El Palo Alto has been a local landmark for hundreds of years. The Costanoan/Ohlone Indians revered the tree, Gaspar de Portola and his party looking for Monterey Bay camped beneath it in 1769, and in 1774 Father Palou planted a cross on the site marking the possible location of a Spanish mission. In the mid-1800s, the tree was a survey point for a road which was to become El Camino Real. Early drawings show El Palo Alto with two trunks. One of the trunks may have been lost during a very wet winter; or it may have been felled when the railroad trestle was built. El Palo Alto is over a thousand years old, stands at 110.8 feet tall, and is California Heritage Landmark #2.