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Grand Avenue Widening Project Environmental Impact Report Section 3.0 Shoshonean Tradition, beginning around A.D. 500. Among the recognized archaeological changes is the presence of arrowheads, soapstone bowls, callus shell beads, steatite effigies and cremations. These innovations have been linked to the arrival of Shoshonean peoples in the area. By A.D. 1000, smoking pipes and Tizon brownware pottery also appear. This late prehistoric period ends abruptly when Spanish colonists begin establishing missions along the coast. Disease and forced mission labor greatly reduced native populations and destroyed most traditional cultural life styles. The diaries and records kept by early Spanish missionaries, soldiers and explorers provide much of our knowledge about the native inhabitants in the area at the time of European contact. Ethnographically, the Grand Avenue project area is within the territorial boundaries of the Gabrielino Indians. The Gabrielinos were Shoshonean, Takic,language speakers, who resided in the Los Angeles Basin and adjacent north Orange County. Their name derives from their association with Mission San Gabriel Archangel. Spanish accounts and historic interviews indicate the Gabrielino were intensive hunter -gatherers who used both inland and coastal resources. The Gabrielino lived in either permanent or semi-permanent villages on coastal estuaries or along major inland watercourses. These villages were the focus of family life, with each individual group linked to others by paternal kinship. Historic Setting The area that later became the City of Santa Ana was originally mission lands and then parts of large land grants given to Spanish explorers and settlers by the King of Spain. When Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, and the missions were secularized, the large grants were broken into smaller ranchos resulting in title and boundary disputes, and sales, inheritance and financial difficulties. The 1848 gold rush brought an influx of people from other parts of the United States and the world to California. California was viewed as a land of promise and opportunity. Conflicts for land and political upheaval between Mexico and the United States ultimately led to California's independence from Mexico and statehood admission in 1850. In the 1860s, periods of successive drought and floods destroyed cattle and crops and led to the breaking up of the large ranchos into smaller blocks of land. The disastrous events of the 1860s set the stage for the development of smaller agricultural enterprises. Small settlements were established to serve the farms and ranches on the fertile soil of the Santa Ana River floodplain. Gradually, commerce developed in favorable central locations. These centers provided limited but vaned services to meet local settlers' needs. Developers began to lay out subdivided blocks for towns and advertised the beauty and opportunity found in this area. In the 1870s and 1880s, there was a land boom in southern California, and the settlements of Anaheim, Santa Ana and Orange began to grow and develop. William Spurgeon, the founder of Santa Ana, purchased the land from Jacob Ross in 1869 and started his town on 74 acres. By 1886, Santa Ana had incorporated with 2,000 residents and covered the area from First Street on the south side to West Street (now Broadway) on the west, Seventh Street on the north and Spurgeon Street on the east. The Grand Avenue project area is east of the original townsite. With the formation of Orange County in 1889 and with Santa Ana chosen as the County seat, government agencies brought new administrative activity, development and more residents to the City. The County courthouse, completed in 1901, became the new center for County and City F: PROJ-ENNGrand eirWew Text - Grand;Section 3 Split&ction 3.7.doc Page 3.7-2