Rancho Los Alamitos facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Rancho Los Alamitos
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The exterior house at Rancho Los Alamitos, circa July 2008.
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 Location in the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Location in California
Location in the United States
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| Location | 6400 Bixby Hill Rd., Long Beach, California |
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| Area | 7.4 acres (3.0 ha) |
| Built | between 1800 and 1834 |
| Architectural style | Spanish Colonial |
| NRHP reference No. | 81000153 |
| Added to NRHP | July 7, 1981 |
Rancho Los Alamitos is a historic ranch in California. Its name comes from a Spanish phrase meaning "The Little Cottonwoods." This name refers to the native cottonwood trees that grow there. The ranch was once a huge area of land. It covered parts of what are now Long Beach, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, and other nearby cities.
The ranch was created in 1834 when a larger Spanish land grant was divided. It is sometimes called Bixby Ranch, after its last private owners. Today, the old ranch house from the early 1800s is still standing. It is now a museum that teaches visitors about the history of the area.
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The Ranch's Story
The story of Rancho Los Alamitos shows how Southern California grew over time. It goes from the early Tongva people to modern times. The area was first home to a very important Tongva village called Povuu'nga. This village was a sacred place and a trading center from about 500 CE to the 1780s.
After the Spanish arrived, the land changed hands many times. The ranch is on a flat, rich plain near the mouths of several rivers. This area often flooded. The ranch house itself is on a small hill called Alamitos Mesa, near the Povuu'nga springs.
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Early Spanish Land Grant
Rancho Los Alamitos was one of five ranches created from a large land grant. This grant was given to Manuel Nieto, a Spanish soldier, in 1784. It was one of the first and largest land grants given by the Spanish in California. After Nieto died, his children asked for the land to be divided. In 1834, the Mexican governor officially made Rancho Los Alamitos one of these new ranches.
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New Owners and Changes
In 1844, Abel Stearns bought the ranch. He was from Massachusetts but moved to California. He married Arcadia Bandini, whose father was an important Spanish leader. Stearns became a very successful businessman and ranch owner in California.
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The ranch was near the fighting during the Mexican–American War. This war ended in 1848. After the war, California became a U.S. state in 1850. During the California Gold Rush, Rancho Los Alamitos supplied a lot of beef. Cattle from the ranch were sent north to feed the many people looking for gold. At one point, it was the largest cattle ranch in the United States.
After California became part of the United States, the government promised to honor the old land grants. A claim for Rancho Los Alamitos was filed in 1852. The land was officially given to Abel Stearns in 1874.
The Bixby Family Era
In the 1860s, a bad drought caused Stearns to lose control of the ranch. It was then rented to farmers for a while. In the early 1880s, John William Bixby bought the ranch. He was related to the Bixby family who owned the nearby Rancho Los Cerritos.
John Bixby tried to develop a town called Alamitos Beach on the ranch land. This town later became part of Long Beach. However, John Bixby died suddenly in 1888. After his death, Rancho Los Alamitos was divided among three main groups. The Bixby family kept the central part of the ranch.
Later, in the 1890s, the Bixbys started growing sugar beets on the ranch. They also built a sugar beet refinery plant. Oil was later discovered on the land, which helped fund the ranch even more.
The Bixby family descendants gave the ranch property to the City of Long Beach in 1967.
Visiting Rancho Los Alamitos
The historic ranch house, its old ranch buildings, and some open land are still there today. They are next to Cal State Long Beach. The ranch house and its beautiful gardens are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Famous landscape designers like Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. helped create these gardens.
Rancho Los Alamitos is now a museum. It teaches about the ranch's history, the time it was a country home, and the history of the region.
See also
In Spanish: Rancho Los Alamitos para niños
- Los Cerritos Ranch House
- List of City of Long Beach Historic Landmarks
- List of Ranchos of California
- Ranchos of Orange County
- Ranchos of Los Angeles County
