The Gabilan Range or Gabilán Range (Spanish for "sparrow hawk")[2][3][4] are a mountain range in the inner California Coast Ranges System, located in Monterey County and San Benito County of central California. Pinnacles National Park is located in the southern section of the range.
| Gabilan Range | |
|---|---|
| Gabilán Range | |
 Gabilan Range panorama. | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | Fremont Peak |
| Elevation | 1,053 m (3,455 ft) |
| Geography | |
  Gabilan Range Location of Gabilan Range in California[1] | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| District | San Benito County & Monterey County |
| Range coordinates | 36°36′39.864″N 121°18′52.750″W / 36.61107333°N 121.31465278°W |
| Topo map | USGS Mount Johnson |
Geography
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The Gabilan Range trends in a northwest–southeast direction along the Monterey County and San Benito County line. It is bordered on the northeast by the San Andreas Fault, the San Benito River and State Route 25 which separate it from the Diablo Range to the east; and on the west by the Salinas Valley, the Salinas River and U.S. Route 101 which separate it from the Santa Lucia Range nearer the Pacific Coast.[5] The northern limit of the Gabilan Range lies just south of Pinecate Peak[6] and San Juan Bautista, California.[7] According to the USGS GNIS, GPS coordinates for the southern border of the Gabilan Range follow Chalone Creek[8] which enters the Salinas River east of Greenfield, California. Chalone Creek is the principal drainage of Pinnacles National Park.[9]
Fremont Peak, at 3,455 feet (1,053 m) in elevation, is the range's highest point. There are several other peaks also over 3,000 feet (910 m) in the range.
History
editIn Spanish, gavilán (gabilan is an older alternate rendering) means "sparrow hawk".[10][11] Hawks, especially the red-tailed hawk, are common in the range.
The Gabilan Mountains and other nearby places are mentioned in several novels by John Steinbeck, such as Of Mice and Men and East of Eden. In The Red Pony notably, the main character (Jody Tiflin) names his pony "Gabilan" after the mountain range. The mountains also appear in the 1875 memoirs of Major General William Tecumseh Sherman.
Fremont Peak was named for John C. Frémont, an American explorer and a Captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers who assessed the military value of the peak in 1846, posing a threat to the Mexican authorities. It is now a California State Park.[12]
Ecology
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One of the last relatively undeveloped corridors for wildlife passage between the southern Santa Cruz Mountains and the northern Gabilan Range runs from lands between Mount Pajaro[13] and Rancho Juristac, in southern Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties respectively, south across California State Route 129 and U.S. Highway 101 to lands between Pinecate Peak[14] and San Juan Bautista in San Benito County.[15] The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County has protected the first block of land intended to protect the Santa Cruz Mountains-Gabilan Range Wildlife Corridor, the 2,640 acres (4.13 sq mi) Rocks Ranch in Aromas at the border of San Benito and Monterey counties.[16]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Gabilan Range". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
- ^ Napa Valley Register - San Benito - California's Hidden Wine Region
- ^ Historic Spots in California (1966; Hero Eugene Rensch, Ethel Grace Rensch, Mildred Brooke Hoover)
- ^ Wines & Vines Analytics - Central Coast Vineyard Changes Hands
- ^ Allan W. Walter and Walter D. Mooney (October 1, 1982). "Crustal structure of the Diablo and Gabilan ranges, central California: A reinterpretation of existing data". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 72 (5): 1567–1590. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
- ^ "Pinecate Peak". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
- ^ Ross, D.C. (1972). Geologic Map of the Pre-Cenozoic Basement Rocks, Gabilan Range, Monterey and San Benito Counties, California, USGS Miscellaneous Field Investigations Map MF-357 (Report). U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
- ^ "Chalone Creek". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
- ^ "Disturbed Lands- Chalone Creek Restoration". National Park Service. February 28, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
- ^ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. pp. 133.
- ^ Gudde, Edwin G. (2004). California place names: The origin and etymology of current geographical names. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. p. 140. ISBN 0-520-24217-3.
- ^ "Fremont Peak State Park". Retrieved December 17, 2021.
- ^ "Mount Pajaro". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
- ^ "Pinecate Peak". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
- ^ Penrod, K.; P. E. Garding; C. Paulman; P. Beier; S. Weiss; N. Schaefer; R. Branciforte; K. Gaffney (2013). Critical Linkages: Bay Area & Beyond (PDF) (Report). Fair Oaks, California: Science & Collaboration for Connected Wildlands. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
- ^ Juan Reyes (September 14, 2020). "Rocks Ranch property sold to Land Trust". The Pajaronian. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
External links
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