Courtesy of: San Juan Bautista Historic Park
P.O. Box 1110, San San Juan Bautista, CA 95045
(408) 623-4881
The Mutsun
Prior to the Spanish occupation of California, the Sun Juan Valley was the home of the Mutsun Indians. One of their village
sites was on the eastern edge of San Juan Bautista. The Mutsun built the beehive-shaped huts of willow and coarse grass.
The men were hunters, and made spear points and arrowheads from chert and obsidian; the women gathered acorns, berries, and seeds that they ground in stone mortars. They also made the baskets that served the Mutsun in a variety of ways for storing food, trapping fish, carrying loads, leaching acorns, even boiling, by dropping hot rocks into water in tightly woven baskets.
In the mild climate, the women usually wore only a pair of aprons. The men often went naked, but both sexes wore cloaks of rabbit skin in winter.
The Mutsun enjoyed ball games, field hockey, dice games, gambling, singing, and dancing. They made music with bird's bone whistles, flutes and rattles.
The last full-blooded Mutsun Indian died in January 1930. She is buried in the Indian Cemetary beside the old Mission church.
The Mission
The buildings that face San juan Bautista's central plaza represent several periods of California history. The mission, founded in
1797, is the oldest; it was located here by Padre Fermin Francisco de Lasuen because there were many indians in the area,
and because it was about a day's walk from either Mission Santa Clara or Mission San Carlos Borromeo at Carmel. Excellent
soil and a good water supply, as well as timber, rock and other building materials were available nearby.
At one time some 1,200 Indians lived and worked at this mission, and more than 4,300 Indians are buried in the old cemetery beside the northeast wall of the mission church, along with a number of Spanish Californians. The church itself, the largest of its kind in Califonria, was started in 1803 and, despite damage from numerous earthquakes, has been in continuous use since July 1, 1812. The altar wall was painted by Thomas Doak, a sailor who left his ship and is said to have been the first U.S. citizen to settle in Spanish California.
Today part of the mission can be toured, and historical artifacts and exhibits are on display. The buildings still belong to the Catholic Church and therefore are not, strictly speaking, part of San Juan Bautista State Historic Park. Small donations by visitors are used to offset the cost of keeping the mission open to the public.
El Camino Real
Next to the old stone wall below the cemetery, the location of a short section of El Camino Real, The King's Highway, can
still be seen where it leaves the broad, flat plain and climbs diagonally up the hill to enter San Juan's central plaza. This is the
highway that connected all of the California missions, and later served as one of California's major stage and wagon roads.
Even today our modern highway system follows portions of the original route.
San Juan de Castro
After 1834 the town of San Juan, close beside the old mission, became known temporarily as San Juan de Castro. Jose
Tiburcio Castro became the civil or secular administrator of the mission and, acting in accordance with the mission
secularization decree issed that year, he divided up the mission property and auctioned it off to friends, neighbors and relatives.
Castro House was built in 1840-41 at the request of his son Jose Maria Castro, who had become prefect of the northern district. It was intended to serve as the judicial and administrative-headquarters of a district that included the entire northern half of Alta California. However, Jose Maria Castro was unable to spend much time there. After 1840, when he was cleared of charges of treason arising from an 1836 military revolt he led against Governor Juan Guttierrez, his military responsibilities required him to travel extensively.
In 1843, San Juan once again became the rallying point for a military revolt, as Castrol organized friends and family into the force that overthrew and deported Governor Micheltorena. Later, he became commanding general of Mexican military forces in California, preoccupied with the threat of foreign invasion and with the many other problems caused by the flood of immigrants beginning to arrive in California.
The Gavilan Peak Affair
John C. Fremont and his company of U.S. "surveyors" had been allowed to winter in California provided they staty away from
the coastal settlements, but in March 1846 they suddenly appeared in the hills near Monterey. Castro notified Fremont that he
would have to leave California, but Fremont ignored the request and led his men to the summit of Gavilan Peak, overlooking
San Juan. After three days, following an exhange of diplomatic (and some not-so-diplomatic) messages, Fremont decided to
comply and withdrew - "slowly and growlingly" as he later descibed it.
On July 7, 1846, after the outbreak of war between Mexico and the U.S., Commodore Sloat landed his troops at Monterey and claimed California for the United States. In November of that year Fremont returned to San Juan Bautista, this time as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, and spent nearly two weeks there gathering horses, mules, and supplies for his 428-man army. Known as the California Battalion, Fremont's little army left San Juan on November 28, 1846 and managed, despite considerable hardship, to meet with Andres Pico and sign a treaty with him - the Treaty of Cahuenga - thus ending armed hostilities between the U.S. and the Californians.
