Rancho Sanel 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

Mendocino County, California Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish language, Spanish for "of Antonio de Mendoza, Mendoza") is a County (United States), county located on the North Coast (California), North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United S ...

, given in 1844 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 Fernando Feliz (or Felix). The grant extended along the Russian River and encompassed present-day Hopland. It is named after a village of the

Pomo people The Pomo are a Indigenous peoples of California, Native American people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to ...

near Hopland; the name means

sweat-house A sweat lodge is a low profile hut, typically dome-shaped or oblong, and made with natural materials. The structure is the ''lodge'', and the ceremony performed within the structure may be called by some cultures a purification ceremony or simply ...

in the Pomo language. Neither Spanish nor Mexican influence extended into Mendocino County beyond establishing two ranchos in southern Mendocino County: Rancho Sanel in the

Sanel Valley The Sanel Valley in Mendocino County, California, is a valley along the Russian River containing the town of Hopland. The river flows through the valley for approximately from the northeast (where it connects from its headwaters and the Ukiah Va ...

in 1844 and

Rancho Yokaya Rancho Yokaya (also called "Llokaya") was a Mexican land grant in present day Mendocino County, California given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to Cayetano Juarez. The name Yokaya means "south valley" in the language of the Pomo people. The g ...

in the

Ukiah Valley Ukiah Valley is a valley located in Mendocino County, California, United States. It contains the Mendocino County seat of Ukiah. It also is home to the unincorporated towns of Redwood Valley, Calpella, Potter Valley and Talmage. Lake Mendoc ...

in 1845.

History

Fernando De La Trinidad Feliz (May 30, 1795 in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

– November 12, 1859 in

Hopland, California Hopland (formerly Sanel) is a census-designated place in Mendocino County, California, United States. It is located on the west bank of the Russian River, south-southeast of Ukiah, in the Sanel Valley, at an elevation of . The population wa ...

), who was a regidor (town councilman) at the

Pueblo of San José San Jose, California, is the third largest city in the state, and the largest of all cities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California, with a population of 1,021,795. Site chosen by Anza For thousands of years before the arrival of ...

in 1831, was the grantee of Rancho Novato in 1839. When Feliz received the Rancho Sanel grant, he sold Rancho Novato, and brought his cattle to Rancho Sanel and erected an adobe house just south of the present town of Hopland. His family was located there before 1853, and in 1854 Luis Peña and others joined him. 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 Sanel 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 Fernando Feliz in 1860. Feliz' legal adviser, John Knight, received the northernmost one square league of the grant for his services. This latter tract took the name of Knight's Valley. Elijah Dooley (b. 1833) was among the first to purchase land from the Sanel grant, and bought in 1858. Henry Harper Willard (1828–1888) born in New York, came to California in 1847 with Jonathan D. Stevenson's

1st Regiment of New York Volunteers 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers, for service in California and during the war with Mexico, was raised in 1846 during the Mexican–American War by Jonathan D. Stevenson. Accepted by the United States Army in August 1846, the 1st Regiment of Ne ...

. Willard and his wife, Mary Maxima, and Joseph Knox and his wife, Maria, settled in the Sanel Valley in 1856. Maxima and Maria were daughters of the Indian chief

Camilo Ynitia Camilo Ynitia (alternative spelling "Camillo"; original native name transliterated as "Hueñux") was born in about 1803, in Marin County, southern Marin, of the Huiman tribe near Sausalito. The family likely traveled up to Olompali, where his fat ...

. In 1859, Willard, Knox and Conner found Hopland. By 1884, Willard owned . Willard died in 1888, and Mary Maxima married Armstrong McCabe in 1891. Elijah Hall Duncan (b. 1824) purchased acreage from the rancho in 1858, and in 1879 purchased another .Aurelius O. Carpenter and Percy H. Millberry, 1914,''History of Mendocino and Lake counties California'', Historic Record Co. Feliz died in 1859. Feliz sold land at low prices and advantageous terms to settlers, and his descendants had nothing left of the rancho but a town lot in East Hopland.

References

{{California history Sanel Ranchos of Mendocino County, California