A ''diseño'' is a hand-drawn map of a Spanish or Mexico land grant that was submitted to the U.S. government indicating the extent of a land grant as understood by the grantees.
An ''expediente'' is a written description of the grant. These documents were used during the U.S. land-patent process that began when Mexican
Alta California
Alta California (, ), also known as Nueva California () among other names, was a province of New Spain formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but was made a separat ...
became the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
in 1850.
''Diseños'' are distinct from later maps produced by U.S.
surveyor
Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the ...
s within the extant American
rectangular survey system.
''Diseños'' may have missing or poorly described coastal features because cattlemen who ran the ranchos generally did not make use of the shoreline or own boats.
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 ...
, was submitted to the U.S. General Land Office in 1852
File:Diseño Del Rancho Los Alamitos 1852 Los Cerritos Santa Gertrudis Coyotes Siérritos Bolsas.jpg, Diseño Del Rancho Los Alamitos
Rancho Los Alamitos takes its name from an 1834 Mexico, Mexican partition of the 1784 Rancho Los Nietos, a Ranchos of California, Spanish concession, covering an area in present-day California's southwestern Los Angeles County, California, Los ...
, Los Cerritos, Santa Gertrudis, Coyotes
The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely relat ...
, Bolsas, 1852
References
External links
{{commonscat, Diseños of Californian ranchos
History of California
Map types