Tres Ranchos del Sur
Historic Mexican Land Grants
by Kay Norman, Sarge Littlehale, & Carol Moll

About the Ranchos

Land grants to individuals were made somewhat sparingly during the Spanish rule of California, with most of the grants given to the Franciscan Missions. This changed under the Mexican rule, especially after 1833, when the historic Secularization Act introduced the golden age of privately owned ranchos. The original basis for granting land was in return payment for military service at the existing Presidios of San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego.

The procedure for acquiring a land grant was simple. The petitioner submitted a written request to the governor describing the acreage with approximate dimensions defining the boundaries and naming the owners of the neighboring ranchos. The document was accompanied by a map (dieseño) describing the land parcel. If the governor approved, he would issue a declaration to have the rancho officially surveyed and its boundaries clearly established by "horseback methods." As a condition of grant, the recipient was required to build a house on the land. At the end of the procedure, a fiesta was usually held to establish the new rancho among its neighbors.

The Tres Ranchos del Sur monument designates the junction of three Mexican land grants: Rancho Acalanes, Rancho El Sobrante, and Rancho Laguna de Los Palos Colorados. It is located above the end of Hillcrest Drive in south Orinda.

Rancho Acalanes

Acalanes was one of the smaller California grants, only three-quarters of a league. It was ceded in 1834 before there were any adjoining ranchos. The grantee, Candelario Valencia, had been a soldier in the San Francisco company from 1823 to 1833, where he continued to serve in minor official posts until 1846. He lived on his grant, near present day Lafayette, for five years, but returned to San Francisco after complaining of harassment by Indians. He was also involved in a controversy with his neighbor to the south, Joaquin Moraga, over the use of a spring, which lay near, or over, the boundary of Moraga's Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados, granted in 1835. The conflict was temporarily resolved in 1844 by Governor Micheltorena, who set the line by decree.

The dispute was not finally resolved until there had been a survey in 1860 and a re-survey in 1875. In any event, Candelario Valencia sold Rancho Acalanes to William Leidesdorff after returning to San Francisco. Leidesdorff, a wealthy San Francisco merchant who often dealt in land, may never have seen the rancho before he resold it to Elam Brown.

In late 1847, after exploring the area for a place to settle, Brown bought Rancho Acalanes, complete with 300 head of cattle, from Leidesdorff. He took up residence in early 1848 and began the growing of barley and wheat in addition to raising cattle. A natural leader, he was soon chosen alcalde of his area, and was a delegate from the San Jose district (it included Contra Costa at that time) to the 1849 convention in Monterey, which drew up the State Constitution. He also became a representative to his district in the first and second sessions of the State Assembly, but he withdrew from politics after 1852 to devote his time to his rancho.

Elam Brown, founder of the community of Lafayette, an unschooled but strong, active, influential man, lived to the age of 92.

As to its boundaries, by 1851 the summit of Mt. Diablo had been established as the base-point of a rectangular grid, which would form the framework of the township survey system in central California. The primary east-west line of the grid, the Mt. Diablo Base Line, was surveyed a few years later. As the rancho grants were surveyed to Yankee standards, straight lines and rectangular corners became common in the boundaries. Rancho Acalanes, for example, became a perfect rectangle two miles north-south by 2.5 miles east-west. Furthermore, its southern boundary exactly follows the Mt. Diablo Base Line, a coincidence obviously not foreseen at the granting of the land in 1834. (Incidentally, the useful if imaginary line passes through the intersection of Orinda Way and Santa Maria Way).

