Rancho La Jota 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

Napa County, California Napa County () is a county north of San Pablo Bay located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 138,019. The county seat is the City of Napa. Napa County was one of the original co ...

, given in 1843 by Governor

Manuel Micheltorena Joseph Manuel María Joaquin Micheltorena y Llano (8 June 1804 – 7 September 1853) was a brigadier general of the Mexican Army, adjutant-general of the same, governor, commandant-general and inspector of the department of Las Californias, then ...

George C. Yount George Calvert Yount (May 4, 1794 – October 5, 1865), later known by his Spanish name Don Jorge Concepción Yount, was a Californian ranchero, fur trapper, and entrepreneur. Born in North Carolina, he later emigrated to Alta California, whe ...

. La Jota means “the letter J” in Spanish, but the meaning of the name has been a cause of speculation. However, the Rutherford Family has always understood "J" as being the initial for Jorge, the Spanish form of the name George.

History

Through the influence of

Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (4 July 1807 – 18 January 1890) was a Californio general, statesman, and public figure. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of the Republic of Mexico, and shaped the trans ...

, George C. Yount received the two square league

Rancho Caymus Rancho Caymus was a Mexican land grant in present-day Napa County, California granted in 1836 by acting Governor Nicolás Gutiérrez to George C. Yount. Caymus was the name of a subgroup of Mishewal-Wappo Indians. The rancho was in the Napa Vall ...

in 1836, and became the first permanent Euro-American settler in the

Napa Valley Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...

. In 1843 he received the one square league Rancho La Jota on Howell Mountain to the north of Rancho Caymus. Yount planned to construct a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

on the mountaintop land. 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 La Jota 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. The Land Commission rejected Yount’s claim, but the United States District Court reversed the decision. The Rancho La Jota 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 George C. Yount in 1857. Edwin Angwin, in 1875, purchased and established the Angwin Resort. By the 1900s, Edwin owned almost . The community of Angwin is named after him. In 1909, Angwin sold the property to the

Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

, who established

Pacific Union College Pacific Union College (PUC) is a private university, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Angwin, California. It is the only four-year college in Napa County, California, Napa County. It is a coeducational r ...

on the site.

Historic sites of the Rancho

*La Jota Vineyard, a winery built in 1898 from the local volcanic rock by Frederick Hess. Hess, the publisher of the German-language ''California Demokrat'' in San Francisco, purchased of Rancho La Jota.La Jota Vineyard
/ref> In 1975, Bill Smith bought part of Rancho La Jota, including the old stone winery from the late 1800s, and started La Jota Vineyard Company. There, he replanted the vineyards that were torn out during

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

and started making stellar cabernets until the year 2000.

References

{{California history Jota, La La Jota

History

Historic sites of the Rancho

See also

References