Why Google when you can go to the track website? :-) Seems the land the track was built on, as long as well as a heap of land nearby, was settled by a guy named Franklin Sears.
urrr.. Thanks! :)
Franklin Sears was born in Indiana in 1817. He spent his childhood in Missouri, and in 1844 ventured westward to Oregon. He left home with his friend, Granville Swift, a rifle, mule and $1.50 in his pocket.Hey, I've got a rifle. Lend me a buck fitty and we can build a track! Oh, wait... got a mule?After one winter in Oregon, Sears was fed up with the rain and headed south. He volunteered for the U.S.-Mexican war and was named a hero of the Battle of San Pasquale. He spent much of the time in the thick of the battle and was a decorated solider during the war. Following the war in 1851, he married Granville Swift's sister, Margaret, and settled on 600 acres of land south of Sonoma. He built his home of hand-hewn redwood. He was a blacksmith by trade but a large source of his income came from ranching.
Sears eventually partnered with Granville Swift and bought 15,000 acres of land that stretched from Infineon Raceway all the way to what is now Lakeville Highway.