Marsh Creek State Historic Park is a California state park in east Contra Costa County, California, United States. It was named as the newest California State Park on January 27, 2012. The newly named park contains 3659acresand is about 3.3mi south of downtown Brentwood. It is not open to the public as of January 2015. No opening date has been announced. The park is named for California pioneer John Marsh who was a doctor, rancher, landowner and the first non-Hispanic European to settle in what is now Contra Costa County, California. Marsh was the first medical doctor in California, the first Harvard graduate in the territory, the first to introduce a number of new crops, and one of the most influential men in the establishment of California statehood. Marsh, a widower, was a native of Massachusetts, who had previously lived in Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and New Mexico before settling in Los Angeles, California. In 1838, he acquired Rancho Los Meganos in northern California. The ranch covered over 80mi2, and extended over 8miles to the San Joaquin River, where Marsh's Landing was built (near present-day Antioch California). The park covers a portion of this former rancho. Marsh reportedly paid $300 in cowhides for the land. The John Marsh House was added to the National Register of Historic Places (Reference Number 71000136) under Criteria A, B and C on October 7, 1971.