Rancho Little Temecula facts for kids

Rancho Little Temecula was a large piece of land, about 2,233-acre (9.04 km²), in what is now Riverside County, California. It was given as a Mexican land grant in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to a Native American leader named Pablo Apis. This grant was special because it was one of the few given to indigenous people. The land was located south of today's Temecula, near Temecula Creek. When the United States officially recognized the land grant, this area was part of San Diego County. Riverside County was created later, in 1893, from parts of San Diego and San Bernardino Counties.

History of Rancho Little Temecula

Pablo Apis (1792–1854) was born a Luiseño man. When he was six, he was among the first Native Americans baptized at the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia. Apis learned to read and write in Spanish. He became an important leader, speaking for the local Luiseño people.

After the missions became independent from the church in the 1830s, more indigenous people came to live in Temecula. Temecula was an outpost of Mission San Luis Rey. Apis was one of the Luiseño leaders who tried to stop the Californios (people of Spanish or Mexican descent living in California) from taking control of the mission lands. In 1836, Pío Pico, who was in charge of Mission San Luis Rey at the time, even put Apis in prison briefly for disagreeing with his management.

In 1843, Father José María de Zalvidea, a priest who briefly controlled the former mission and its lands, gave the Temecula area to Apis. This included the established village center. Zalvidea seemed to want to give native peoples their village lands. Other similar grants he made included Rancho Guajome and Rancho Cuca. Apis officially asked for ownership of the one-by-one-half-league Rancho Little Temecula grant in 1845. This was in return for his help to the mission. In 1847, Apis was involved in the Temecula massacre.

Land Ownership After the Mexican-American War

After California became part of the United States following the Mexican–American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo promised that existing land grants would be honored. The Land Act of 1851 required people to file claims for their land. A claim for Rancho Little Temecula was filed in 1852 with the Public Land Commission. However, American settlers did not want indigenous people to own land. They used many legal tricks to slow down the claim.

Pablo Apis died between 1853 and 1855 before the Commission decided the land's fate. In 1856, Isaac Williams, who owned Rancho Santa Ana del Chino to the north, helped carry the Little Temecula grant through the court. Williams was also the parent of Apis's grandsons. The court decided that the land belonged to Apis's daughter and Williams's wife, Maria Antonio Apis. Williams died that same year.

In 1872, Louis Wolf, a pioneer store owner in Temecula, bought the Apis grant. The grant was officially given to Pablo Apis in 1873. Later in 1873, Juan Murrieta, Domingo Pujol, and Francisco Zanjuro bought the grant together. Two years later, the San Diego County Sheriff forced the indigenous people from their homes in Temecula. They were led to what is now known as the Pechanga Indian Reservation.

In 1904, Walter L. Vail, a successful ranch owner from Arizona, began buying ranch land in the Temecula Valley. He bought Rancho Santa Rosa, Rancho Temecula, Rancho Pauba, and the northern half of Rancho Little Temecula.

Historic Sites of the Rancho

Apis Adobe House

Pablo Apis built two adobe houses on his land. The second one is still called the Apis Adobe. Apis built this later adobe house on the south side of Temecula Creek. It was located where the road, part of the Southern Emigrant Trail, crossed the creek. This was just upstream from the Luiseño village on the creek. By 1858, the Apis Adobe became the Temecula stagecoach station for the Butterfield Overland Mail. The foundation of the building was studied by archaeologists in 1989 before new construction. In 1990, the adobe site was unfortunately bulldozed.

Wolf Store Building

The Wolf Store was built by Louis Wolf. It was on the north bank of Temecula Creek, west of where the old road from Los Angeles to Fort Yuma crossed the creek. It was directly across the creek from the old Luiseño village and northwest of the Apis Adobe. This store was the center of the old settlement of Temecula before the town moved west along the railroad. Later, the building became part of the Vail Ranch headquarters. The store building still stands today, but it needs to be restored.