Pinole (Spanish for “pine”) is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 18,390 at the 2010 census.

The declare derives from “pinole”, a Nāhuatl word for a nice of flour made from the seeds of maize, chia, and various supplementary grasses and annual herbs. An expedition under Pedro Fages was said to have direct out of provisions even though exploring the area, and to have been fed pinole by a local village, and in view of that the Spaniards named their camp “El Pinole”.

In 1823, Ygnacio Martínez, commandant of the Presidio of San Francisco, received a land attain of Rancho El Pinole from the Mexican government. Martinez built a hacienda in Pinole Valley at the present site of Pinole Valley Park. During the 1850s, Bernardo Fernandez, a Portuguese immigrant, started a trading facility upon the shores of San Pablo Bay and eventually built the historic Fernandez Mansion, which nevertheless stands today at the halt of Tennent Avenue. From these to come beginnings, a small but flourishing community grew into the city now known as Pinole.

The unity grew similar to the coming of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1878 and the establishment of the California Powder Works in easily reached Hercules. During this period, this city had an lithe waterfront and was a regional want ad and banking center. The first state office plus opened in 1878. The City of Pinole was incorporated in 1903.