Rancho Atascadero 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

San Luis Obispo County, California San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a County (United States), county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo ...

. It was granted in 1842 by Governor Juan Alvarado to

Trifon Garcia Trifon or Trifón () is a given name derived from the . An archaic transliteration from Greek is . It is used by Russians and other peoples of East Orthodox denomination. There is also a surname variant of the word. In Finnic languages, a variant ...

. The grant extended along the Salinas River and encompassed present-day

Atascadero Atascadero (Spanish for "Mire") is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States, located on U.S. Route 101. Atascadero is part of the San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses the extents of th ...

History

The one square league grant was from the secularized holdings of

Mission San Miguel Arcángel Mission San Miguel Arcángel is a Spanish mission in San Miguel, California. It was established on July 25, 1797, by the Franciscan order, on a site chosen specifically due to the large number of Salinan Indians that inhabited the area, whom ...

. Trifon Garcia was a son of Ynocente Garcia, who was administrator at Mission San Miguel. 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 Atascadero 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 ...

Henry Haight Henry Haight (c. 1820–1869) was an American exchange banker and pioneer. He was the manager of the Banking House of Page, Bacon & Co. in San Francisco during the California gold rush era. He is the uncle of Henry Huntly Haight (1825–1878), t ...

in 1860. A second claim was filed by Maria Antonia Ortega in 1853, but was rejected by the Commission due to lack of evidence of a grant. The rancho was sold in 1864 to Martin Murphy Jr. (1807–1884) and his wife Mary Bulger Murphy (d.1892) of

Sunnyvale Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, ...

, who had come to California with the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party in 1844. The Murphys turned over running of the rancho to their son Patrick Murphy, who was a General in the

California National Guard The California National Guard (Cal Guard) is part of the National Guard (United States), National Guard of the United States, a dual federal–state military reserve force in the state of California. It has three components: the California Army ...

. Patrick Washington Murphy (1840–1901) operated Rancho Atascadero, and the adjacent

Rancho Asuncion Rancho Asuncion was a Ranchos of California, Mexican land grant in present-day San Luis Obispo County, California. It was given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to Pedro Estrada. The grant extended along the Salinas River (California), Salinas River ...

, and

Rancho Santa Margarita Rancho Santa Margarita was a Ranchos of California, Mexican land grant in the Santa Lucia Range, Santa Lucia Mountains, in present day San Luis Obispo County, California, San Luis Obispo County, central California. The List of Ranchos of Cali ...

, altogether comprising about , from his Rancho Santa Margarita headquarters. In 1912,

Edward Gardner Lewis Edward Gardner Lewis (March 4, 1869 – August 10, 1950) was an American magazine publisher, land development promoter, and political activist. He was the founder of two planned communities that are now cities: University City, Missouri, and Atas ...

, a successful magazine publisher, bought Rancho Atascadero from J.H. Henry. Lewis founded the utopian, planned community of Atascadero in 1913.

References

{{San Luis Obispo County, California

Atascadero, California Santa Lucia Range

History

See also

References