Editing San Benito County, California (section)

==History==
Before the arrival of the first European settlers, the San Benito County area was inhabited by the [[Mutsun]] sub-group of the [[Ohlone]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]]. In 1772 Father [[Juan Crespí]] conducted a brief expedition into the area and named a small river which he found in honor of San Benito de Nursia ([[Benedict of Nursia|Saint Benedict]]), the patron saint of monasticism. The county was later named after the [[San Benito Valley]], the valley surrounding this river. Thus it was from the Spanish version of the saint's name that the county eventually took its name.

In 1797 Spanish missionaries founded the first European settlement in the county as the [[Mission San Juan Bautista|San Juan Bautista mission]]. In 1848 the [[United States]] government gained control over what would soon become the state of [[California]], which included the area now known as San Benito county. The town of [[New Idria, California|New Idria]] was the next town to develop in the area and was founded ca. 1857. New Idria was centered around the [[New Idria Mercury Mine]]. When the mine played out fairly recently in 1972, New Idria was abandoned, and the town is now one of California's many ghost-towns.

The town of [[Hollister, California|Hollister]] was next founded on November 19, 1868, by [[William Welles Hollister]] on the grounds of the former [[Ranchos of California|Mexican land-grant]] [[Rancho San Justo]]. In 1874 the California legislature formed San Benito County from a section of [[Monterey County, California|Monterey County]] while naming Hollister as the new county seat. Sections of [[Merced County, California|Merced]] and [[Fresno County, California|Fresno]] Counties were also later reassigned to San Benito County in 1887 as a result of the growth of the New Idria community. Other towns in the county which were founded early in the county's history include [[Tres Pinos, California|Tres Pinos]] and [[Paicines, California|Paicines]].