Rancho El Sobrante

The sobrante granted to Juan Jose and Victor Castro in 1841 presented an unusually complicated case of land ownership when it came into the U.S. courts. The area was entirely surrounded by other grants; San Antonio, San Pablo, El Pinole, La Boca de la Canada del Pinole, Acalanes, and La Laguna de los Palos Colorados. The Governor who allowed the grant made the unusual, if practical, stipulation that its boundaries should be determined by the boundaries of the surrounding grants. This sensible idea would prevent the creation of a lot of little sobrantes "(left overs") between the new grant and the earlier ones. But since 1841 there were no reasonably precise word descriptions of the boundaries of some of the older grants, the effect of the Governor's well intentioned proviso was to throw the boundary of the new sobrante into legal conflicts which lasted more than four decades. Finally, in 1883, a grant of over 20,000 acres to the Castro brothers was confirmed. By 1893, however, a survey map shows Victor (Juan Jose had died a dozen years before) as the owner of 549 acres. Thousands of acres had gone to pay attorneys' fees in long struggles in the courts, against both more or less legitimate claimants and plagues of squatters who tried to profit from the Castros' troubles.

Juan Jose and Victor were among the eleven children of Francisco Maria Castro who was born in Sinaloa in 1775. Don Francisco had been a soldier for thirteen years and had come to San Francisco before 1800. After serving as alcalde and in other public office, Francisco was granted Rancho San Pablo in 1823 and lived there until his death in 1831. The sons of Francisco served in the San Francisco militia and were grantees respectively, of Yerba Buena Island and Mare Island, but apparently did not settle permanently until the granting of the Sobrante Rancho, where they built a two-story adobe in what is now the city of El Cerrito. Victor served as a member of the first Board of Supervisors of Contra Costa County in 1852. He lived to the age of ninety, dying in 1897.

Rancho Laguna de Los Palos Colorados

This Rancho was established at the request of Joaquin Moraga and his cousin, Juan Bernal. The practice of asking for land in return for long, unpaid military service had become popular soon after Mexico passed a law in 1828 authorizing such grants. Joaquin Moraga (son of Gabriel Moraga) began military life at the Presidio of San Francisco in February 1809, and continued with assignments such as at Monterey Presidio.

According to records:

Before the Moraga-Bernal request for ranch land was granted, nine separate steps were involved, as indicated in the following "Portfolio of Title to the Moraga Rancho."

1) August 20, 1835: Joaquin Moraga and Juan Bernal petitioned the acting governor, Jose Castro, to process their request for "the land named Rancho Laguna del Palos Colorados."

2) September 10: The request was referred to the Town Council of the Pueblo of San Jose de Guadalupe and to the church at Mission San Jose.

3) September 27: The Town Council of the Pueblo of San Jose agreed to the granting of the petition.

4) September 30: Father Jose Maria de Jesus Gonzales gave his permission with the proviso that Mission San Jose be reserved the right to cut timber from the land (the redwoods).

5) October 10: Governor Castro referred the petition and the above documents to the Assembly at Monterey, indicating he would give his approval if the Assembly concurred.

6) October 10: The Assembly referred the petition to the Commission on Vacant Lands.

7) October 12: The Commission on Vacant Lands stated that the granting of the petition was in conformity with the laws of 1824 and 1828 and therefore could be sanctioned.

8) October 12: The Assembly approved of the granting of the petition.

9) July 31, 1841: "The Decree of Concession" (deed to the land) to Joaquin Moraga and Juan Bernal for the Rancho was signed by the first member (or speaker) of the Assembly and the acting governor of Alta California.

(Source: "Moraga's Pride" - Published by Moraga Historical Society - 1987.)

The Moraga Adobe was begun in 1841, and the original house contained just three rooms and an outside kitchen. This residence is the subject of a complete history and was registered as a State of California Landmark in 1954, placed on the National Historic Register in 1972, and designated as a City of Orinda Historic Landmark on March 7, 1995.

Pictured here above the Tres Ranchos Del Sur boundary marker and Monument dedicated June 4, 2004, 4 p.m. cul de sac at end of Hillcrest Dr. by Orinda Historic Landmark Committee. (Chr), Sargent Littlehale, Bruce Howard, Peter Muller, Kay Norman and Ann O'Connell-Nye.

From: El Rancho Moraga, Volume XXXIX, Number 4, August 2004