LM History Trail
Exploring the past with every step
Lafayette Moraga History Trail
A new interpretive walking experience to educate visitors about the iconic Lafayette-Moraga Trail and its cultural, historical, and regional importance.
This project is a partnership with the Lafayette Historical Society, Moraga Historical Society and our wonderful friends and neighbors.
Eight stops along the trail with eye-catching panels provide visitors with compelling stories, authentic photographs and a map to guide visitor from prehistoric to present times along the Lafayette-Moraga Trail.
Lafayette Moraga Trail
Stop
Olympic Staging Area
Theme: Why does this 8 mile trail exist?
The original rail right-of-way went from Montclair via a tunnel through the Oakland Hills all the way to Chico. Graphic includes a train-stop map extending from Oakland to Walnut Creek.
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Stop
Stanley Middle School
Theme: Local Commerce
This area served as a warehouse for supplies distributed to the Lamorinda economy during Gold Rush, serving the influx of American settlers during the late 19th century before rail.
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Stop
Glenside
Theme: Rails to Trail
This marker and trail sign already exist and includes refence to the original founders of the trail and development of pathway from early railroad.
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Stop
Lafayette Community Center
Theme: Miwok Settlements
Hunter-gatherer lifestyle of the Miwok people who lived here before the arrival of the Spanish with images of baskets, acorns and grinding holes, reed huts, with input local Miwok representatives on craft and images for the sign.
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Stop
Bollinger Canyon
Theme: Wildlife Prehistoric to Domestic
Megafauna mastodon, footprints in the tilted stratigraphy. Contemporary wildlife cougar, deer, coyote, racoon, and birds including hawks and eagles. Domestic livestock emphasis on cattle ranching.
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Stop
Saint Mary's College of California
Theme: Saint Mary's College Legacy
Why SMC exists at this location, the role it played during WW2, and how it continues as a vibrant college today.
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Stop
Moraga Commons
Theme: Mexican land grant system
Ranchos were granted in the 1820s and 1830s by the Mexican government and California became a state in 1850, meaning the grants had to be affirmed in a new court system.
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Stop
Country Club Drive & Moraga Creek
Theme: Old Moraga Ranch - Agribusiness and Farming
Trail resumes along Moraga Creek with sightlines of the ranch headquarters and surviving pear orchard. Old Moraga Town Site was supposed to be the hub of a major development after James Irvine acquired the land.
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Stop
Valle Vista
Theme: Old Growth Redwoods, Subdivisions, and Water Rights
Elam Brown was a player in development before Valle Vista Subdivision No3 created by Irvine's Moraga Ranch Company with electric train to Oakland and station at Valle Vista, the original bedroom community.
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