Instead of San Francisco Bay in the year 1769, Captain Gaspar de Portola’s expedition discovered the Monterey port for Spain found. The team went down the peninsula and stopped on the bank of San Francisquito Creek not far from the California Coast.
The corner of the university campus is now located on this campsite. Portola’s people investigated the area and Francisco de Ortega, starting from the same place investigated the eastern shore of the Bay. Anyone even being far away from the peninsula, could notice the old redwood.
In 1876 Leland Stanford who used to be California Governor bought 650 acres of Rancho San Francisquito and started the development of his well-known Palo Alto Horse Stock Farm. He was also the person who later purchased some more land and joined it to his farm, which was altogether about 8,000 acres. This area was the place where now Stanford University is located. Later not far from Camino Real grew a little town that was also named, like the university, Palo Alto.
Nowadays El Palo Alto is located on the east bank of San Francisquito Creek, not far from the old Southern Pacific Railroad tracks. In winter 1887, there was a flood which ruined one half of the redwood’s twin trunks, but another half of the tree managed to survive and can be called a monument now. After Stanford was established, El Palo Alto started to be a symbol of the university.
When the University was Born
Stanford University itself was opened for students on October 1, 1891.
The staff and students were provided with about 2,000 seats which got not enough very soon, as the number of applicants grew every year. Already in the morning people were crowding the university and this was of course the sign of its popularity.