4.03.2008
El Palo Alto: The High Stick
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Walking back from Palo Alto to the north, your progress is stopped by the arroyo of San Francisquito Creek, which is presently flowing about 1 foot deep and 20 feet across. There is a nondescript concrete bridge over the Creek on El Camino Real, so many people drive by and never realize the creek is there.
On the Eastern side of the street, you'll see a rail gondola bridge right next to a bend in the creek. Take a walk off the road and you'll see a tall Redwood tree with a bronze plaque in front of it. It says:
The tree, called El Palo Alto "The high stick" is the origin of the name of the city.
El Palo Alto in 1910-one trunk was washed away in a flood in the 1870s
Portola's expedition consisted of some 70 soldiers, settlers, and their families along with 200 mules, goats, and horses. They walked from San Diego to the spot by San Francisquito Creek, camping there for several days, searching for land access to Monterey Bay. Their objective was blocked by the high wall of the Coast Range - and they missed it entirely. They did find San Francisco Bay, however. After exploring its edges, Portola determined it was too vast to be circumvallated and the expedition returned to San Diego. Originally the Creek formed a border between the ranchero lands of the San Francisco mission and those of Santa Clara, and was a well-known fishing spot of the Ohlone Indians.
The tree, El Palo Alto, is much healthier and thicker today (April, 2008) than it was at the turn of the 20th century, with lots of new growth and is thriving. For travelers, it is less than a few hundred feet from the Stanford Park Hotel. It is estimated that the tree started growing around the year 950 A.D.
In recent years, a steelhead trout was discovered in the Creek.
On the Eastern side of the street, you'll see a rail gondola bridge right next to a bend in the creek. Take a walk off the road and you'll see a tall Redwood tree with a bronze plaque in front of it. It says:
Under this giant redwood, the Palo Alto, November 6 to 11, 1769, camped Portola and his band on the expedition that discovered San Francisco Bay, this was the assembling point for their reconnoitering parties. Here in 1774 Padre Palou erected a cross to mark the site of a proposed mission (which later was built at Santa Clara). The celebrated Pedro Font topographical map of 1776 contained the drawing of the original double trunked tree making the Palo Alto the first official living California landmark.
The tree, called El Palo Alto "The high stick" is the origin of the name of the city.
El Palo Alto in 1910-one trunk was washed away in a flood in the 1870s
Portola's expedition consisted of some 70 soldiers, settlers, and their families along with 200 mules, goats, and horses. They walked from San Diego to the spot by San Francisquito Creek, camping there for several days, searching for land access to Monterey Bay. Their objective was blocked by the high wall of the Coast Range - and they missed it entirely. They did find San Francisco Bay, however. After exploring its edges, Portola determined it was too vast to be circumvallated and the expedition returned to San Diego. Originally the Creek formed a border between the ranchero lands of the San Francisco mission and those of Santa Clara, and was a well-known fishing spot of the Ohlone Indians.
The tree, El Palo Alto, is much healthier and thicker today (April, 2008) than it was at the turn of the 20th century, with lots of new growth and is thriving. For travelers, it is less than a few hundred feet from the Stanford Park Hotel. It is estimated that the tree started growing around the year 950 A.D.
In recent years, a steelhead trout was discovered in the Creek.
Labels: arroyo, creek, portola, sanfrancisquito, steelhead
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