Dodero, Nicolas

Nicolas Dodero was an Italian-born sailor who left his ship in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) and moved “over the hill” from San Jose sometime after being granted the Tres Ojos de Agua (Three Springs) rancho in 1844. Some sources credit Dodero with building a grist mill, but they may be confusing it with the Majors mill. Alternatively, Majors may have taken over the mill built by Dodero, or maybe they were two separate mills. A dead-end, unpaved Westside alley is named Dodero Street, but there’s no street sign. One of the small Tres Ojos creeks is named Dodero Creek, but only on the city’s Creek Management maps.