Rancho Aptos was a

Mexican land grant The Spanish and Mexican governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement for ...

in present day

Santa Cruz County, California Santa Cruz County (), officially the County of Santa Cruz, is a county on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 270,861. The county seat is Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz County comprises the Santa ...

given in 1833 by Governor

José Figueroa José Figueroa (1792 – 29 September 1835), was a General and the Mexican Governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835. He wrote the first book to be published in California. Background and governorship Figueroa was a Mestizo of Spanish a ...

to Rafael Castro. The grant on the

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area and its major city at the south of the bay, San Jose. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by a ...

was immediately downcoast of his sister, Martina Castro's

Rancho Soquel Rancho Soquel was a Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to María Martina Castro y Amador. In 1844, Martina Castro was granted by Governor José Figueroa a further grant ...

, and upcoast of his father, José Joaquín Castro's

Rancho San Andrés Rancho San Andrés was a Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to José Joaquín Castro. The grant on Monterey Bay extended from La Selva Beach on the north to Watsonville Slo ...

. Rancho Aptos stretched from the area just to the west of

Aptos Creek Aptos Creek is a southward flowing creek that begins on Santa Rosalia Mountain on the southwestern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Cruz County, California and enters Monterey Bay, at Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California. His ...

to parts of Nisene Marks and Day Valley in the north, and Rio del Mar to the east, including present day

Aptos Aptos (Ohlone for "The People") is an unincorporated town in Santa Cruz County, California. The town is made up of several small villages, which together form Aptos: Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley, Aptos Village, Cabrillo, Seacliff, Rio del Mar, and S ...

History

Rafael de Jesus Castro (1803–1878), son of José Joaquín Castro and Maria Antonia Amador, received the one and one half square league grant in 1833. Rafael Castro served in various minor official posts. He and his wife, Soledad Cota (1808–1889), were primarily cattle-ranchers. Rafael Castro built a wharf, five hundred feet long, to ship hides, flour, and lumber during the 1850s. With the

cession The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty. Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdictio ...

of California to the United States following the

Mexican-American War Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexicans, Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% ...

, the 1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...

provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Aptos was filed with the

Public Land Commission The California Land Act of 1851 (), enacted following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the admission of California as a state in 1850, established a three-member Public Land Commission to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican la ...

in 1853, and the grant was

patented A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

to Rafael Castro in 1860. In 1867, Castro leased the wharf to Titus Hale, who extended it five hundred more feet into the sea.The Days of the Sugar Pier: Aptos Wharf Once Stretched Quarter Mile from Shore
by Mary Bryant In the early 1870s, divorce actions were initiated by Soledad Castro. By 1872,

Claus Spreckels Adolph Claus J. Spreckels (July 9, 1828 – December 26, 1908) (his last name has also been misspelled as Spreckles) was a major industrialist in Hawai'i during the kingdom, republican and territorial periods of the islands' history. He also in ...

, the sugar millionaire, began buying the land from Castro.

References

{{California history

Aptos, California