Rancho La Ciénega ó Paso de la Tijera was a

Mexican land grant In Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California, ranchos were concessions and land grants made by the Spanish and Mexican governments from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an indu ...

in present day

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the List of United States counties and county equivalents, most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 202 ...

given in 1843 by Governor

Manuel Micheltorena Joseph Manuel María Joaquin Micheltorena y Llano (8 June 1804 – 7 September 1853) was a brigadier general and adjutant-general of the Mexican Army, List_of_governors_of_California_before_1850#Mexican_governors_of_California_(1837–47), gover ...

to Vicente Sánchez. "La Cienega" is derived from the Spanish word ''

ciénega A ciénega (also spelled ciénaga) is a wetland system unique to the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. Ciénagas are alkaline, freshwater, spongy, wet meadows with shallow-gradient, permanently saturated soils in otherwise arid landscapes ...

'', which means

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

land and refers to the natural

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a he ...

s and

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

in the area between

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

and Park La Brea and the Baldwin Hills range. ''"Paso de la Tijera"'' appears in maps where a path crosses a stream, at today's intersection of Crenshaw Blvd. and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Some sources say the term means "Pass of the Scissors" and was used by Spanish settlers to describe a pass through the Baldwin Hills which resembled an open pair of scissors, though another (Marinacci) says that "tijera" almost always means "drainage ditch" in old land descriptions. The

Los Angeles River The Los Angeles River (), historically known as by the Tongva and the by the Spanish, is a major river in Los Angeles County, California. Its headwaters are in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, and it flows nearly from Canoga Park ...

historically changed course occasionally, and flowed to join

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". The urban watercourse be ...

in the rancho and into the

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 ...

until 1825, when it returned to its course to San Pedro Bay through

Rancho San Pedro Rancho San Pedro was one of the first California land grants and the first to win a patent from the United States. The Spanish Crown granted the of land to soldier Juan José Domínguez in 1784, with his descendants validating their legal clai ...

Rancho Las Cienegas 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 ...

was to the north, and

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 ...

to the west also in the Baldwin Hills. The rancho was east of

La Cienega Boulevard La Cienega Boulevard is a major north–south arterial road in the Los Angeles metropolitan area that runs from the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood in the north to El Segundo Boulevard in Hawthorne in the south. It was named for Rancho Las ...

and south Exposition Boulevard and includes present day Baldwin Hills district,

Leimert Park Leimert Park (; ) is a neighborhood in the South Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California. Developed in the 1920s as a mainly residential community, it features Spanish Colonial Revival homes and tree-lined streets. The Life Magazine/Leim ...

, Ladera Heights, and Windsor Hills.

History

The one square

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

land grant was made in 1843 by Micheltorena to Vicente Sanchez. Vicente Sanchez (1785–1846) was ''alcalde'' of Los Angeles in 1831–1832 and 1845. After Vicente Sanchez's death in 1846, his widow Maria Victoria Higuera and grandson Tomás Sánchez inherited the rancho. 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 for Rancho La Ciénega ó Paso de la Tijera 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 Tomas Sanchez in 1873. Tomas Sanchez lived on the property belonging to his wife, Maria Sepulveda Sanchez, who owned part of

Rancho San Rafael Rancho San Rafael was a Spanish land grant in the San Rafael Hills, bordering the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco in present-day Los Angeles County, southern California, given in 1784 to Jose Maria Verdugo. Geography The rancho include ...

. In 1875, Tomas Sanchez sold Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera to Francis Pliney Fisk (F.P.F) Temple, Arthur J. Hutchinson, Henry Ledyard and Daniel Freeman. However, Temple experienced financial difficulties and in 1875 Elias J. (Lucky) Baldwin acquired the rancho, giving his name to the hills that dominated the western section of the rancho and thereafter known as the Baldwin Hills. Baldwin used the ranch primarily as a sheep pasture but it was not profitable. When Baldwin died 1909, his daughter Anita M. Baldwin realized that there was oil on the estate, and by 1916 drilling had begun.http://www.laokay.com/halac/RanchoLaCienega.htm laokay: Rancho La Cienega O'Paso de La Tijera . accessed 8/22/2010

Historic sites of the Rancho

*Sanchez Adobe de Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera. The adobes, with thick walls and high, redwood-beamed ceilings, were once the center of the rancho. In the 1920s, an addition was built linking the structures and the building was converted into a larger clubhouse by the Sunset Golf Course. The oldest part of the structure may have been built in the 1790s, which would make it the oldest surviving structures in the city of Los Angeles. It was declared a Los Angeles historic-cultural monument in 1990. * Kenneth Hahn State Regional Park and the

Park to Playa Trail The Park to Playa Trail in Los Angeles County, California is a pedestrian and bicycle route that connects the Baldwin Hills (mountain range), Baldwin Hills parklands to the Pacific Ocean (''Playa'' is ''beach'' in Spanish language, Spanish). Acc ...

preserve the rancho's remaining open lands and native

habitats In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

in the Baldwin Hills.http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=612 parks.ca: Kenneth Hahn State Park . accessed 8/22/2010

References

External links

Rancho La Cienega O' Paso de La Tijera
- Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County by John R. Kielbasa
Map of old Spanish and Mexican ranchos in Los Angeles County''official'' Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area website
{{California history History of Los Angeles History of Los Angeles County, California Baldwin Hills (mountain range) Central Los Angeles 1843 establishments in Alta California Ranchos of Los Angeles County, California

History

Historic sites of the Rancho

See also

References

External links