Fresh water, believed to travel from the Sierra Mountains through underground rivers, continually seeps from this hillside formation of hard gray sandstone. Hispanic folklore passed down orally and printed in newspapers in the 1930s held that local Indians became sick, possibly from painting their bodies with red cinnabar containing mercury. After a failed attempt to placate the Great Spirit, Ohlone Chief Umunhum gathered everyone at their meeting place of the gigantic rock and shot an arrow with a feather tied to it into the sky as a final request for help. A woman in flowing black robes appeared, touched the rock, and motioned the Indians to drink from and bathe in the stream, and the sick were cured. It is said that when Jose Joaquin Bernal heard this story, he believed the vision was Santa Teresa, a healing saint of the Spanish, and chose her name for his rancho. The spring became a sacred place where mass was held every October 15, Fiesta Day of Santa Teresa. In 1925, Fathers Seraphina and Ricarti of Holy Family Church came to the rancho and presented Doña Jesusita Bernal with a medallion blessed by the pope and a statue of Santa Teresa brought from Rome. In 1928, to honor his deceased mother, Pedro Bernal built a shrine next to the spring and placed the medallion and statue inside. Although the statue and medallion have been missing for years, the shrine’s base and inscription are still visible.