Before the Americans arrived and industrialized the process, Spanish and Mexican Californians cut timber from these hills using hand tools and ox-drawn carts. The timber cutting that gave the rancho its name was a small-scale, labor-intensive enterprise compared to the industrial logging that would follow in the American era. But it was sufficient to clear patches of forest and create the open meadows that later attracted cattle ranchers. The canyon of the timber cutting was a working landscape from its earliest colonial days.

The grant recipients, Jose Domingo Peralta and Maximo Martinez, were members of the Californio families who formed the governing class of Mexican California. Land grants rewarded political loyalty and military service while extending Mexican sovereignty over territory that had been loosely administered under Spanish rule. The 3,566 acres of Rancho Canada del Corte de Madera represented a modest grant by California standards, but it encompassed productive foothill terrain suitable for grazing and timber.

Today the rancho's territory is divided among suburban communities, open space preserves, and private properties in the foothills between Palo Alto and Woodside. The name Corte de Madera persists in Corte Madera Creek, which flows through the former rancho lands and into San Francisquito Creek. Every time someone refers to the creek or the open space preserve that bears its name, they are unconsciously preserving a record of the timber cutting that shaped these hills two centuries ago.