Contra Costa County, California Points of Interest

Site of adobe house, grape arbor, and gardens built in 1842 by Jesús María Castro for his mother, Dona Gabriéla Berryessa de Cast... [click for more]

The El Cerrito adobe, as it was known because it was built near the north bank of El Cerrito Creek, was one of the adobes built by the Castro family o... [click for more]

One-quarter mile north of this spot is the site of the adobe house constructed in 1843 by Don Fernando Pacheco. Reconstructed in 1941, it is preserved... [click for more]

This is the ranch home of John Muir, 1838-1914, explorer, naturalist, author and foremost advocate of forest protection and of national parks. The Joh... [click for more]

This was the first American home in Crockett, located on an earlier Indian village near the Carquinez Straits. Constructed in 1867 by Thomas Edwards, ... [click for more]

In 1772 Fages, commandante at Monterey, vainly looked for a way across San Francisco Bay. With Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, 14 soldiers, ... [click for more]

In 1834 Don Salvio Pacheco was awarded a grant called Monte del Diablo and on June 24, 1835 completed this two-story adobe, the first building to be e... [click for more]

Light Stations Of California (thematic historical marker). East Brother is the oldest wood-frame lighthouse on the West Coast stilll fully operational... [click for more]

In 1835 Don Joaquín Moraga, with his cousin Don Juan Bernal, was awarded this grant which they called Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados - th... [click for more]

This was the largest coal-mining district in California from 1860 to 1914, with five towns-Nortonville, Somersville, Stewartsville, Judsonville, and W... [click for more]

Mount Diablo had been a home with spiritual significance to the Costanoan Indians for at least 500 years when Spanish explorers viewed the mountain in... [click for more]

The Richmond Shipyards District was once a mammoth facility covering 880 acres in this North Bay community. The yards were constructed for and by the ... [click for more]

Pt. Pinole is the last site of the Giant Powder Company, the first company in America to produce dynamite. Following devastating explosions at their s... [click for more]

Dr. Marsh, who practiced medicine throughout the state from his home near Brentwood, purchased Rancho Meganos in 1837. On his way home from Martinez, ... [click for more]

In 1849 Vicente J. Martínez built this adobe on Rancho Pinole, which had been granted to Ignacio Martínez in 1836. In 1853, Vicente sold... [click for more]