18913 T*he Old Farm 



fords accordingly came to Bloomington for the 

 interview I have duly described in earher pages. 



The Palo Alto Ranch took its descriptive name of rheiaii 

 "tall" or "high tree" from a weatherbeaten old ^'^'^ 

 Redwood — Sequoia sempervirens — long a noted 

 landmark for the traveler, which still stands on the 

 bank of San Francisquito Creek, at the extreme 

 north corner of the estate. This is about nine feet in 

 diameter at the base, over a hundred feet high, and 

 some 950 years old. With the opening of Stanford 

 University it was chosen as the most fitting symbol 

 for the official seal. Originally one of two, it sturdily 

 withstood the freshet consequent to a very high rain- 

 fall which undermined its mate some years before 

 our arrival. But on the basis of a count of the body 

 rings in the fallen twin, it was possible to approxi- 

 mate the survivor's age. 



Even as early as March 26, 1776, these two Red- 

 woods played their part in history; for it is related 

 that on that day Lieutenant-Colonel Juan Bautista 

 Anza gave the name "Palo Alto" to the Indian 

 Rancheria on the Arroyo de San Francisquito, be- 

 cause of a tree which as seen from a distance "rises 

 like a tower above the surrounding trees." Thus 

 viewed, the pair would no doubt have seemed 

 blended into one. 



The original Palo Alto property was acquired by 

 Mr. Stanford in 1870 from the estate of George 

 Gordon, a business man of San Francisco, who in 

 1863 bought out several squatters on what had 

 been the large ranch of Antonino Buelna, the first 



C 369 J 



