Before it was San Francisco, this bustling trading post was named for a minty herb.

Countries & Cities · Published 15 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Long before the Gold Rush transformed the region, a small settlement called Yerba Buena served as a vital anchorage on the San Francisco Peninsula. Named for a local mint-family plant, this civilian outpost evolved from a simple maritime stop into the foundation of a major American city.

The name Yerba Buena, meaning 'good herb,' refers to Clinopodium douglasii, a plant that grew abundantly in the northeastern area of the San Francisco Peninsula. While the Spanish had established a military presidio and a mission in the region as early as 1776, these were not civilian settlements. It was not until the Mexican Secularization Act of 1833, which stripped missions of their landholdings, that Governor José Figueroa opened the area to civilian development. In 1834, the settlement of Yerba Buena was officially founded on the shores of a sheltered cove that had become the preferred landing point for ships.

By 1835, a street plan was laid out by William A. Richardson and Alcalde Francisco de Haro. The settlement quickly became a hub for international trade. In 1841, the Hudson's Bay Company established a post there to exchange British goods like lumber and salmon for local hides and tallow. This mercantile activity was short-lived, however; the post was ordered closed in 1842 and sold in 1846. The town's character shifted dramatically in July 1846, when US forces claimed the territory during the Mexican-American War. Shortly after, the arrival of 240 Mormon migrants on the ship Brooklyn doubled the population, setting the stage for rapid growth.

The transition from Yerba Buena to San Francisco was formalized on January 30, 1847, when Lieutenant Washington Allon Bartlett issued a proclamation changing the name. The town's original plaza, where the American flag was raised in 1846, remains today as Portsmouth Square, named after the USS Portsmouth. While the name Yerba Buena faded as the city's primary identifier, it persists in modern landmarks, including the island in the bay—which was briefly known as Goat Island between 1895 and 1931—and the contemporary Yerba Buena District in the South of Market neighborhood.

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