Prehistory at The Mouth of The Creek

Imagine standing in this spot 20,000 years ago when the marshy land extended 29 miles to the Farallon Islands. During the Ice Age, glaciers had retained much of the ocean in ice, and San Francisco Bay had little to no water. Close by, there might have been a saber-toothed tiger or a dire wolf may have been hunting pronghorn. Nearby may have been grazing a Columbian mammoth or a giant ground sloth. By the time the Spanish first stumbled upon the San Francisco Bay area in 1769, the bay shoreline ran close to what is now Shellmound Street. The prehistoric fauna had been replaced by Tule elk and the California grizzly bear.

You can learn more about the species that the Ohlone both hunted and protected themselves against in our Mouth of the Creek tour.