Rancho Cuyamaca facts for kids
Rancho Cuyamaca was a very large piece of land, about 35,501-acre (143.67 km2) in size. It was located in the beautiful Cuyamaca Mountains and Laguna Mountains in what is now San Diego County, California, United States. This land was given out as a "Mexican land grant" in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to a person named Agustin Olvera. The grant stretched south of the town of Julian and included places like Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, Lake Cuyamaca, and Cuyamaca Peak.
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History of Rancho Cuyamaca
The Original Land Grant
Agustin Olvera, the person who received the Rancho Cuyamaca land, stayed in the Pueblo of Los Angeles. He never actually lived on the land himself. For a few years, his helper, Cesario Walker, tried to start a business cutting down trees for wood. However, local Native American groups made him leave the area.
California Becomes Part of the U.S.
After the Mexican–American War, California became part of the United States in 1848. The peace agreement, called the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, said that the land grants given by Mexico would still be valid.
Because of a new law called the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Cuyamaca had to be filed. This was done with the Public Land Commission in 1852. The original grant didn't say exactly how big the land was or where its borders were. It mentioned that the land should be measured and maps made. But it seems nothing much was done until the land commission looked into it.
Changes in Ownership
In 1869, Agustin Olvera sold parts of the rancho. He sold one-third of the land to his lawyer, Isaac Hartman. The other two-thirds went to Samual Stewart. Stewart then sold half of his share to Robert Allison and a quarter to John Treat. Later, he sold his last quarter share to Robert Allison and Juan Luco together.
The Gold Rush and Land Disputes
Gold was discovered near Julian in 1870. This led to a big argument about where the rancho's borders were. The new owners of Rancho Cuyamaca tried to make the rancho bigger. They wanted to extend its northern border all the way to Rancho Santa Ysabel to include the gold mines in Julian.
However, the gold miners and many people from San Diego disagreed. They said the land with the mines was public land, meaning it belonged to everyone. Four years later, the size of the rancho was officially set at eight square leagues (a league is an old unit of distance). The northern border was fixed about 7 miles south of Julian.
Official Land Ownership
In 1874, the land grant was officially "patented" to Agustin Olvera. This means the U.S. government formally recognized his ownership of the land.
Even though the border argument was settled, there were still disagreements about who owned which parts of the rancho. This led to a new survey and the land being divided into 14 smaller lots among 10 different owners in 1879. By 1886, Robert W. Waterman had bought most of the land that was once Rancho Cuyamaca.
