Blackbird Valley, earlier known as "Valle de Mocho", is a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

south of Mount Mocho in the

Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay Area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley a ...

Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

. It lies at an elevation of 2,552 foot / 778 meters.

History

Valle Mocho was an overnight stop for droves of horses taken south on La Vereda del Monte by

mesteñeros Mesteñeros, or mustang runners, were people in Mexico, and later on in the United States, in the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th century, usually vaqueros or cowboys, that caught, broke and drove wild horses, called mesteños or Mustang hor ...

and the horse gangs of

Joaquin Murrieta Joaquin Murrieta Carrillo (sometimes misspelled Murieta or Murietta) (c. 1829 – July 25, 1853), also called the Robin Hood of the West or the Robin Hood of El Dorado, was a Mexicans, Mexican figure of disputed historicity. The novel ''The Lif ...

. According to Frank F. Latta, the Valle de Mocho was named after the Murrieta gang member in charge of their station in the valley, Avalino Martínez. Martinez was known by his nickname, "Mocho" (meaning cut off or short) for his diminutive four feet, four inch, stature. The Arroyo Mocho and the nearby peak Mount Mocho were also named after him.Frank F. Latta, JOAQUIN MURRIETA AND HIS HORSE GANGS, Bear State Books, Santa Cruz, California. 1980.

References

{{coord, 37, 26, 31, N, 121, 31, 11, W, display=title Valleys of Santa Clara County, California Diablo Range La Vereda del Monte