Editing Watsonville, California (section)

===Spanish era===
In 1769, the [[Portolá expedition]], the first Europeans to explore the area, arrived from the south, where soldiers described a big bird they saw near a large river. The story survived in the river's name, ''Rio del Pajaro'' (River of the Bird).

The Portolá expedition continued north through the area, camping at one of the lakes north of town for five nights, on October 10–14, 1769. Many of the expedition's soldiers had [[scurvy]], so progress was slow. While the sick recuperated, scouts led by [[José Francisco Ortega|Sergeant Ortega]] looked for the best way forward. On the fifth day, [[Franciscans|Franciscan]] missionary [[Juan Crespi]], traveling with the expedition, wrote in his diary, "This afternoon the explorers returned. The sergeant reported that he had gone ahead twelve leagues without getting any information of the harbor that we are looking for, and that he went to the foot of a high, white mountain range."<ref>{{cite book |last=Bolton |first=Herbert E. |pages=208–209 |year=1927 |title=Fray Juan Crespi: Missionary Explorer on the Pacific Coast, 1769-1774 |url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000288788 |publisher=HathiTrust Digital Library |access-date=April 1, 2014}}</ref>

During the October March 10, the explorers first saw the [[Coast redwood]] tree (Spanish: ''palo colorado''). A bronze plaque at Pinto Lake (now a city park) commemorates the event.<ref>{{cite book |last=Koch |first=Margaret |pages=11 |year=1973 |title=Santa Cruz County: Parade of the Past |isbn=9780913548165 |location=Fresno, CA |publisher=Valley Press }}</ref> On October 15, the expedition continued to the northwest past today's community of [[Freedom, California|Freedom]], camping that night at Corralitos Lagoon.

The area became part of the Spanish colonial province of [[The Californias|Las Californias]], and in 1804 the northern part was split off to form [[Alta California]]. The area's pasture lands were assigned to the [[Spanish missions in California|Spanish mission]] to the south, in Carmel.