Long before Stanford University and the City of Palo Alto existed, this area of the Mexican land grant, Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito Creek was a crossroads of travel and commerce. In the 1850's, it would take Juana Briones three days to travel in a wooden cart from here to San Francisco to deliver cattle hides. In the dry season, the route was through the flat lands (roughly following the current El Camino Real), but in the rainy season, creek crossings higher in the foothills were used. On early maps, El Camino Real was called "County Road" and then "State Highway" until about 1926.
In 1856, Jesus Ramos farmed the land across Page Mill Road from these playing fields. By 1866, William Page had timber acreage and a sawmill near the present Portola Redwoods State Park. Wagons brought freshly sawn lumber down Page Mill Road to his lumber business in Mayfield."
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