In the mid-1850s my maternal great-great-grandparents, Dr. and Mrs. Isaac Denton Stockton, drove their wagon train through what is now the south side of the UC Davis Arboretum on their way from “back East” to their new home in Two Rock, Marin County. Their group included some covered wagons, of course, a herd of milk cattle, yoke oxen, horses, other pioneers, and the elder half of their 19 children. There is nothing in writing about their passage along this part of the immigrant trail but they would likely have been impressed by the ancient valley oaks which are still standing in the UC Davis Arboretum as witnesses to history.