Pacheco Pass

The bronze gives the pass to Lieutenant Moraga, who crossed it in June 1805, but he was following a Yokuts trail and camped at a Yokuts village site. Juan Pérez Pacheco built an adobe near that camp in 1844 on his family's Rancho San Luis Gonzaga, and it served as a stage stop, a telegraph office and, until 1962, a roadside café. Then the state took the land for San Luis Reservoir, the water below this overlook, and the adobe broke apart when it was moved. Andrew Firebaugh's 1856 toll road crossed here too.

What the plaque says

Pacheco Pass On June 21, 1805, Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga, on his first exploratory journey into the San Joaquin Valley, traversed this pass, and recorded it. Since then it has been trail, toll road, stagecoach road, and freeway--the principal route between the coastal areas to the west and the great valley and mountains to the east. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 829 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with Merced County Historical Advisory Committee and the Native Daughters of the Golden West, June 18, 1969.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Los Banos — 14 mi
• Canal Farm Inn — 15 mi
• Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs Resort — 21 mi
• New Idria Mine — 26 mi