Historical Marker · No. 27
Portolá Expedition Camp at San Andreas Lake
Millbrae, San Mateo County · California
Erected by San Andreas Lake Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution and the City of Millbrae, 1976
No state plaque stands here. The serpentine boulder carries the Daughters of the American Revolution's 1976 rededication bronze and, beneath it, a second crediting Ethel Hall's ten years of research, five more names cast at its foot. Portolá's men called this valley the Cañada de San Francisco. The name it kept came five years later, when Palóu came through on St. Andrew's Day, 30 November 1774, and in 1895 the geologist Andrew Lawson gave that name to the fault that cut the valley. The lagoon lies under San Andreas Lake, in the fault's own trough.
What the plaque says
First Camp after Discovery of San Francisco Bay On November 4, 1769, the expedition of Captain Gaspar de Portolá, after crossing Sweeney Ridge, beheld the Bay of San Francisco for the first time. That night they camped at a small lagoon, now covered by San Andreas Lake. Finding the bay too large to go around and thinking they had by-passed Monterey Bay, the expedition camped here again on November 12, 1769 on their return to San Diego. First made a State Registered Historical Landmark Nº 27, June 15, 1932, this site was rededicated as a U.S.A. Bicentennial Project of San Andreas Lake Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution and the City of Millbrae, California on November 6, 1976. Location granted by the State of California. Monument base of serpentine rock, official state rock of California, furnished by the San Francisco Water Department Mrs. Alfred P. Hall (Ethel Leota Bernritter) Organizing member of San Andreas Lake Chapter NSDAR, of Millbrae, California, after nearly ten years of research, was successful in restoring and rededicating California Registered Historical Landmark Nº 27.
Where it stands
37.58895, -122.41313 · Directions