Lafayette (formerly La Fayette) is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. As of 2020, the city’s population was 25,391. It was named after the Marquis de Lafayette, a French military overseer of the American Revolutionary War.

Before the colonization of the region by Spain, Lafayette and its vicinity were inhabited by the Saclan tribe of the indigenous Bay Miwok. Ohlone then populated some of the areas along Lafayette Creek. The original inhabitants’ first retrieve with Europeans was in the late 18th century as soon as the founding of Catholic missions in the region. These initial connections developed into conflict, with years of armed struggle, including a battle on what is currently Lafayette soil in 1797 in the company of the Saclan and the Spanish, and eventually resulting in the subjugation of the original population.

Most of what is currently Lafayette was perfect as a Mexican land grant, Rancho Acalanes to Candelario Valencia in 1834. The publish Acalanes seems to have come from the name of a original village in the area, Ahala-n.

American agreement started bearing in mind the start of Elam Brown from St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1846. He purchased Rancho Acalanes in 1848. The settlement continued to steadily be credited with due to its proximity to San Francisco; starting bearing in mind Brown’s action of 18 settlers, by the census in 1852, 76 people were listed as thriving in the area. Brown founded a mill in 1853.