Spanish explorers began traveling through the San Bernardino Valley in 1776, when California was a colony of Spain. In 1810, representatives of the San Gabriel Mission named the valley San Bernardino in honor of St. Bernardine of Siena. In 1819, the mission expanded its reach in the San Bernardino Valley, hoping to establish an estancia, a farm or ranch, about a mile northwest of this park. Using Native laborers, the Spanish brought water from Mill Creek, east of Mentone, to the mission farm through a ditch more than ten miles long that came to be known as the Zanja. It allowed the Spanish to practice the intensive agriculture common in Europe but new to California, producing corn, multiple grains, grapes, and an abundance of fruits and vegetables.