Editing Los Gatos, California (section)

===Overview===
The first inhabitants of the area that is now Los Gatos were the [[Ohlone]] Native Americans.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Back From Extinction: The Muwekma Ohlone, Part 4Exhibitions, Education, Art, Innovation, History, Bay Area, Los Gatos |url=https://www.numulosgatos.org/lghp-blog/11/30/2021/back-from-extinction-the-muwekma-ohlone-part-4 |access-date=November 5, 2022 |website=NUMU |date=November 30, 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref> At the time the first settlers arrived in the area, it was estimated that approximately 5,000 indigenous people were living in the [[Santa Clara Valley|Valley]], and noted that the relationship between the settlers and natives was very good. The first settlers to enter the Valley proper were two soldiers that had strayed from their [[missionary]] group on November 2, 1769. By 1777, there were between 1,500 and 2,000 Native Americans living in the mission compound.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bruntz |first=George G. |title=History of Los Gatos: Gem of the Foothills |publisher=[[Valley Publishers]] |year=1971 |pages=3–4 |language=en |lccn=79-174678}}</ref>

The town's founding dates to the mid-1850s with the building of a flour-milling operation, [[Forbes Mill]], by [[James Alexander Forbes (1805–1881)|James Alexander Forbes]] along Los Gatos Creek, then called Jones's Creek.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bruntz |first=George G. |title=History of Los Gatos: Gem of the Foothills |publisher=[[Valley Publishers]] |year=1971 |pages=5 |language=en |lccn=79-174678}}</ref>  The mill's two-story stone storage annex still stands.

The settlement that was established in the 1860s was originally named for the mill, but the name was changed to Los Gatos after the Spanish land grant. The town was [[municipal corporation|incorporated]] in 1887 and remained an important town for the logging industry in the [[Santa Cruz Mountains]] until the end of the 19th century. Despite being nearby to logging communities, Los Gatos itself only served as a stopping point for those heading into the mountains. With the creation of the Los Gatos Turnpike road, the town was placed in a strategic position on the journey between San Jose and Santa Cruz, and it became an attractive location to live in. Soon, the town was booming. In 1852 only one [[adobe]] home existed in the area; by 1868 Los Gatos held the Mill, a [[blacksmith]] shop, a stage depot, a lumber yard, a temporary schoolhouse, a hotel, a post office, and several houses. The town began to rapidly gain prominence after the town of [[Lexington, California|Lexington]] lost its importance with the fall of the [[timber]] industry in the area.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bruntz |first=George G. |title=History of Los Gatos: Gem of the Foothills |publisher=[[Valley Publishers]] |year=1971 |pages=7 |language=en |lccn=79-174678}}</ref>

In the early 20th century, the town became a thriving agricultural town with [[apricot]]s, [[grape]]s and [[prune]]s being grown in the area. By the 1920s, the Los Gatos area had a local reputation as an arts colony, attracting painters, musicians, writers, actors and their bohemian associates as residents over the years. The violinist [[Yehudi Menuhin]] lived there as a boy;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.losgatos.com/1999/03/yehudi-menuhins-los-gatos-days/|title=Yehudi Menuhin's Los Gatos Days|first1=Dan|last1=Pulcrano|publisher=Losgatos.com|access-date=June 25, 2014|archive-date=April 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414113106/http://www.losgatos.com/1999/03/yehudi-menuhins-los-gatos-days/|url-status=dead}}</ref> the actresses [[Joan Fontaine]] and [[Olivia de Havilland]] (sisters) were graduates of [[Los Gatos High School]]; John Steinbeck wrote ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' there (the location is now located in [[Monte Sereno]]); Justin Goodsell, a renowned quantum mechanics spectroscopy scientist,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UFE0051970/00001/pdf/0|title=UF Digital Collections|website=ufdc.ufl.edu}}</ref> was born in this town, and a prominent Beat hero [[Neal Cassady]] lived there in the 1950s. Along with much of the [[Santa Clara Valley]], Los Gatos became a suburban community for [[San Jose, California|San Jose]] beginning in the 1950s, and the town was mostly built out by the 1980s.