San Benito County was formed on Feb. 12, 1874, from a section of Monterey County.
On July 27, 2024, the community will celebrate San Benito County’s 150th anniversary at the Historical Park in Tres Pinos with an extravaganza complete with entertainment, a petting zoo, jump houses, vendors, kids’ activities, presentations and more.
The sesquicentennial celebration will take place 10am-6pm July 27. The San Benito Historical Park is located at 8300 Airline Highway in Tres Pinos. Entry and parking to the event are free.
By 1887, sections of Merced and Fresno counties were later reassigned to San Benito due to the growth of the communities, says the county’s website. This new acreage included the New Idria quicksilver mines.
The county’s boundaries have remained unchanged since 1887, encompassing 1,396 square miles or 893,440 acres.
The county was initially created with three supervisor districts, but in 1883 the California Legislature implemented a new law establishing a five-member county board of supervisors.
San Benito County’s agricultural roots were prevalent in the late 1800s, with much of the lands devoted to farming, ranching and grazing. “The great body of the farmland is treeless,” says a historical account of San Benito County from the early 1900s. “Water is reached almost anywhere in the valley, at a depth of from six to twenty feet. Many artesian wells are flowing in the county. Lime, marble, coal and quicksilver are abundant in the hill ranges.”
The history adds, “The health of the people of this county is as good as in any section of the state—no chills and fever, no epidemic disease of any kind, an atmosphere that brings no malaria.”
San Benito County’s first sheriff was B.F. Ross, who served locally from 1874-1877, according to the county. Ross served again from 1884-1887.
Before the first European settlers arrived, the area now known as San Benito County was inhabited by the Amah Mutsun Tribe. The tribe occupied the San Juan Valley four thousands of years before the Spanish arrived in the 1700s, according to the Amah Mutsun Tribe’s website.
The Amah Mutsun community originally consisted of up to 30 contiguous villages stretched across the Pajaro River Basin, says the tribe’s site. “Members of these different villages were united by shared cultural practices and tribal traditions,” says the Amah Mutsun Tribe’s website. “Their mutual religious practices, method of fishing and hunting, ceremonial dress, craftsmanship and shelter set them apart from other tribes of California.”
Today, agriculture remains a central part of San Benito County’s heritage. But due to continued and compounding growth over the years, the county now supports all varieties of business, commerce, industry and residences. The current population of San Benito County is more than 60,000.
For more information about the 150th anniversary celebration on July 27, visit the event’s page on Facebook at https://tinyurl.com/yc2cc8jy.
