Francisco_Pérez_Pacheco_(Barbieri,_1852)

Rancho San Luis Gonzaga 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

Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley are ...

, in present-day

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

and

Merced County, California Merced County ( ), is a county located in the northern San Joaquin Valley section of the Central Valley, in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 281,202. The county seat is Merced. The county is named after ...

given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Juan Carlos Pacheco and José Maria Mejía. The grant was bounded by Francisco Pérez Pachecos Rancho Ausaymas y San Felipe on the west (at the top of present-day

Pacheco Pass Pacheco Pass, elevation , is a low mountain pass located in the Diablo Range in southeastern Santa Clara County, California. It is the main route through the hills separating the Santa Clara Valley and the Central Valley. As with most passes in ...

), the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River (; es, Río San Joaquín) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suis ...

and

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

on the east, and Los Baños Creek on the south.

History

A grant was first made in 1841 to Francisco Jose Rivera of Monterey, but he returned to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

soon after and did not occupy the grant. The eleven square league grant was made to Juan Carlos Pacheco and José Maria Mejía in 1843. Three days later, Captain Mejia gave his half of the grant to Pacheco. Juan Perez Pacheco (1823–1855) was the son of Francisco Pérez Pacheco (1790–1860), grantee of Rancho Ausaymas y San Felipe. The rancho lay at a great crossroad where the road from

into the

crossed the

El Camino Viejo El Camino Viejo a Los Ángeles ( en, the Old Road to Los Angeles), also known as El Camino Viejo and the Old Los Angeles Trail, was the oldest north-south trail in the interior of Spanish colonial Las Californias (1769–1822) and Mexican Alta Cal ...

that lay along the west side of the valley. Its lands included the land and adobe ranch house of the old Spanish '' Rancho de Centinela'' (Sentinel Ranch) first established by pioneering stockmen from San Juan Bautista and

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under both ...

as place to raise horses in 1810 and subsequently abandoned in the 1820s. 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 San Luis Gonzaga 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 1852, 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 Juan Carlos Pacheco in 1871. When Juan Carlos Pacheco died in 1855, the property went to his father, Francisco Pacheco. In 1858, the rancho became a stage station for 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 ...

. Upon Francisco Pacheco's death in 1860, his only surviving child, Isidora Pacheco (1829–1892) inherited most of the Pacheco holdings. In 1850, Ysidora married Mariano Malarin (1827–1895) of Rancho Chualar. When María Isidora Pacheco died in 1892, her estate consisted of Rancho San Luis Gonzaga and half of Rancho Ausaymas y San Felipe. Paula Fatjó, a great granddaughter of Ysidora and Mariano Malarin, inherited of the ranch land in 1948, and used it to raise horses and cattle. The majority of her property was condemned by the state of California in 1962 to create the

San Luis Reservoir The San Luis Reservoir is an artificial lake on San Luis Creek in the eastern slopes of the Diablo Range of Merced County, California, approximately west of Los Banos on State Route 152, which crosses Pacheco Pass and runs along its north ...

, and the original 1846 ranch house, which she had restored, was destroyed in an attempt to move it away from the area flooded by the new lake. Fatjó died on December 30, 1992, leaving the remaining to the California Parks System, where it forms what is now

Pacheco State Park Pacheco State Park is a California State Park to the south of Pacheco Pass in the Diablo Range, located mostly in western Merced County, California but extending into southeastern Santa Clara County and near Hollister in San Benito County. Locate ...

References

{{Butterfield1 San Luis Gonzaga San Luis Gonzaga San Luis Gonzaga History of the San Joaquin Valley Diablo Range El Camino Viejo Butterfield Overland Mail in California San Luis Gonzaga Stagecoach stops in the United States