One of California's newest State Historic Parks, the former Cowell Ranch, has not yet been named. It is best known for the historic settler John Marsh and the impressive stone house he built there.
John Marsh purchased the 13,316-acre Mexican land grant Los Meganos from Jose Noriega for $500 in 1838. Marsh built a small adobe along the creek and proceeded to develop Los Meganos into one of the largest ranches in the region, shipping beef and produce to
For thousands of years before John Marsh, the Spanish, the Mexicans, or the Americans came to the East Bay/Delta region, Native people lived in this beautiful place where the foothills and valley marshlands meet.
Who were these first inhabitants, and how long did they live along this stretch of Marsh Creek? California State Parks Archaeologists are working with living Native people to decipher the story written on the land.
The Archaeology of the Marsh Creek Site