Rancho la Ballona cattle brand (1844, Alta California)

Rancho La Ballona 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 the present-day Westside region of

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

. The rancho was confirmed by

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

Governor Juan Alvarado in 1839, to Ygnacio and Augustin Machado and Felipe and Tomas Talamantes. The Machados and Talamanteses had already been given a Spanish concession to graze their cattle on this land in 1819. Many Machado and Talamantes family members of the late 19th century and early 20th century are buried at the north edge of the former Mexican Rancho La Ballona at a cemetery on

Pico Boulevard Pico may refer to: Places The Moon * Mons Pico, a lunar mountain in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin Portugal * Pico, a civil parish in the municipality of Vila Verde * Pico da Pedra, a civil parish in the municipality of Ribeir ...

, which was known as the La Ballona Cemetery, later in 1876 as the Ballona Township Cemetery, and then as the Woodlawn Cemetery of Santa Monica in the early 20th century. The grant stretched from inland (near the present day

San Diego Freeway The San Diego Freeway is one of the named principal Southern California freeways. It consists of the following two segments: * Interstate 5, from California State Route 94 in San Diego to Interstate 405 (El Toro Y) in Irvine * Interstate 405, in ...

) to

Santa Monica Bay Santa Monica Bay is a bight of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between Point Dume, in ...

, from present day

Mar Vista Mar Vista is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California. In 1927, Mar Vista became the 70th community to be annexed to Los Angeles. It was designated as an official city neighborhood in 2006. History Mar Vista was called Ocean Par ...

, Westside Village, Palms, and Culver City; northwest to

and the Ocean Park district of

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

; and south along

Ballona Creek Ballona Creek (pronunciation: “Bah-yo-nuh” or “Buy-yo-nah” ) is an channelized stream in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was once a “year-round river lined with sycamores and willows.” Ballona Creek ...

through

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, the Ballona Wetlands, and present day

Marina del Rey Marina del Rey (Spanish language, Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated area, unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination ...

Playa Vista Playa Vista is a neighborhood in the Westside area of Los Angeles, California. The area was the headquarters of Hughes Aircraft Company from 1941 to 1985 and the site of the construction of the Hughes H-4 Hercules "Spruce Goose" aircraft. The ...

, and

Playa Del Rey Playa del Rey (Spanish for "Beach of the King") is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a populat ...

.diseno Rancho La Ballona
/ref>1900 USGS topographic map
/ref>Map of old Spanish and Mexican ranchos in Los Angeles County
/ref> Neighboring ranches included

Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica Rancho or Ranchos may refer to: Settlements and communities *Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad *Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California **List of California Ranchos *Ranchos, Buenos Ai ...

, Rancho Rincón de los Bueyes,

Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela was a Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California given in 1837 to Ygnacio Machado. The name means "Sentinel of the Waters" in Spanish, and refers to the artesian water in the area exemplif ...

, and

Rancho Sausal Redondo Rancho Sausal Redondo (Round Willow-grove Ranch) was a Mexican land grant in present day Los Angeles County, California given in 1837 to Antonio Ygnacio Ávila by Juan Alvarado Governor of Alta California. ''Rancho Sausal Redondo'' cover ...

Map of the Spanish and Mexican ranchos of Los Angeles County

History

Augustin Machado and Felipe Talamantes were given a land permit in 1819 for Rancho de Los Quintos in Santa Barbara, but it turned out not to be profitable. In 1821 they applied again, joined by Augustin's brother Ygnacio, and Felipe's son Tomas. The military commander,

José de la Guerra y Noriega José Antonio de la Guerra y Noriega (March 6, 1779 – February 18, 1858) was a Californio military officer, ranchero, and founder of the prominent Guerra family of California. He served as the Commandant of the Presidio of Santa Barbara and the ...

, gave them permission to graze cattle on the future Rancho La Ballona lands, when they were living in the

Pueblo de Los Ángeles El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles (English language, English: ''The town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels''), shortened to Pueblo de los Ángeles, was the Spanish civilian ''Municipality, pueblo'' settled in 1781, which ...

. In 1839 Mexican Governor Alvarado confirmed the land grant for Rancho La Ballona to them.

Port Ballona Port Ballona is an archaic place name for an area near the center of Santa Monica Bay in coastal Los Angeles County, where Playa Del Rey and Del Rey Lagoon are located today. Port Ballona was a planned harbor and town site from circa 1859 to 19 ...

was a settlement on the rancho located at the mouth of

. 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 followed the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

, and 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 ...

promised that the existing land grants would be honored. In accordance with the Land Act of 1851, the Machados and Talamanteses registered their claim for Rancho La Ballona with the Board of California Land Commissioners, and it was approved in 1854. The

US District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

upheld the decision on appeal in 1873, 8 years after Agustín Machado had died, and Rancho La Ballona 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 ...

at to the original four claimants. In 1857, Benjamin D. Wilson received title to one fourth of Rancho La Ballona on a

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

of a loan he had made to Tomas Talamantes in 1854. Wilson sold his portion of Rancho La Ballona to George A. Sanford and John D. Young, who in 1863 had petitioned for a division of the lower Ballona Valley land. A decree dividing it into 23 sections was issued in 1868.Huntington Digital Library: "Map of the Rancho "La Ballona" (circa 1867)
. accessed 28 August 2016. Each of the 23 long narrow parcels was to have three types of land: "pasture", "irrigable"; and "bay" (

). The largest allotment of the former rancho, on the bluff northwest of Ballona Valley to the boundary with

, was to the "Estate of Augustin Machado", and by a later partition in 1875 this allotment was re-divided among the "Heirs of Augustin Machado". In 1928, an “old-timer” told the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' that “The

Rancho Rincon de Los Bueyes Rancho or Ranchos may refer to: Settlements and communities *Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad * Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California **List of California Ranchos *Ranchos, Buenos A ...

of 3,000 acres was owned by Don Francisco Higuera. Adjoining Rincon de Los Bueyes were the ranchos off Don Ignacio Machado, Andres Machado, Antonio Machado, Bernardino Machado, Macedonia Aguilar, Ellenda Young, and Cy Sandford, along what is now the Inglewood Road.”

