Rancho Bernardo's cultural heritage dates back to before the birth of our country, when the Kumeyaay Indians first inhabited the area. Signs of their presence can still be seen in the region today, as there are many pictographs still visible on boulders throughout the area. Grinding stones where they ground their corn and acorns into maize centuries ago can also still be found.
The first recorded landowner in the community now known as Rancho Bernardo was the English sea captain, Joseph Sevenoaks. As captain of the English Vessel, Ayacucho, and later the Mexican Vessel, Catalina, Sevenoaks sailed in and out of San Diego harbor transporting animal hides as early as 1824. He became a naturalized Californian in 1833 and changed his name to Don Jose Francisco Snook. After 20 years at sea Snook retired to San Diego and considered entering the mercantile business with a close friend, H.D. Fitch, one of the first Americans to settle permanently in San Diego.
Snook's plans changed when The Mexican Governor, Juan Batista Alvarado, granted Snook 8,800 acres of land in 1842. The lands granted to Snook were in the Valley called Canada de San Bernardo was named after St. Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the leaders of the second Crusade.
San Bernardo's only recognized value at the time was for grazing sheep, horses and mules. Snook courted the daughter of his neighbor, corporal Don Juan Bautista Alvarado, the owner of Rancho Rincon Del Diablo (now Escondido). After a second land grant by the Mexican Governor, Pio Pico in 1845, Senorita Maria Antonia Alvarado soon became Snook's bride. They built a home and settled on Rancho San Bernardo. Their land grants now encompassed 17,763 acres, from the San Dieguito River Valley in the North to Los Penasquitos Creek in the South, including what is now the town of Rancho Bernardo. The Community of Seven Oaks, one of the first areas to be developed in Rancho Bernardo, was named after Joseph Sevenoaks.