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History of San Mateo County
“The human story of San Mateo County begins at least 6,500 years ago. Recent archeology on the coastside near Montara has revealed human habitation going back that far. At the time of European contact with the natives (1769), it has been estimated that about 2,000 California Natives occupied The San Francisco Peninsula. They were part of a group of 10,000 people known to anthropologists as the Costanoans or the Ohlone. The Ramaytush Ohlone were the original peoples of The San Francisco Peninsula.
Their world changed dramatically when, in 1769, Army Captain Gaspar de Portola marched up the coast. It was from today's Sweeney Ridge, which separates the cities of Pacifica and San Bruno, that Portola discovered the San Francisco Bay for the Spanish.
Their discovery of the Bay became pivotal in the Spanish plan for colonizing California. Within seven years, a mission and presidio were built at the northern tip of the peninsula at today's San Francisco. The Franciscan padres found this a challenging place to situate a mission. The sun never seemed to shine, the soil, in most places, was sandy, the little fresh water was brackish, and no good stands of trees for lumber. Finally, most the potential neophytes lived down the peninsula. And so they found it necessary to build agricultural outposts in what is today's San Mateo County. The two most important were built at San Pedro Creek (at Linda Mar Boulevard in Pacifica) and San Mateo Creek (in the downtown San Mateo area). The establishment of these outposts was essential to the success of the mission community and presidio at San Francisco.
After the San Francisco mission lands were secularized in 1835, 17 land grants were carved out of what would become San Mateo County. The grants were awarded to favorites of the new Mexican-California government. The Arguello family owned the largest on the peninsula-35,250-acre Rancho de las Pulgas. The powerful Sanchez family came to own three of the grants-Rancho Buri Buri, Rancho San Pedro, and Rancho Feliz. Francisco Sanchez led the Californios against U.S. Marines at the Battle of Santa Clara ( 1847), which happily resulted in no casualties but achieved a truce.
Before the California Gold Rush began, a number of Americans and other foreigners inhabited the southern hill country of today's San Mateo County. They initiated an infant logging industry, which became significant after gold was discovered (1848) and San Francisco emerged into the most important city on the West Coast. R. 0. Tripp and other early pioneers recognized the potential of a port at Redwood City. Some 14 mills cut up the giant redwood trees of the Woodside and Skyline regions. Tripp established the Woodside Store to cater to the lumberjacks and others who came to the area. Meanwhile, Redwood City got its start as the most significant population center on the Peninsula's bayside.
San Mateo County was not one of California's original counties when the state was created in 1850. It was organized in 1856 through political compromise. At the time, most of the area now called San Mateo County was part of San Francisco County. San Francisco was becoming a haven for corrupt politicians, and reformers reasoned that it was easier to cleanly manage one local government than two. They wished to combine San Francisco county and city political leadership and services into one entity. However, those enjoying the status quo had many political allies, and when the issue was taken to Sacramento by State Assemblyman Horace Hawes, "he had to make terms with the thieves," as one contemporary observer wrote. In a compromise, it was agreed that San Francisco government would be consolidated, but there would be two counties.”
Courtesy of Mitch Postel, President of the San Mateo County Historical Association
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