City of Gilroy Overview

Dig a little in any city in Santa Clara County and you’ll find its agricultural roots. But in Gilroy, that past is still very much on the surface. Not only is the city famous for the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival, it’s also a thriving center for boutique wine production. (Coincidentally, the town is named after John Gilroy, an itinerant barrel maker, who got his hands on the land by marrying the daughter of a ranchero.) Two of the top employers in town are garlic giant Christopher Ranch and agri-business company Olam International. Another horticultural high point can be found in the city-owned Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park: the “circus trees” of Axel Erlandson, a Swedish American farmer whose hobby was cultivating oddly shaped trees. But even here in the southern end of Santa Clara County, the forces of urbanization are at work, with a population that has almost doubled since 1990.