Rancho Boca de la Cañada del Pinole was a Mexican land grant in present-day

Contra Costa County, California Contra Costa County (; ''Contra Costa'', Spanish for 'Opposite Coast') is a county located in the U.S. state of California, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 1,165,927. Th ...

given in 1842 by Governor Juan Alvarado to María Manuela Valencia. The name means "Mouth of the Pinole Valley" in Spanish. The rancho located between present-day Martinez, Pleasant Hill, Orinda, and Lafayette.

History

Felipe Santiago Briones (1790 -1840) was a soldier at the

San Francisco Presidio The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part ...

. He married Maria Manuela Valencia in 1810. Maria Manuela Valencia's brother, Candelario Valencia, was the grantee of Rancho Acalanes. In 1829, Briones and his family settled on the El Pinole lands, built a home (near what is now the Bear Creek Staging area), and in 1839, petitioned for a grant of El Pinole. When Felipe Briones was killed in 1840, his widow, Maria Manuela Valencia de Briones, petitioned for the land grant in her name. In 1842, Governor Alvarado, made a three square league grant of Rancho Boca de la Cañada del Pinole to María Manuela Valencia and a four square league grant of Rancho El Pinole to

Ygnacio Martinez Ygnacio may refer to: Given name: *Ygnacio Coronel (1795–1862), settler in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles of Mexican Alta California *Luis Ygnacio Liendo (born 1980), amateur Venezuelan Greco-Roman wrestler in the men's lightweight category *Ygnacio ...

. 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 jurisdicti ...

of California to the United States following the

Mexican-American War Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...

, the 1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Guadalupe Hidalgo. After the defeat of its army and the fall of the cap ...

provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim 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 the California State Lands Commission to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican l ...

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 ...

to María Manuela Valencia in 1878. Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886
In 1870, the Briones family sold their lands to Simon and Elias Blum who developed orchards and cultivated fruit. In 1909, the Peoples' Water Company, the precursor to the East Bay Municipal Utility District, purchased the land for the watershed. The nearby Briones Reservoir was constructed in 1964. The East Bay Regional Parks District later acquired Briones and opened the Briones Regional Park in 1967.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rancho Boca de la Canada del Pinole Boca de la Cañada Pinole Martinez, California Lafayette, California Orinda, California Pleasant Hill, California Boca de la Cañada Pinole

History

See also

References