Castro House Today
Today, Castro House with its red tile roof and full-length balcony looks much as it did when the Catros first built it. Inside,
however, it has been furnished in the style of the 1870's, when it belonged to the Breen family.
As members of the ill-fated Donner Party, Patrick and Margaret Breen along with their seven children had been stranded in the Sierra Nevada for 111 days without supplies during the extraordinary snows of 1846. It is said that they arrived penniless in San Juan and were given free shelter in the mission. Early in 1848, when word came that gold had been discovered in the Sierra foothills, one of the Breen children, 16-year-old John, set out for the goldfields and returned with about $10,000 in gold dust.
In December 1848 the Breens purchased the Castro adobe and 400 acres of prime agricultural land in the San Juan Valley. Thereafter - until 1933 when it became part of the State Historic Park - the old adobe building was occupied by succeeding generations of the Breen family.
Behind the Castro House you will find a 150 year old pepper tree, a delightful garden, and several large cast-iron caldrons. An interpretive panel shows how these caldrons were used in the busy hide and tallow trade during the Spanish-Mexican period of California history.
The Plaza Hotel
Facing the plaza next to the Castro adobe is the hotel that Angelo Zanetta built in 1858. It has been restored to look as it did in
the 1860's, when the town of San Juan Bautista was a important stop on the stage route between Northern and Southern
California.
Zanetta, a professional restauranteur and hotel man, had already established a reputation for fine food and service in New Orleans, Monterey and San Juan hotels. In 1858 he purchased the land and the low-slung adobe buildings that stood next to the Castro adobe facing the plaza. The buildings had housed Spanish soldiers as early as 1813-14, but their walls were still solid.
Zanetta added a wooden second story complete with balcony, sleeping rooms, and other conveniences. The hotel's grand opening in January 1859 was widely advertised and thereafter the hotel's dining room and bar quickly became famous for their fine food and drink. Zanetta's reputation as a genial host also spread far and wide.
Plaza Stable
Built about 1861, to handle the extensive stage and wagon traffic that was a central factor in San Juan's busiest years, the Plaza
Stable was operated by a succession of men including John Comfort, a partner of Zanetta's who also operated the Plaza Hotel
bar. At one time there were seven stage lines operating through San Juan and up to eleven coaches arriving and departing
daily. The bulk of the traffic was between San Francisco and Los Angeles, but San Juan was also on the main route between
the San Benito Mountain quicksilver mines, Hollister, Watsonville, Monterey, and Santa Cruz, and was the primary staging,
trade, and supply center for a wide area of cattle and sheep ranches.
In 1876, the railroad bypassed San Juan Bautista and the little town's boom years were over. The stable has been restored to its appearance of the 1870's when it was handling the well-groomed, well-matched teams of the Coast Line Stage Company; inside, an assortment of carriages and wagons is on display along with harness and other items. Behind the stable is a blacksmith's shop with many of the tools used in the wagonwright trade.
Plaza Hall
In 1868 Zanetta acquired another piece of property facing the plaza. The old adobe building on the property may have housed
cavalrymen, and even earlier served as a monjerio or dormitory for unmarried mission Indian women. Zanetta used the adobe
bricks to form the ground floor of a two-story building that he hoped would become the county courthouse of newly
established San Benito County.
After Hollister was chosen as the county seat, the first floor of Plaza Hall was modified to serve as the residence of the Zanetta family, while the second floor was used for public meetings and celebrations. Laid over 30-foot-long redwood beams, the floor of the upstairs hall had good "spring" and therefore became famous as a dance floor. Many a grand ball was held there as were political rallies, temperance meetings, travelling shows, and gatherings of local groups such as the volunteer firemen.
Tiburcio Vasquez
One of California's most famous outlaws was associated with San Juan during the 1860's and '70's. Born and brought up in
Monterey, Tiburcio Vasquez lived in San Juan for a time and had many friends in the San Benito and Gavilan Mountains
around Hollister and San Juan. Like Murrietta, Vasquez was a legend in his own time. He was said to have a way with
women, and was widely considered a brave, cunning, and at times gallant fellow. His activities, well documented by witnesses
and thoroughly reported by the newspapers of the time, made him a hero of sorts to Spanish Californian's who many times
helped him "outwit" law enforcement officers and their posses.
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