Then and Now… A Look Back in History
The Transformation
of the Railroad
Written By Mike Monroe
I
t was May 1869, at Promontory
Summit in Utah, when the “last
spike” was driven into the rail-
road bed completing the trans-
continental railroad. The Union Pacific
Railroad had rushed across the Plains to
meet the Central Pacific Railroad which
had achieved the first rail crossing of the
Sierra Nevada. That same year, just a
month before, another railroad line was
completed connecting southern Santa
Clara County with San Francisco and
San Jose. It was an auspicious moment
for the burgeoning population of
California and our South Valley.
Our local story begins in 1866 when
Congress authorized the construction of
a rail line through Santa Clara County
eventually to extend to Hollister and
Monterey County. Taking the lead
was the Santa Clara and Pajaro Valley
Railroad Company which began
rapidly laying tracks in 1867. As so
well summarized by Ian Sanders in his
book “Views of Morgan Hill,” it was
in December of 1867 that work had
progressed to a point just to the north
of the tiny hamlet of Coyote. The Fisher
family had purchased Rancho Laguna
Seca (a land grant extending from
Coyote south to Madrone—a distance
of nearly five miles) from Juan Alvires
in 1845. With the Gold Rush of 1849,
fortune seekers from around the world
made their way through the Fisher ranch
lands. On foot or on horseback they
streamed along the El Camino Real,
sometimes camping near the Coyote
Creek adobe home of the Fishers,
seeking food and shelter.
Mrs. Liberata Fisher was a young
widow after her husband Thomas died
68
at the age of 40 in 1850. Yet the fam-
ily recognized the business opportunity
to provide lodging and sustenance to
the Forty-Niners. So she and her new
son-in-law, Daniel Murphy, decided to
place a rest stop on the east side of the
San Jose-Monterey Road. It was the first
framed building in Burnett Township,
constructed around 1852 of local
redwood from the Murphy’s mill on
Redwood Retreat Road. The Murphy’s
home in San Martin was a pre-fabricated
kit house that had been shipped
“around the Horn” in 1850. Initially,
the inn was referred to as the “Laguna
House.” According to Ian Sanders,
the two-story structure had rooms for
rent upstairs and a forty-foot polished
mahogany bar for the thirsty adventur-
ers. It was a popular place to stop and
be refreshed.
In a few years, the Fisher’s wayside
became known as the “12 Mile House”
as its location approximated the distance
from south San Jose. With the advent of
Butterfield Overland Express in 1858,
the “12 Mile House,” as well other
“Mile Houses” became stage stops serv-
ing oftentimes as post offices and hubs
of the local communities. Officially,
the locality was called Burnett and it
was not until 1882 that the name was
changed to Coyote.
The arrival of train service in 1869,
from San Jose to an area south of Gilroy
known as Carnadero near Henry Miller’s
Bloomfield Ranch, was a “game changer”
for the region’s farmers and cattle ranch-
ers. No longer would they have to plan
on multi-day trips to get their prod-
ucts to market. Coyote Station quickly
evolved as corrals were erected to hold
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
JULY/AUGUST 2017
the cattle pastured in the surrounding
hills to await shipment to San Jose and
San Francisco. The Braslan Seed Co. built
warehouses to store the harvest of seed
crops such as onions grown in the rich
Coyote Valley soil. The Miller and Lux
ranching outfit owned more than 20