Camp Latham

During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

General George Wright ordered troops to secure Port Ballona against a possible seizure by pro- Confederates, and by 1862 6,000 Union troops were stationed Port Ballona. Their post was named

Camp Latham Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

, after

Milton Latham Milton Slocum Latham (May 23, 1827 – March 4, 1882) was an American politician, who served as the sixth governor of California and as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator. Latham holds the distinction of having the shortest governorship i ...

Machado family

José Manuel Machado (1756–1810) married María de la Luz Valenzuela Y Avilas in 1780, and traveled in

Rivera Rivera () is the capital of Rivera Department of Uruguay. The border with Brazil joins it with the Brazilian city of Santana do Livramento, which is only a street away from it, at the north end of Route 5. Together, they form an urban area of aro ...

's 1781 expedition to

. In 1781, Machado retired to the

Pueblo de Los Angeles In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

. Two of his sons, José Agustín Antonio Machado and José Ygnacio Antonio Machado, tried unsuccessfully for some time to get grazing rights on land near the pueblo.

Augustin Machado (1794–1865)

Agustín Machado married María Petra Buelna in 1824, but she died while giving birth to their first child, Juan Bautista (1826–1907). In 1827, Machado married Ramona Sepúlveda, the daughter of Francisco Sepulveda, and they had 14 children: María Josefa Delfina (1827–1828), Martina Magdalena (1829–1872), Vicenta Ferrer Machado (1831–1894), José Domingo (1833–1882), José Dolores Machado (1835–1906), María Ascencion Machado (1837–1912), Susana, José Francisco (1841–1888), Bernardino Machado (1843–1911), Candelaria Onofre Machado (1844–1907), José Ramón Tomás (1846–1847), Jose Juan Rafael Machado (1846–1930), Andres Manuel (1849–1929), and José de la Luz de los Reyes (1853–1923). Cattle and sheep rancher Juan Moreno sold the Rancho Santa Rosa to Augustin in 1855. Subsequently,

Abel Stearns Abel Stearns (February 9, 1798 – August 23, 1871) was an American trader who came to the Pueblo de Los Angeles, Alta California in 1829 and became a major landowner and cattle rancher and one of the area's wealthiest citizens. Early life Stear ...

sold the nearby Rancho La Laguna to Augustin Machado in 1858. This later acquisition also was the site of one of the

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

stage stations until 1861. *Francisco Machado, son of Agustín Machado, served as a

Los Angeles County Supervisor The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States. History On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Sessions as their first ...

for two terms. He assumed office in 1872 and was re-elected in 1874. Lake Machado in

Harbor City Harbor City is a highly diverse neighborhood in the Harbor region of Los Angeles, California, with a population upward of 36,000 people. Originally part of the Rancho San Pedro Spanish land grant, the Harbor City was brought into Los Angeles as ...

was named in his honor. *Vicenta Machado married Francisco Lugo. Francisco Lugo was the brother of

José del Carmen Lugo José del Carmen Lugo (1813 – c. 1870) was a major 19th century Californio landowner in Southern California. History He was born in 1813 at the Pueblo de Los Angeles, in Spanish colonial Alta California, then a province of the Viceroyalty ...

Ygnacio Machado (1797–1878)

In 1826, Ygnacio Machado married Estefana Palomares they had 7 children: Luisa, Versabe, María, José, Andres, Francisco and Rafael. Ygnacio Machado was the grantee of

in 1837. In 1845, Machado traded the rancho to Bruno Avila, brother of Antonio Avila, for a small tract in the

Pueblo of Los Angeles In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spai ...

Talamantes family

Felipe Talamantes (1771–1856)

Luis Felipe Talamantes was a retired soldier between 1783–84 when he went with Juan Jose Dominguez to be Majordomo of the Rancho San Pedro. He went back to Baja, California to get married 1792. Felipe brought his wife Idlefonza Avila and son Tomas back to the Pueblo of Los Angeles in 1794. Felipe and Idlefonza's children were Tomas, Pablo Antonio, Maria de Los Angeles, Felipe, and Jose Nicodemus.

Tomás Talamantes (1792–1873)

Tomas Talamantes married Maria Petronila Olivas and had 8 children. He forfeited his one fourth interest in Rancho La Ballona for nonpayment of a loan in 1857.

References

External links

Map of old Spanish and Mexican ranchos in Los Angeles County

Amazon.com: ''Beach Of The King'', by David J. Dukesherer
{{coord , 34.0100, -118.420, region:US-CA, display=title Ballona Ballona Westside (Los Angeles County) History of Los Angeles History of Santa Monica, California Culver City, California Mar Vista, Los Angeles Marina del Rey, California Palms, Los Angeles Playa del Rey, Los Angeles Playa Vista, Los Angeles Venice, Los Angeles Ballona 19th century in Los Angeles Ballona Creek