People who know this area well sometimes refer to Tustin as “The City of the Trees.” Although a variety of trees are responsible for this nickname, this is a distinctive quality of the area which dates back centuries, actually to the time of the early Spanish explorers. The first Europeans in Orange County came with the Portola Expedition in 1769. This expedition, which had two padres (including Father Juan Crespi) and a small contingent of the army, set out north to establish the string of missions throughout California. (Father Serra, who was in charge of this project, was not along on this expedition, remaining in San Diego to establish the mission there.) A few years later, the early Spanish Grijalva scouting party (The Anza Expedition, 1776) identified the area from Santiago Creek to Red Hill as El Alisal, the Sycamore Grove. At that time, the land was dotted with massive, white-barked sycamore trees. It is of some note that three of the massive trees still exist, although today they are on private property.

The American Indians living in the region when the Spanish first arrived spoke a dialect of the Shoshone language. Much of the Indian culture is only today being pieced together from archeological studies in the area. However, it is known that there had been an Indian village or gathering place around Red Hill.

Although the Indians of that time were nomadic, when the Spanish came, they grouped the Indians according to which mission district they were in at the time, and turned them from fishermen and harvesters of seasonal nuts and berries into farm workers. The Indians who lived in what is today the Tustin area were called the “Gabrielino” Indians, for they were under the jurisdiction of the San Gabriel Mission. They were considered, according to the European standards of the time, to be “somewhat more sophisticated” than the “Juanenos” Indians, who were under the jurisdiction of the San Juan Capistrano Mission.

Content derived from various sources including Wikipedia, and City/Village of Tustin.