By Nancy Lund

When Mexico took over Alta California in 1822 after winning a war with Spain, life along the banks of San Francisquito Creek began to change once more. The new government began to disband the missions established by the Spanish. By 1834 they all had been ordered closed.

The creek then became the dividing line between vast ranchos granted to ex-soldiers and friends of the Mexican governors who were anxious to hold the land. The days of the dons began.

Five ranchos occupied the creek's banks. These huge pieces of property were granted through rough sketch maps called disenos. Creeks and large trees were the most important markers used to show borders.

The Arguello rancho, known as Las Pulgas, the Fleas, occupied all of Menlo Park and extended as far as today's San Carlos, from San Francisquito to San Mateo Creek and from the bay three miles inland. The grantee of the 32,240 acres, Don Jose Arguello, was governor from 1822 until 1825.

The Rafael Soto rancho, a small one at 2,229 acres, was granted in 1835. It encompassed what has become downtown and "old" Palo Alto. The creek, its northern border, was included in its name: Rancho Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito, the little corner of the San Francisquito Creek. Soto ancestors had camped along the creek with the Anza expedition of 1776.

In those days, the creek was navigable by small boats to where Newell Road is today. Soto built a small wharf at that site, and lumber was brought there over rough trails that eventually settled into Embarcadero Road.

Further upstream on the site of Stanford today was the 1,471-acre Rancho de San Francisquito, granted to Antonio Buelna in 1839. Their adobe home stood on the modern Stanford golf course near where Sand Hill Road crosses San Francisquito Creek. One story that has survived is about the Buelnas doing their laundry at the creek near today's Oak Creek Apartments.

Early in the morning on washday, Dona Maria Concepcion would instruct her Indian servants to load the family laundry onto the rough two-wheeled carts called carretas and drive to a ford on the creek. The clothes were washed and hung on bushes to dry.

Around sundown stringy beef that had been roasting all afternoon was ready to eat, and the men joined the group for an evening's entertainment of dancing in the moonlight to the don's violin. The next day, the carretas were loaded with the clean, dry clothes, and everyone returned home. Maximo Martinez's 13,316-acre rancho, el Corte de Madera, occupied today's Portola Valley. It stretched from Alambique Creek to Matadero Creek and from the border of the Buelna rancho to the top of the ridge we call Skyline. The rain that fell on his hillsides collected in several creeks -- Coal, Sausal, Corte Madera, Dennis Martin, Bull Run, and Los Trancos -- that merge into San Francisquito.

About 1852, on one small portion of the Martinez rancho along the banks of Los Trancos Creek, a friend of Maximo's started a small business that was destined to last through the years, even until today. It was a roadhouse called Casa de Tableta, House of Cards. Here the Californios would gather to drink, gamble and socialize. Today it is known as the Alpine Inn or "Zot's."

The last rancho that bordered the creek was one of the few granted to a foreigner, a onetime British naval officer named John Copinger. His land, Rancho Canada de Raimundo, began at Alambique Creek, the north border of el Corte de Madera, and extended north for 12,545 acres. Today it is the site of Woodside. Tributaries of Bear Gulch Creek (also known as Bear Creek) flowed through his land.

One of the earliest records of using the water of the creek system for power is of the dam John Copinger built on Bear Gulch Creek. Most historians believe he built it around 1840 as a source for irrigation and a gristmill. An 1868 San Mateo County map shows it clearly. A dam considered historic by California Water Service Company today still stands on the site. It isn't clear if this is the actual one built by Mr. Copinger or is of newer vintage.

The final story of rancho times is a love story. In 1839, John Copinger had married Maria Luisa, the daughter of Rafael Soto, in a splendid three-day ceremony and celebration. Mr. Soto died eight years to the day after their marriage, and Maria Luisa returned to her father's rancho downstream on the creek.

One day in 1849 an Irish sea captain named John Greer was exploring the south part of the bay in a small boat. He had decided not to join his crew that had run off to the gold fields. Quite by chance, he followed San Francisquito Creek inland and happened to meet the widow and heiress to two ranchos, Maria Luisa Soto Copinger.

They fell in love, married, and returned to the Raimundo rancho. John Greer became such a prominent citizen that for many years the Woodside School District was known as Greersburg.

The United States took possession of Alta California in 1846 and brought a different language and different rules and customs. Many rancheros lost their lands for complicated reasons.

When discouraged miners and deserters from ships drifted into the San Francisquito watershed, they used the creek system in a very different way.

Nancy Lund is the town historian for Portola Valley.