In the 1820’s Mount Diablo was called by the Spanish Padres Sierra de los Bolgones, apparently because the Volvons held sway in its eastern canyons. They were a hill people who seem to have ranged in the upper reaches of what became known as Marsh Creek.

 

The natural resources of this terrain suggest to scholars that the Volvons may have migrated up and down the drainages throughout the season, building a series of temporary villages. Their proximity to the pass between the Livermore Valley and the San Joaquin Valley may have provided them a strategic trading location. 

 

Native life changed radically with the coming of the Spanish missions to the Bay Area. The mission at San Francisco was formed in 1775 and the mission in the San José area was founded in 1797. Between 1804 and 1806 a third of the Volvon people went to Mission San Francisco and Mission San José. Many Volvon escaped the missions and lived elsewhere and carried on their traditions.

 

Tragically, over half the Volvon at Mission San José died just one year later in a measles epidemic. The surviving adults intermarried with other neighboring tribes at the mission. Only 13 Volvon children were born at the mission between 1806 and 1840.  

 

Within two years of his arrival in California, John Marsh had purchased Rancho los Meganos, a substantial Mexican land grant at the base of Mt. Diablo for $500.

 

When Marsh came to live on the rancho in the spring of 1838, he found a village of about 30 native Volvon people there.

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