It's possible that the wilder stretches of Adobe Creek (its 20th - century name) would be the only part of Los Altos recognizable to the Ohlone Indians. Like other creeks flowing into San Francisco Bay, it was important for their fishing, hunting, and acorn-gathering.
Evidence of a group of Indian huts was found near Adobe Creek on a large shell mound in Palo Alto. Evidence of a smaller Ohlone settlement was discovered in 1971, when a burial ground was uncovered by new construction along Adobe Creek near O'Keefe Lane. An Ohlone basket was discovered buried in the creek bank further north. Foothill College mounted an archeological dig, with plans to repatriate all bones and artifacts.
Indian presence along Adobe Creek diminished after Santa Clara Mission was established in 1777. By the time the Spanish introduced cattle into the Valley in the 1800s, the traditional Indian way of life was completely gone.
When a newly-independent Mexican government expropriated land from the church in 1833, the creeks often became the boundaries of lands distributed as patronage.
Adobe Creek served as an eastern boundary for Rancho Purissima Concepcion, renamed "Arroyo de Las Yeguas" (Creek of the Mares) because the Santa Clara Mission had a corral of mares near the creek's entrance to San Francisco Bay. The creek also formed the western boundary of Rancho San Antonio, where it was known as "Arroyo de San Antonio." Rancho San Antonio later comprised a large part of Los Altos.
After the USA took possession of California in 1850, Rancho boundaries were normally retained as the land was sold into smaller parcels. This was the case with Adobe Creek, which later became part of the boundaries separating Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto.
When the Los Altos town site was set out in 1906, the choicest of the homes were built along Adobe Creek. By the 1920s, it had also become the setting for several larger places, notably El Retiro, Twelve Acres Estate, and the 60-acre Strassburger Ranch.
Until the 1910s, Adobe Creek water flowed year-round. Early settlers recall fantastic fishing. Los Altos resident Eleanor Cranston Cameron remembers men catching steelhead trout trapped in their spring spawning journey in a little pool beneath a waterfall on the Cranston property.
Adobe Creek was also a natural place to sink wells; several of these and their associated storage tanks are still owned by the California Water Company.
- Compiled by Don McDonald for the Association of the Los Altos Historical Museum.
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