Parks in Lafayette, California

Lafayette (formerly La Fayette) is a town in Contra Costa County, United States, California. In 2010 the population of the town was 23,893. It was named after a French military hero of the American Revolutionary War, the Marquis de Lafayette. Today Lafayette is renowned for its rolling green hills, strong schools and wealthy inhabitants.

Lafayette was established for the preservation and enhancement of the community's semi-rural character. Lafayette shall strive to maintain the character of the city by the use of a voluntary network of commissions and committees and a small staff whose number correlates to the services provided. Lafayette follows restricted programs and a strict fiscal policy.

Lafayette has really worked hard for her residents and visitors to develop parks and recreation facilities, and it has succeeded. While many proposals are envisaged to build even more park space, the current assets are significantly larger than they were only a few decades ago. The town shares several facilities with other towns and cities including Moraga, where Lafayette has chipped in to help build the skate park. When you visit Lafayette, or if you live in Lafayette, you have to look at the parks as a network of park facilities, playgrounds and fields for students, and surrounding Lafayette park property.

The history of Lafayette started more than 10,000 years ago when the Saclans, a sub-group of Miwok settled in a number of villages here. The Saclans fought a battle with the Spaniards in 1797 over what was later to become soil of Lafayette.

Elam BrownIn 1847, Elam Brown, one of the first Yankee settlers in Contra Costa County, led a fourteen family wagon train through the Donner Pass just days before the ill-fated Donner party. When he arrived, Brown bought a 3,329 acre Mexican land grant called Rancho Acalanus, which is now almost all of present day Lafayette. He built his first of three homes in February of 1848, making it the first community in central Contra Costa County.

Brown became farmers with his neighbor Nathaniel Jones. Tired of the 7-10 day ride to the nearest mill at San Jose, Brown built his own horse-drawn grist mill. Brown agreed to build a steam-powered mill on Lafayette Creek, near First Street, with business going well. After the mill was built, Lafayette's shopping center started to expand at today's Mt. Diablo Blvd. and Moraga Road intersection. Such first businesses were the shop of a blacksmith, a pub, a general store, and rooming houses.