Between San Francisco and the Sierra Nevada stands the small farming community of Escalon. In the mid-1800s, miners and freight haulers traveled rough roads through this unpopulated part of the state to the foothills, much as tourists today travel its highways on their way to Yosemite National Park. Pioneer John Wheeler Jones settled here with his family in the late 1800s and was instrumental in the development and growth of agricultural production, the routing of the railroad through the area, and the creation of this crossroads community. John's son James chose the name Escalon, Spanish for "step" or "stepping stone," for this important gateway to the Sierra Nevada.