Overview

Originally a portion of the gigantic Sobrante Land Grant given to Juan Jose Castro from Alta California's Governor Alvarado in 1840, it subsequely became part of the Cutter Ranch. Cutter Laboratories of Berkeley owned the property until the 1970s, using the property to raise animals from which it developed vaccines. Thereafter, low-lying portions of the Cutter Ranch were developed for housing, but the developer worked out a deal with county authorities to preserve 277 acres of higher-elevation land, home to the very rare Alameda manzanita shrub. (See East Bay Regional Park District, "Sobrante Ridge Regional Preserve: About the Park," accessed 06/27/2016.)

PCAD id: 20282