Humans have inhabited the place that we now call Filoli for millennia. Long before it passed through Spanish, then Mexican, then American hands, it was home to the Lamchin village of Ssupichom. The Lamchin, an independent tribe of the Ramaytush Ohlone, lived here alongside the same flora and fauna that grow, slither, crawl, hunt, and bed down on Filoli’s Natural Lands today. And the Ramaytush Ohlone are also still present. Though colonization devastated the native populations of California, Ramaytush Ohlone people still live and work in their San Francisco Bay Area homeland.
Filoli partners with the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone (ARO) to co-steward the 654 acres of land entrusted to our care. In 2024, through the generous support of our donors and grants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Filoli and the ARO co-curated the Lamchin Interpretive Center. Together, Filoli and the ARO transformed the three rooms of Filoli’s former Nature Center into a journey through time, telling the story of the Lamchin tribe as they lived interconnected with the plants, animals, and waterways of this area.
“Thanks for opening up the beautiful trail. It is a treasure... It has forest, water, sunshine, shade, birds, winds, and some friendly hikers, just a wonderful combination. You feel the spirit of land and nature.”
– A visitor to the Spring Creek Trail
The indoor space was opened up to let in the view of the new native garden planted alongside the impressive California flannelbush that bursts into yellow blooms each spring. Inside, visitors of all ages are greeted with the sights and sounds of the Ramaytush Ohlone story, from the time before Filoli through the present day and looking toward the future as our Indigenous partners continue to care for nature and for the people wh live in their ancestral homeland.
Just one mile from the Filoli House, the Lamchin Interpretive Center is tucked into a clearing where oak woodlands meet a grove of redwoods. Steps away is the trailhead to the new Spring Creek Trail. This half-mile loop was opened alongside the new Interpretive Center in June 2024. The trail winds along the creek bed, climbing and descending through the cool, fern-covered redwood understory. Ian Walsh, Filoli’s Natural Lands Manager, spent the first half of 2024 working with partners at Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship to repair, reroute, and regrade old trails and rebuild a washed-out bridge over Spring Creek. Thanks to support from the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation and our generous donors, Filoli finished the first major trail project of many more to come. The result is a peaceful walk under majestic redwoods, where visitors can see and feel how the story of the Ramaytush Ohlone continues in the forest around us.
Did You Know?
The native plant garden at the Lamchin Interpretive Center includes Rosa californica–California’s native rose! The rose hips are used by the Ohlone people to make a delicious and healthy tea.