Rancho Atascadero facts for kids
Rancho Atascadero was a large piece of land, about 4,348 acres (17.6 square kilometers), given out by the Mexican government in what is now San Luis Obispo County, California.
This land was granted in 1842 by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado to a person named Trifon Garcia. The grant stretched along the Salinas River and included the area where the city of Atascadero is today.
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A Look Back: The Rancho's Story
This large land grant, which was about one square league in size, came from the lands that used to belong to Mission San Miguel Arcángel. These mission lands were taken over by the government, a process called secularization. Trifon Garcia, the first owner, was the son of Ynocente Garcia, who had managed Mission San Miguel.
Changes After the Mexican-American War
After the Mexican-American War, California became part of the United States. This change was agreed upon in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty promised that the land grants given by the Mexican government would still be recognized.
Because of a new law called the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Atascadero was officially filed in 1852. This claim was made with the Public Land Commission, a group set up to check who owned what land. The ownership of the rancho was officially given to Henry Haight in 1860. This official document is called a land patent.
New Owners and a Growing Rancho
In 1864, the rancho was sold to Martin Murphy Jr. and his wife Mary Bulger Murphy. They were from Sunnyvale and had traveled to California with the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party in 1844.
The Murphys handed over the management of Rancho Atascadero to their son, Patrick Murphy. Patrick was a General in the California National Guard. He managed Rancho Atascadero, along with two other nearby ranchos called Rancho Asuncion and Rancho Santa Margarita. Together, these lands covered about 61,000 acres (247 square kilometers). Patrick Murphy ran all these properties from his headquarters at Rancho Santa Margarita.
A Vision for a New Community
In 1912, a successful magazine publisher named Edward Gardner Lewis bought Rancho Atascadero from J.H. Henry. Lewis had a big idea: he wanted to create a special, planned community. In 1913, he founded the town of Atascadero, which was designed to be a "utopian" place, meaning it was planned to be a perfect society.
