El Polín Spring

Circular road in El Polín.

Quick Facts

Amenities

2 listed

Picnic Table, Trailhead

Located at the heart of the Tennessee Hollow Watershed, El Polí­n offers visitors a chance to connect with the Presidio's earliest history, experience some of the park's best birdwatching and enjoy the blooms and wildlife made possible by the year-round flow of the spring.

History of El Polí­n

Before European colonists arrived, the Yelamu Ohlone and their ancestors inhabited this space for thousands of years. When the Spanish arrived in 1776, El Polí­n Spring provided an essential water source for the Presidio. By 1812, Spanish colonial families were firmly established at El Polín, over twenty years before the town of Yerba Buena, later named San Francisco, was founded. According to legend, the waters of the spring increased fertility in women. The Miramontes family, who resided near the spring in the early 1800s, are often used to support this claim. They produced 20 children.

After the US Army took over the Presidio in 1846, they changed the watershed by planting cypress and eucalyptus trees. They also redirected the flow of water by constructing dams, which were used as a water supply at the Main Post. The habitat for many of El Polin Springs' wildlife was forever altered.

The watershed was home to tent encampments during the 1898 Spanish American War, and later served as temporary housing for San Franciscans left homeless by the 1906 earthquake. The area also saw several generations of more permanent housing. By the 1930s, several neighborhoods of brick houses had sprung up and in 1959 a new set of apartment buildings arrived when the Army expanded during the Cold War. As a result, only small pockets of riparian habitat remained.

Juana Briones

One enduring figure of the 1800s is Juana Briones, a woman of European, Native American and African descent, who grew up at El Polí­n. Briones was the descendant of members of both the Anza and Portolá expeditions from Mexico to Alta California. She made a name for herself as a healer, midwife and self-taught doctor, skills she is said to have learned from Native Americans. She was also a cunning businesswoman with a prominent business selling milk, produce and raising cattle.

Briones was such a respected member of her community that she was able to keep her several Mexican ranchos, even after California's admission to the Union in 1850, and many Californiano families lost their land rights. Though there are no authenticated surviving photos, journals, or other primary documents from Juana herself, she is well remembered.

Restoration of the Southlands

For the past decade, revitalization has been underway within the Tennessee Hollow Watershed surrounding El Polí­n Spring. The watershed covers 270 acres in the eastern Presidio. It's made up of three streams that flow north through the valley before merging into one watercourse that flows into the San Francisco Bay. Creeks provide most of the freshwater for the restored Crissy Field marsh.