Alameda County

Alameda County was created in 1853 from portions of Contra Costa and Santa Clara Counties. The county seat was originally at Alvarado. It was moved to San Leandro in 1856, and from there in 1873 to Oakland, where it has remained.

The poplar or cottonwood tree (alamo in Spanish) is the basis for the word alameda, which means "a place where poplar trees grow"; it was also used to describe a tree-lined road. The county's name came from El Arroyo de la Alameda (Alameda Creek), lined with willow and silver-barked sycamore trees, giving it the appearance of a tree-lined roadway.

THE EMERYVILLE SHELL MOUND

From the 1850s the shell mounds found along the shores of San Francisco Bay excited the curiosity of the incoming new settlers. In 1902 these mounds were studied by Professors John C. Merriam and Max Uhle of the University of California. They made careful excavations on the site of the prominent Emeryville mound and published the results of their work. In 1908, N. C. Nelson completed a survey of the entire San Francisco Bay region, where he located, numbered, and mapped nearly 425 shell heaps, analyzing them in detail and publishing a summary of his observations and conclusions.

The Emeryville Mound, designated number 329 in the Nelson survey, was situated on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay almost due east of the Golden Gate. It lay on the western side of the Peralta grant, or that part of Rancho San Antonio apportioned to Vicente Peralta by his father, Luis Maria Peralta. This section later became known as Emeryville, an incorporated city lying between Oakland and Berkeley. The shell mound (SRL 335) was located between the bay and the railroad tracks. Shellmound Street identifies the site; no official marker has been placed there. As W. Egbert Schenck explained:

The first people who came to this area camped just above the shoreline, possibly on little hummocks at the edge of the marsh. As shellfish were obtained, the shells were thrown aside, and these with the by-products of daily life increased the campground and gradually crept out into the marsh. ... As the shell area increased, subsequent people utilized it because it was drier, placing camps, perhaps over what had previously been marsh. ... This shell area grew until it covered some hundreds of thousands of square feet.

The Emeryville mound was located at a point that was favorable for use as a camping ground by native peoples. Lying on the narrow alluvial plain that stretches along the Contra Costa ("opposite coast") between the foothills and the bay, it was bordered on the north by open, almost treeless plains, and on the south by a willow thicket some twenty acres in extent. Further south the thicket merged into a marsh extending about one and one-half miles along the shore and gradually increasing in width until at its southern end it was three-quarters of a mile wide. Beyond the marshes stretched a mile of rolling, oak-studded fields, the Encinal de Temescal.

In prehistoric times, Temescal Creek supplied fresh water to the nomadic people who visited its banks, and the abundant shellfish beds at its mouth supplied food. The quiet reaches of the bay were full of sea otter, perhaps hunted from tule rafts. Waterfowl filled the marshes, and deer were plentiful in the willow thicket and the oak grove to the south; acorns, seeds, and other vegetable foods were abundant, as the numerous mortars found in the vicinity indicate. The willow thicket also supplied ample firewood.

To this choice spot groups of Indians came yearly from the surrounding country, perhaps from long distances. They may have spent six months out of each year at this site, fishing and hunting, drying and pounding the shellfish for future food supplies, and taking the otter skins for clothing.

The Emeryville shell mound may be as old as 1,000 years, but it is impossible to determine this accurately. There is no certain evidence on when the place was last used as a rendezvous for nomadic tribes. Schenck says that it was apparently unoccupied when Fages passed that way in 1772, for no mention of it is made in the chronicles of that expedition. Anza, in 1776, and Gabriel Moraga, in the early 1800s, also failed to mention having seen Indians in the Oakland-Berkeley neighborhood, although they did note their presence both to the south and to the north. Yet even if these early explorers did not see Indians there, and even though there were no fogs concealing their whereabouts, the oak groves of which Father Crespi wrote, together with the willow thicket near the mouth of Temescal Creek, may well have formed an effectual screen behind which the Indians at the Emeryville mound were encamped — or perhaps took refuge — when the first white travelers passed that way.

Around the year 1836, Vicente Peralta built his adobe house not far from Temescal Creek and about one and a half miles east of the Emeryville mound. At the mouth of the creek was the Temescal embarcadero ("pier"), and the ancient mound was a landmark known to travelers along the old creek road during those days.

In 1857 the Peralta grant was surveyed and mapped by Julius Kellersberger, and in 1859 Edward Wiard purchased that portion of it on which the mound lay. Contemporary maps show buildings on both the eastern and western parts; in 1871 Wiard leveled a section of the eastern side and laid out the mile racetrack that became known as the Oakland Trotting Park. On the western side in 1876 he opened Shellmound Park, a popular holiday resort and picnic grounds; the Emeryville shell mound in those days was a picturesque landmark. On its low, truncated summit were a circle of trees, some windmills, and the round dance pavilion surrounded by a high cypress hedge. An atlas of 1878 shows this mound with the residence of J. S. Emery in the foreground.

The shores of San Francisco Bay were too valuable to be left undeveloped, and over the years virtually...