GILROY YAMATO HOT SPRINGS RESORT

Under the guidance of the George Roop and William McDonald families during the years of 1865 of Francisco Cantua's discovery to the 1930s, Gilroy Hot Springs was a popular health and family resort oriented around a single hot mineral spring located near Coyote Creek. In 1938 the resort was purchased by H.K. Sakata, a successful Japanese American farmer from Watsonville. Renamed the Gilroy Yamato Hot Springs, it was the only Japanese American owned commercial hot springs in California. The resort served as a recreational and spiritual center for Japanese Americans before World War II and briefly as a hostel after the war for those returning from internment camps.