Mount Diablo

The bronze gives the mountain's sacred past over 5,000 years; the state's register says at least 500. Its names are older than either count: Tuyshtak, at the dawn of time, to the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone, and Cerro Alto de los Bolbones to the Spanish, after the Volvon, the Bay Miwok people whose homeland held the peak. The bronze also misspells its surveyor. Leander Ransom chiselled a hole in the summit rock for a flagpole sight in July 1851 and ran the base and meridian lines out from it, a grid still under property lines across northern California and Nevada.

What the plaque says

Mount Diablo Mount Diablo, sacred to Native Americans who lived and worshipped there for over 5,000 years, became a critical reference point for Spanish explorers in the 18th century, and American trappers and early California settlers in the 19th. In 1851 Colonel Leander Ransome established the crossing of the Mount Diablo Base and Meridian lines from which most of California and Nevada are surveyed. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 905 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the San Ramon Valley Historical Society, April 23, 1978. Mt. Diablo State Park has been designated a National Natural Landmark This site possesses exceptional value as an illustration of the nation's natural heritage and contributes to a better understanding of man's environment 1982 National Park Service United States Department of the Interior

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Mount Diablo Coal Field — 6.0 mi
• Captain Pedro Fages Trail — 6.5 mi
• Don Salvio Pacheco Adobe — 9.4 mi
• Don Fernando Pacheco Adobe — 11 mi