SAN JOS É

SAN JOS É , California, is located seven miles below the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, on Coyote Creek and the Guadalupe River, fifty miles southeast of San Francisco. It is the seat of Santa Clara County. It was founded in 1777 as San Jos é de Guadalupe under the Spanish Reglamento Provisional because the Spanish government wanted to lessen the dependency of the presidios (forts) on the missions for their food supply. It was the first civil town (pueblo) established by the Spanish in what was then known as Alta California. Until the gold rush of 1848 it was the most important town in the province. When California entered the union in 1850, the first state ...