Tag: San Jose Facts

The Ohlone people were the Native Americans here before the colonizers. They consisted of approximately 40 groups of people, each with their own territory and chief, speaking approximately 12 different languages. They did not refer to themselves as one group or as the Ohlone. That name was given to them later to describe this group of tribes that had similar cultural and linguistic roots inhabiting the land encircling the San Francisco Bay, south through San José, and continuing to Point Sur, south of Monterey.

There were approximately 10,000 Ohlone people when the Spaniards arrived. The Ohlone group in what is now San Jose were the Thamien (sometimes known as Tamien or Tamyen).

Source: The Ohlone Way, book by Malcom Margolin, 1978, pages 1 to 3.

San Jose is tied for the second oldest incorporated city in what is now the state of California. Soon after becoming an independent territory from Mexico and while applying for statehood, Sacramento incorporated first on 2/27/1850 as a city of California. Second to incorporate were three cities: San Jose, San Diego, and Benicia on 3/27/1850. California officially became the 31st state of the United States of America soon afterwards on 9/9/1850.

Sources:
1) Clyde Arbuckle’s history of San José, book by Clyde Arbuckle, 1986, page 26.
2) https://localwiki.org/sac/History , 2019.
3) https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23856 , 2019.

Spain established a total of three pueblos, towns, in what is now California, then called Alta California. These were the first three non-native settlements in California that were civil. Prior non-native settlements were either established as military (Presidios) or religious settlements (Missions). The first pueblos in order were San José on 11/29/1777, Los Angeles on 9/4/1781, and Villa de Branciforte on 7/24/1797 that is now part of Santa Cruz.

Sources: 1)Clyde Arbuckle’s history of San José, book by Clyde Arbuckle, 1986, pages 10, 21-22. 2)http://villadebranciforte.org/history.htm#chrono , 2019.

The original name of San José was Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. It was named after Saint Joseph who was thought of by the settlers as the patron saint of the Spanish expedition through California that brought them here. The added reference of Guadalupe was to note the pueblo’s attachment to the Guadalupe River.

Source: Clyde Arbuckle’s history of San José, book by Clyde Arbuckle, 1986, page 10.

You can look up any street tree in San Jose that was healthy and living in 2019 with clickable details. Interesting info and also, a nice way to know what kind of tree you come across on a walk. Try it here.

Source: https://csjdotgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=ed392b9a2a874c0db9d0ed0ff223f64a , 2019.

Third official boundaries of San José:

The first two boundary sets of San José occurred in the early years of the pueblo when it was first founded and then soon after when it moved a bit to avoid the flooding of the Guadalupe River.

The third set of boundaries were officially established in 1850 when the town of San José became an incorporated city soon after California had become a U.S.A. territory. California was applying for statehood that would be granted a few months later. Paraphrased from the Act of Incorporation in 1850, the city boundaries were from the east bank of Coyote Creek, two miles south of the center of Washington Square then due west to west bank of Guadalupe river, then following north to a point four miles in a straight line, then due east to Coyote Creek.

The map above shows the city boundaries when San José incorporated in 1850. It was approximately 5.5 square miles large, much larger than the original two San José pueblo boundary areas, both of which it encompassed. Compare that, however, to the city today in the map below. Spinning the words “San Jose” on the map below would just about cover the whole of the city boundaries as established in 1850. San José boundaries today have grown to the entire highlighted area in the map below. The city is now approximately 180 square miles large.

Sources: 1)Clyde Arbuckle’s history of San José, book by Clyde Arbuckle, 1986, page 27. 2)http://gis.sanjoseca.gov/apps/mapsgallery/ , 2019.

Second boundaries of San José:

To move to higher and drier ground that would not flood so much, the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe moved a little south in 1797 to a new part of the land. Sometimes thought of as New Town, the boundaries were from just north of present day St. John Street to midway between San Carlos Street and Auzerais Avenue, Market Street, to the westerly area of San Pedro Street.

Source: Clyde Arbuckle’s history of San José, book by Clyde Arbuckle, 1986, page 13.

Founded on 11/29/1777 as Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the first boundaries of San José were: Guadalupe River, current West Hedding, North First, and Hobson streets.

Sometimes thought of as Old Town, these boundaries contained the homes of the settlers. The surrounding area east of the Guadalupe River was used for resources and grazing land. The area west of the Guadalupe River was intended to be used by the Mission Santa Clara for resources and grazing land.

Source: Clyde Arbuckle’s history of San José, book by Clyde Arbuckle, 1986, page 10.

San Jose’s annual Christmas in the Park brings in over 700,000 visitors each year. This tradition opened in Plaza do Cesar Chavez in the 80’s but goes back further. The initial displays were put together by Don Lima in San Jose and displayed on his business property in the 50’s. They became hugely popular and Don donated them to the city in the 70’s. The displays continued to expand in to the loved event that we have today.

Source: https://www.christmasinthepark.com/p/about/history–the-community , 2019.

San Jose studied all of the street tress, those public trees along our streets (not including the ones in yards and properties), in 2019. San Jose street tree facts:

• Number of street trees: 248,000
• Tree Cover: 2,357 acres
• Most common species of trees: Chinese pistache, London planetree, Common crapemyrtle
• Pollution Removal: 67.19 tons/year
• Carbon Storage: 104.4 thousand tons
• Oxygen Production: 10.17 thousand tons/year

Source: http://ecotrees.visualizedot.com/report.pdf ,2019.