Old Adobe House Discovered at El Polin Springs in Presidio

By Ryder W. Miller

Another issue has been added to a long-standing plan by the National Park Service to develop and restore the Tennessee Hollow Watershed. Research is being conducted to enhance a presentation of early Presidio inhabitants through the excavations of early structures that have been discovered at El Polin Springs at Tennessee Hollow.

The archeologists' interpretation "will work well with the natural resource plan. We do not see any conflict between the two," said Dana Polk, government and media relations representative for the Presidio Trust, the organization responsible for managing the national park.

Archeological research has uncovered the foundation of an adobe house, and a refuse depositing area at El Polin Springs built during the Spanish-colonial/Mexican period (1776-1847). Also discovered is a history of changing land-forms in the area.

The discoveries were detailed in the Tennessee Hollow Watershed Archaeology Project 2004-2005 annual progress report, titled "Excavations at El Polin Springs." "Archeological remains from previous periods are still intact," said Barbara Voss, professor of cultural and social anthropology at Stanford University, the principal researcher on the project.

Voss' research project, which is in conjunction with Presidio Trust and the National Park Service, should provide baseline data for a planning process which hopes to understand how the interaction between water and settlement impacted the area.

"There were pretty interesting tentative finding of how people and water interact," said Voss. Liz Clevenger, archaeological collection specialist for the archaeological project, which is in the third year of an eight year plan, said 200,000 artifacts had been found at The El Polin Springs site, which was originally a marsh.

During the Spanish and Mexican periods, the area which is now the Presidio, was also used for livestock grazing and farming. El Polin Springs is believed to have been the home of Marcos Briones and his three adult daughters, Juana, Maria de la Luz and Guadalupe.

The women, who were of Afro-Latino heritage, played a role in the development of San Francisco. Juana Briones is currently recognized to have been an astute businesswoman, landowner and healer who "challenged the gender conventions of her time."

Briones, a land owner, is believed to be the first woman to get divorced in the City and she is also believed to have learned some natural healing remedies from the Native Americans who once lived in the area and used herbs that once grew at the Presidio.

This multi-cultural history is being revealed by the archaeological findings. San Francisco was first settled by the Spanish and later the Mexicans. When the Americans won possession of the area, it was drastically changed as a result of the Gold Rush. The Native Americans were decimated in the process, many from diseases they had no immunity from. In the early 1850s, the Briones were evicted from the Presidio by the U.S. Army.

"One of the things to recognize is that San Francisco's multi-cultural history has its roots at places like Tennessee Hollow. It is really vital that cultural diversity be recognized as environmental diversity," Voss said. The research has also uncovered some of the history of the area's alterations. The Presidio once contained a variety of habitats and was forested to provide wind breaks.

"We have been able to discover traces of the process of the alteration of the landscape. The processes and stages in this alteration is now more like a movie instead of snap shots," Voss said.

Voss will not have the final word on the development of the interpretive plans at the Tennessee Hollow Watershed, a process that will include public meetings.

Alison Stone, senior environmental planner for the Presidio Trust, said the archaeological discoveries will work well with the future interpretive plans for the site.

"It allows us to understand what the site looked like 200 years ago," said Stone, who is fascinated by how the history of water has impacted the development of the area. She envisions that visitors to the Presidio may one day be able to walk the whole length of the watershed Most watersheds are usually millions of acres, but the watershed at the Presidio is only 270 acres, much of which is currently underground.

El Polin Springs, with nearby structures predating the American colonizers, was the heart of the Presidio watershed. The enacting of a restoration plan may take decades. Stone believes that the water source El Polin Springs may have been where San Francisco "began." Wildlife was also attracted to El Polin Springs, which has the highest diversity of bird life in the Presidio.