Cultural History

The Uvas Creek/Little Authur Creek area has been the site of Ohlone Indian villiages for thousands of years prior to the arrival of the Spanish missionaries. Archaeological evidence indicates that Mutsun Ohlones had inhabited this site for over 3,000 years. Radio carbon dating of site materials have yielded habitation dates of between 1,700 and 2,700 b.p. (before present). The four acre park site is part of a larger area of pre-contact habitation extending across Uvas and Little Arthur Creeks. The village was called Chitactac by the Mutsun Ohlone people.

Chitactac Adams site petroglyphs Artwork by John Betts

The site also contains a number of petroglyphs and over 75 bedrock mortars. Petroglyphs are markings picked, abraded, grooved or incised onto a rock surface. Two types of petroglyphs are found at this site; cupules and cup-and-ring (concentric circles with center depression). Their meaning and age are unknown, however, similiar motifs found in other areas of Northern California have been associated with rain-making, fertility enhancement, puberty rites or shamanic ritual.

Located above the marshy South Santa Clara Valley and nestled in a little valley sheltered from the north winds, the earliest inhabitants likely found this an ideal place to live. Food resources were available from the foothills surrounding the site, from the creek, as well as the grasslands and marshes of Santa Clara Valley. Ohlone villages typically ranged in size from one or two families to hundreds of individuals. The village would have contained houses (holding up to 8 to 12 people) made from tule reeds or tree bark, assembly houses, granaries (to store foods),dance corrals and ramadas to provide shade for work.

Throughout the site are numerous bedrock mortars. Mortars are stone bowls with which a pestle (a cylindrical rock hand tool used to mash or pound) was used to process nuts, seeds, meat and fish. Bedrock mortars are stone bowls that are part of the existing rock outcroppings and may be found throughout the site.

Acorns and Buckeye Seeds Artwork by Linda Yamane