page_title: Marsh Creek State Park (California)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Marsh Creek State Park (California) / History
caption_attribution_description: w:National Register of Historic Places listings in Contra Costa County, California. John Marsh House (c. 1870), Marsh Creek Road, Brentwood vicinity, Contra Costa County, CA. Call Number: HABS CAL,7-BRENT.V,1-2. Created/Published: Documentation compiled after 1933. Building/structure dates: 1856 initial construction. DIGID: [1]
context_page_description: Marsh Creek State Historic Park is a California state park in east Contra Costa County, California, United States. It was named as the newest California State Park on January 27, 2012. The newly named park contains 3,659 acres and is about 3.3 miles south of downtown Brentwood. It is not open to the public as of January 2015. No opening date has been announced.
  The park is named for California pioneer John Marsh, who was a doctor, rancher, landowner and the first non-Hispanic European to settle in what is now Contra Costa County, California. Marsh was the first medical doctor in California, the first Harvard graduate in the territory, the first to introduce a number of new crops, and one of the most influential men in the establishment of California statehood.
  Marsh, a widower, was a native of Massachusetts, who had previously lived in Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and New Mexico before settling in Los Angeles, California. In 1838, he acquired Rancho Los Meganos in northern California. The ranch covered over 80 square miles, and extended over 8 miles to the San Joaquin River, where Marsh's Landing was built. The park covers a portion of this former rancho.
context_section_description: Archaeologists have  found that Native Americans lived in the East Contra Costa County area at least 7,000 years ago. Some of the groups identified with the area are the Volvone and the Miwoks. Excavations have turned up human remains and other historical items that confirm this. Some burial sites have been identified. The park planners intend to protect these cultural sites that lie within the park boundaries.
  State Park Senior Archaeologist, Rick Fitzgerald, led a group of Sacramento archaeologists on a tour of a Marsh Creek archaeology site on April 10, 2010.  According to the Marsh Creek State Park General Plan and Program Environmental Impact Report, "The archaeological resources at Marsh Creek State Park are some of the most unique and important within the California State Park System. Research has indicated that the first inhabitants occupied the area by at least 7,000 years ago. At about 4,000 years ago the Windmiller culture made its first appearance at Marsh Creek. The Windmiller people represent one of the most sophisticated and advanced pre-historic cultures of
  aboriginal California. They lived up and down the Central Valley, with their heartland being the Delta region. These findings are important because they shed light on a rare and unique manifestation of a pre-historic
  culture in California seldom seen in the archaeological record. Statewide, less than ten Windmiller sites have been identified and fewer have been excavated. The Windmiller occupation eventually gave way to what is
  called the Meganos people, who carried on the Windmiller culture until about 1,000 years ago. Evidence of these people also exists at the Park."
  A highlight of the park is the home of John Marsh, which was begun in 1853 and completed in 1856, and which has been undergoing extensive renovation for several years. Marsh was the first non-Hispanic white settler to live in the county. The property encompassed by Marsh Creek State Park was part of Rancho Los Meganos, (Los Meganos is a Spanish phrase meaning "sand dunes"), which Marsh acquired in 1838. Initially, Marsh lived in a four-room adobe house which had been built on the property for him by local Miwok Indians. Marsh apparently got along well with the Miwoks and had even provided them with free medical care. In return, the tribesmen built the adobe house.  After he married Abby Tuck in 1851, he retained San Francisco architect Thomas Boyd to design a grand new mansion. Many of the features apparently were stipulated by Marsh himself.  John's wife, Abby, had selected the site for the house along Marsh Creek. The new Gothic Revival style house was three stories high and had an observation tower that rose 65 feet (20 m) into the air. Marsh built the tower so that he could see the approach of strangers from a great distance. Rustlers and marauders frequently came to his ranch to steal cattle or steal other valuables.  However, the stone tower proved vulnerable to earthquakes. The original tower collapsed during the 1868 Hayward earthquake. It was rebuilt with wood, but the replacement collapsed again after the 1906 quake. Images from the Historical American Building Survey (HABS) collection in the Library of Congress shown here depict the differences in the two structures. This house is the earliest substantial building in Contra Costa County that was not built entirely of adobe.
  The Marsh mansion soon became known as the "Stone House" because the walls were covered with locally quarried sandstone. Abby died in 1855, before the house was finished. It was still not quite complete when John moved from the adobe house into one of the upstairs bedrooms in the new house about the first of September in 1856.  John was murdered while returning from a trip to Martinez, California on September 24, 1856.   In 1860, the U. S. Land Commission recognized over 13,000 acres (5,300 ha) as part of the Marsh estate, which was shared by Charles and Alice Marsh. Alice was the daughter of John and Abby. Charles was John's son by John's first marriage.
  Neither Charles nor Alice lived in the house after 
caption: John Marsh house, ca. 1870
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