San Bruno Mountain - Recorded History

Recorded History

The Portola expedition visited San Francisco Bay in 1769. The expedition is usually considered the first European presence in the area. Five years later Fernando Rivera and four soldiers climbed the mountain and watched sunrise across the bay. The mountain was named by Bruno de Heceta for his patron saint.

San Bruno Mountain consists of portions of five Mexican land grants; the southernmost being Rancho Buri Buri. Jose Antonio Sanchez, who rode by mule as a child from Sonora, Mexico was given Rancho Buri Buri in 1827, with confirmation in 1835. Rancho Buri Buri extended from the bay salt flats to San Andreas Valley and from Colma to Burlingame. Rancho Canada de Guadalupe la Visitacion y Rodeo Viejo contained most of the present day San Bruno Mountain; this rancho contains the city of Brisbane, Guadalupe Valley, Crocker Industrial Park, Visitacion Valley and the old rodeo grounds by Islais Creek. In 1835 this rancho was granted to Jacob P. Leese. In 1884 banker Charles Crocker acquired core holdings of this rancho amounting to 3,997 acres (16.2 km²) from Leese's successors, and that land devolved to the Crocker Estate Company, who are the present day owners of San Bruno Mountain. Three other ranchos held minor portions of the northern flank of San Bruno Mountain.

The cities that have grown up around the mountain are San Francisco to the north, Brisbane to the east, South San Francisco to the south and both Daly City and Colma to the west.

Nossaman attorney Robert D. Thornton pioneered the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) concept creating the first such plan for the area around San Bruno Mountain.

KRON (Channel 4) was the first television station to place a transmitter tower on Radio Peak, in 1949, followed by KQED and KTVU, though these tenants moved their transmitters to Sutro Tower in the 1970s. A number of FM stations built transmitter towers on the mountain, and in 2005, KNTV moved its transmitter to the mountain, on the former KCSM-TV tower. KTSF occupies the former KRON site.

In the 1960s Save The Bay prevented developers from flattening the mountain to use to fill 27 miles (43 km) of San Francisco Bay with landfill for urbanization.