Rancho Corral De Tierra

RANCHO CORRAL DE TIERRA RANCHO CORRAL DE TIERRA (AND THE MONTARA LIGHTHOUSE STATION) ancho Corral de Tierra was a land grant issued in two parts during the Mexi- can Era of California history. It extended from the southern base of Montara RMountain in the north to Pilarcitos Creek at Half Moon Bay to the south and took up lands from the ocean on the west into the coastal mountains to the east. Fran- cisco Guerrero y Palomares owned the property north of Miramar or El Arroyo de en Medio,1 and Tiburcio Vásquez possessed the grant south of there.2 Today, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area has park space on the eastern side of Guerrero hold- ings, encompassing real estate behind the communities of Montara, Moss Beach and El Granada.3 It includes open space, ranches and farms. For the purposes of this study, topics will include not just the history of the Park’s acreage, but the immediate surrounding areas as well that were part of the original Rancho Corral de Tierra which, of course, did not exist in isolation. Thus information is presented about the pre-Spanish contact in the vicinity, the stories of both land grant families, early agriculture on the San Mateo coast, the whaling station at Pillar Point, shipwrecks and the Montara Lighthouse, the commercial fishing industry and the history of Princeton-by-the-Sea, the Ocean Shore Railroad’s El Granada, World War II defense installations, big wave surfing at Maverick’s, San Mateo County’s preservation efforts at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and the activities of the National Park Service at Rancho Corral de Tierra. PRE-CONTACT AND EUROPEAN ARRIVAL (CONTEXTUAL) In 1994, archeologist Mark Hylkema discovered a portion of a crescent-shaped stone tool while completing investigations inside the fault at Seal Cove within San Mateo County’s Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, west of the National Park’s property at Rancho Corral de Tierra. By use of radiocarbon dating of nearby shell and charcoal, the tool was determined to possibly be between 5,500 and 8,000 years old.4 The age of the artifact startled those interested in the San Francisco Peninsula’s prehistory because it suggests the presence of previously unknown people that were here before the Ohlones by 500 to 2,500 years. (At the earliest, the Ohlones are thought to have arrived in the Bay Area about 5,000 years ago.) Who these people were is a mystery. Evidence of other ancients living in California going back as far as 10,000 years has been found. From the bone tools and few remains of such remnants, it is theorized that these early natives lived a nomadic existence; they followed the migratory patterns of large animals and waterfowl. The Hylkema crescent is made of Franciscan Chert 107 HISTORIC RESOURCE STUDY FOR GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL RECREATION AREA IN SAN MATEO COUNTY which is found east of the San Andreas Fault. The tool is on display at the San Mateo County History Museum in Redwood City. Actually, Hylkema found four different earthen layers within the deposit, indicating that humans lived in the Rancho Corral de Tierra neighborhood for many hundreds of years. Hylkema’s most recent find included a cooking hearth between 600 and 800 years old. Meanwhile, geologists found it most interesting that the offsets seen in the different ground layers indicated two significant earthquakes had occurred locally during times before European contact.5 When Portolá came through in 1769, the people at what became Rancho Corral de Tierra were Ohlones that spoke the San Francisco Bay Costanoan dialect, as did all the local tribes that lived in today’s San Mateo and San Francisco counties. Besides a number of archaeological sites, the only hint of their occupation of the land exists in some of the remains of their trail system. Perhaps for as many as 5,000 years, these people traveled over and back from Montara Mountain on paths, portions of which are still visible. At McNee Ranch State Park, just north of Rancho Corral de Tierra, the Indian trail is visible uphill from Gray Whale Overlook near Saddle Pass on the North Peak Access Road. The Indian path probably followed the ridge line south, behind the Willow Brooks Estates area in Pacifica’s Linda Mar District, up Montara Mountain to Saddle Pass, to the ridge above Green Valley, before dropping down to Martini Creek. When modern-day hikers stand on Saddle Pass, they are at the point where the Indian people crossed the mountain, and, where later on, Spanish explorers, Franciscan mis- sionaries, hard riding vaqueros, and users of early American roads traversed it.6 The Ohlone people occupying the territory from Montara Mountain down to Half Moon Bay called themselves the Chiguan. At the time of Spanish contact (1769), the entire local tribe consisted of no more than 50 people. Mission records reveal the presence of two Chiguan villages. Ssatumnumo existed in the Princeton-Pillar Point area and was closer to National Park Service land. The other, Chagūnte, was further south near Pilarcitos Creek, in today’s Half Moon Bay.7 The first recorded European sighting of the area was accomplished by Francisco Gali aboard the sailing ship San Juan Bautista in 1595. As he cruised southward along the California coast, just before resting at Monterey, he described Pillar Point, due west of National Park property at Rancho Corral de Tierra.8 On October 28, 1769, Spanish soldier Captain Gaspar de Portolá, looking for sites for settlement in Alta California, crossed Pilarcitos Creek and entered into Chiguan country. His engineer, Miguel Costansó, described the place around Half Moon Bay as “lacking in wood” and “very little inhabited”. As they approached Pillar Point he complained: “We were frequently rained upon; our provisions were running out, and 108 RANCHO CORRAL DE TIERRA the men’s ration reduced to a mere five flour and bran cakes a day; no grain, no meat (four bags of it that were left being saved for the sick)…”9 It was here that the officers proposed slaying mules for food, but the men elected to put this drastic step off for a time of greater need. After all, the Spanish were able to hunt ducks and eat what the local people gave them. However, the native cuisine caused diarrhea among many of the men including Captain Portolá and Costansó. Once at Pillar Point, the party made camp. Costansó noted the weather changed; the winds, rain and fog let-up. However, overnight it began raining again. Costansó called the place Llano de los Anseres, or Goose Plain, because of the abundant water fowl. Franciscan Padre Juan Crespi reported that because Portolá seemed too ill to continue, they rested at Pillar Point for a day. He described how the villagers of the nearby point (probably of Ssatumnumo) gave the Spanish tamales, as did all the Ohlone people Portolá’s group met on the San Mateo County Coast. Finally on October 30, the weather cleared, and they set out again. Portolá wrote that his men had to “make two bridges,” and now it was his turn to complain about there being “no wood”. Crespi also mentioned the lack of trees. They had awakened the camp at 4 a.m., crossed Martini’s Creek and came up to the base of San Pedro or Mon- tara Mountain. Costansó wrote: We broke camp and went along the shore until, leaving the point with island rocks to the west of us [near the famous Maverick’s waves], we passed over some knolls and across… hollows with… deep gulches full of water at which we were delayed by [having to] throw small bridges over them. We stopped close to the sea-shore, along which the way was entirely shut off by a high cliffy hill at the root of which ran a small stream [Martini’s Creek] of good water, coming out of a pocket in between various elevations… we placed the camp, up against the hills...10 Crespi’s October 30 journal records his calling Pillar Point, la Punta de los Angeles Cus- todios, Guardian Angels Point. He named the campsite at Martini’s Creek, el Arroyo Hondo de Almejas, the Deep Creek at the Musselbed, for obvious reasons.11 The Chiguan next met Spaniards in 1774. Captain Fernando Rivera with Franciscan Padre Francisco Palou led a land party up from Monterey to further explore the San Francisco Peninsula. They became the first Europeans to spot the Golden Gate from the south. During the mission, they met the people at Ssatumnumo who were still friendly. Rivera offered the headman, Camsegmne, tobacco, cloth and toys. Cam- segmne was, by ten years, the younger brother of Yagueche, headman of the Aramai to the north. 109 HISTORIC RESOURCE STUDY FOR GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL RECREATION AREA IN SAN MATEO COUNTY Between 1783 and 1791, most of the Chiguan were baptized at Mission San Francisco de Asís. In the 1790s, the Mission Fathers began grazing cattle in the Rancho Corral de Tierra area. These lands that Portolá, Costansó and Crespi had criticized for lack of wood were perfect for livestock raising. For centuries the Indians had been burning the landscape to make it better for the herds of large grazing animals that they hunted. The Ohlones had made conditions perfect for the Spanish new intentions for the mid- coast.12 THE VAQUERO WAY (CONTEXTUAL) Texas cowboy, artist and historian Jo Mora made a compelling argument in his 1949 book, Californios: The Saga of the Hard-riding Vaqueros, America’s First Cowboys, that the Alta California vaqueros at the Franciscan missions were the first cowboys of the West: I have had some grand arguments in years past as to who the first cowboys were.

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