Palo Alto (IPAEng: ˌpæloʊˈæltoʊ, from Spanish: palo: "stick" and alto: "high") is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, USA. It is named after a tree called El Palo Alto. The city includes portions of Stanford University and is headquarters to a number of Silicon Valley high-technology companies, including Hewlett-Packard, VMware and Facebook. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 58,598 residents.

History

Earliest recorded history stems from 1769, when Gaspar de Portolà noted an Ohlone settlement. This remains an area of known Indian mounds. A plaque is erected at Middlefield Road and Embarcadero Road to commemorate this area.

The city got its name from a tall tree, El Palo Alto, by the banks of the San Francisquito Creek bordering Menlo Park. You can still find half of this tree (the other half was destroyed when the creek flooded) along the foot bridge on Alma Street. A plaque recounts the story of a 63 man, 200 horse expedition from San Diego to the mission at Monterey from November 7–11, 1769. The group overshot and reached the bay instead. Regarding the bay as too wide to cross, the group decided to turn around near 'el palo alto.'

About 1827 Rafael Soto, tenth child and son of De Anza Expedition settler Ignacio Soto and María Bárbara Espinosa de Lugo of Alta California came to stay with Maximo Martinez at his great Rancho el corte de Madera for seven years. It was . Located south of the San Francisquito Creek, west of today's I-280, it covered most of Portola Valley to Skyline Boulevard extending south to about Foothill College. Rafael and family settled in 1835 near the San Francisquito Creek near Newell & Middlefield. Selling goods to travelers in the area about 1830. His property, Rancho Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito was granted in 1835 at a size of about and reduced over time and claim. His wife, Maria Antnio Mesa, met with problems maintaining ownership. Their daughter María Luisa married (1) John Coppinger in 1839 who owned a large area west of the same creek, Rancho Canada de Raimundo. It began at Almbique Creek, the north border of el Corte de Madera, and extended north for . Now part of Woodside, Bear Gulch Creek (Bear Creek) flowed on his land in Portola Valley and present San Mateo County. It also abutted Buelna's grant near Skyline Boulevard and Matadero Creek. Upon his death, Maria inherited it and married later a visiting boat captain, John Greer, who stumbled into the area. He owned a home on the property that is now Town & Country Village on Embarcadero and El Camino Real. Greer Avenue and Court are named for him.