Alum Rock Park was acquired in stages over many years, with its original claim based on the first land grant by Governor Filipe de Neve on July 22, 1778. After surviving many challenges to that grant, the land was set aside by the California State Legislature on March 13, 1872, “for all time to come, as a public park.” Since 1872, Alum Rock Park has grown to be San Jose’s largest park and the state’s oldest city park. Once a well-known mineral spring health spa, it has been restored to a natural area of majestic oaks, gently flowing streams, and waving grassland. The park and the stream that flows through it have had many names: Native Americans in the valley called the creek Shistuk, early Spanish settlers called it Aguague, and it later became known as Penitencia Creek, possibly from nearby La Pentencia, where friars from the mission would go for penance. The park was originally known unofficially as The Reservation. The first recorded use of the name Alum Rock was in 1890, when people believed the white coating on a large rock near the entrance was the mineral alum. John Martin Ogan gave the name Alum Rock to the entire canyon sometime near the turn of the century, and by the early 1900s most maps and official references used the name Alum Rock.

Photo: Barry Swackhamer

Photo: Barry Swackhamer

Photo: Barry Swackhamer