Rancho Las Salinas
Mexican land grant in California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rancho Las Salinas, also called El Tucho was a historic land grant along the Salinas River in present day Monterey County, California.
History
A four-square-league (Spanish legua and equivalent to about 17,700 acres, 27.7 mi2, 72 km2) Spanish land concession in the Salinas Valley was given in 1795 to Antonio Aceves and Antonio Romero[1] and was the first such land concession in the Monterey Bay area. However, the grant was abandoned.[2]
Subsequently, a one square league (about 4,400-acre, 6.9 mi2, 18 km2) Mexican land grant was made to Gabriel Espinosa by Mexican governor Nicolás Gutiérrez in 1839. The grant extended along the Salinas River from present day Marina to Salinas.[3][4] Today's Espinosa Road and Espinosa Lake were named for the Espinosa family.
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the California Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Las Salinas was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1853,[5][6] and the grant was patented to Lucinda E. Pogue and the heirs of Gabriel Espinosa in 1867. Pogue received an undivided two-sevenths of the grant and each of the five children of Espinosa received one-seventh.[7]