[8] When the town was incorporated in 1868, it was renamed in honor of John Gilroy, a Scotsman who had emigrated to California in 1814, naturalized as a Mexican citizen, adopted the Spanish language, and converted to Catholicism.

[9] Spanish explorers led by Juan Bautista de Anza first passed through the Santa Clara Valley area in 1776.

More than 20 years later, Spanish missionaries established Mission San Juan Bautista in 1797 near the Pajaro River.

In 1809, Ygnacio Ortega was granted the 13,066-acre (5,288 ha) Spanish land concession Rancho San Ysidro.

California's main exports at this time were hides and tallow, of which thousands of barrels were produced and shipped to the rest of New Spain.

Trade and diplomatic intercourse with foreigners was strictly forbidden by the royal government but was quietly carried on by Californians desperate for luxury goods.

During the War of 1812, the armed merchantman Isaac Todd[10] was sent by the North West Company to seize Fort Astoria, an American trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River.

The ship, with a Royal Navy escort, departed from Portsmouth, England, made its way around Cape Horn and proceeded up the Pacific coast of the Americas, stopping at Spanish ports for supplies along the way.

[14] Eventually, he found his way to Rancho San Ysidro, converted to Roman Catholicism and became the first naturalized English-speaking settler in Alta California.

In 1821, the same year Mexico won its independence from Spain, Gilroy married a daughter of his employer, ranchero Ygnacio Ortega.

[15] It served as a stagecoach station of the Butterfield Overland Mail and other stage lines in the late 19th century.

Following the U.S. Conquest of California and the discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada in 1848, the trickle of immigrants from the eastern states and abroad became a flood.

As many of the earlier Mexican and Californio landowners sold off their land, lost it to squatters, or were dispossessed through title hearings, the area around San Ysidro became known as Pleasant Valley.

[16] By then the town center had been relocated west of the El Camino Real (Old Gilroy is today a sparsely populated agricultural area).

Cattle ranching and timber from the nearby Santa Cruz Mountains were important to the economy for some time but, as in the rest of the valley, agriculture was the town's greatest source of income.

Farming remains significant, but in the 1970s the city began evolving into a bedroom community for Silicon Valley to the north.

[20] Nearby in the foothills of the Diablo Range to the northeast is the historic resort site Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs, first developed in the 1870s (and now closed to the public).

[21] In 1905, the Old City Hall was built in downtown Gilroy; in 1975, it was designated on the list of National Register of Historic Places.

Primary contributors to environmental noise include U.S. Route 101, El Camino Real, Leavesley Road and other major arterials.

[25] Due to the moderating influence of the Pacific Ocean, Gilroy experiences a warm Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb, bordering on Csa).

Summer months are characterized by coastal fog which arrives from the ocean around 10 p.m. and dissipates the next morning by 10 a.m. During summer afternoons, the maritime influence lowers and, as a result, Gilroy is much more prone to heat waves than nearby geographical areas to its north and west.

The local climate supports chaparral and grassland biomes, with stands of live oak at higher elevations.

[34] Gilroy also has over 20 wineries and tasting rooms located along the Santa Clara Valley Wine Trail.