of the counties that the river would change its course in several locations.
So there is a spot or 2 where the opposite county is on the opposite side of the river.
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