Rancho Little Temecula 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

Riverside County, California Riverside County is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, its population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most ...

given in 1845 by Governor

Pío Pico Don (honorific), Don Pío de Jesús Pico IV (May 5, 1801 – September 11, 1894) was a California politician, ranchero, and entrepreneur, famous for serving as the List of governors of California before 1850, last governor of Alta California und ...

to Pablo Apis. The grant was one of the few held by

indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

. The grant is south of present-day

Temecula Temecula (; , ; Luiseño: ''Temeekunga'') is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States. The city had a population of 110,003 as of the 2020 census and was incorporated on December 1, 1989. The city is a tourist and ...

and is bordered on the north by

Temecula Creek Temecula Creek, formerly known as the Temecula River, runs U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 16, 2011 through southern Riverside County, California, United States, pa ...

. At the time of the

US patent Under United States law, a patent is a right granted to the inventor of a (1) process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, (2) that is new, useful, and non-obvious. A patent is the right to exclude others, for a limit ...

, Rancho Little Temecula was a part of

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of California, north to its border with Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634; it is the second-most populous ...

. Riverside County was created by the California Legislature in 1893 by taking land from both

San Bernardino San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...

and San Diego Counties.

History

Pablo Apis (1792–1854) was born a

Luiseño The Luiseño or Payómkawichum are an Indigenous people of California who, at the time of the first contacts with the Spanish in the 16th century, inhabited the coastal area of southern California, ranging from the present-day southern part of ...

and at age six was among the first indigenous people baptized at the

Mission San Luis Rey Mission San Luis Rey de Francia () is a former Spanish mission in San Luis Rey, a neighborhood in Oceanside, California. This Mission lent its name to the Luiseño tribe of Mission Indians. At its prime, Mission San Luis Rey's structures an ...

. Apis learned to read and write in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and eventually rose to a position of leadership in which he was the principal spokesman for the local Luiseños. After the missions became secularized in the 1830s, more indigenous people came to live in Temecula, an outpost of Mission San Luis Rey. Apis was one of the Luiseño leaders who fought to keep the Californios from taking control of the mission. Apis was imprisoned for a short time in 1836 by Pío Pico, at that time administrator of Mission San Luis Rey, for objecting to Pico's management of the mission.Pablo Apis
/ref> In 1843, Apis was given the Temecula area, including the established village center, by Father

José María de Zalvidea José María de Zalvidea (2 March 1780 – 1846) was a Spanish Franciscan missionary.Historic Kern County: An Illustrated History of Bakersfield p. 8 Chris Brewer, Kern County Museum Foundation, Kern County Museum – 2001 "The work of his diarist ...

, a priest briefly in control of the former mission and its lands. Zalvidea appears to have undertaken an initiative to grant native peoples their village lands—other such grants made by Zalvidea include

Rancho Guajome Rancho Guajome was a Mexican land grant in present-day San Diego County, California, given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to Indian brothers Andrés and José Manuel. The name comes from a Luiseño phrase involving the word "frog", likely ''wakh ...

and

Rancho Cuca Rancho Cuca was a Mexican land grant in present-day San Diego County, California, given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to María Juana de los Angeles. The grant was located south of Palomar Mountain. History The half square league grant was made ...

. Apis applied for formal ownership of the one-by-one-half-league Rancho Little Temecula grant in 1845 in return for his assistance to the mission. In 1847, Apis was a participant in the

Temecula Massacre The Temecula Massacre took place in December 1846 east of present-day Temecula, California, United States. It was part of a series of related events in the Mexican–American War. A combined force of Californio militia and Cahuilla Indians att ...

. 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 The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

, 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 Little Temecula 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, but American settlers were not in favor of ''any'' indigenous people owning land, and used a variety of procedural tactics to impede the claim's progress. Apis died between 1853 and 1855 before the Commission had decided its fate. In 1856, Isaac Williams, the holder of

Rancho Santa Ana del Chino Rancho Santa Ana del Chino was a Ranchos of California, Mexican land grant in the Chino Hills and southwestern Pomona Valley, in present-day San Bernardino County, California. It was granted to Antonio Maria Lugo in 1841 by Mexican Alta Californ ...

to the north and the parent of grandsons of Apis, helped carry the Little Temecula grant through the court, which decided possession in favor of Apis's daughter and Williams's wife, Maria Antonio Apis. Williams died the same year. In 1872, Louis Wolf, pioneer storekeeper of Temecula, acquired the Apis grant. The grant was patented to Pablo Apis in 1873. In 1873, Juan Murrieta, Domingo Pujol and Francisco Zanjuro went in together to buy the grant. Two years later, the San Diego County Sheriff forced the indigenous people from their homes in Temecula and led them to what is now known as the

Pechanga Indian Reservation The Pechanga Band of Indians, also known as ''Payómkawichum'' (the People of the West), stand as 1 of 6 federally recognized tribes of Luiseño Indians, currently located in Riverside County, California. The modern understanding of the tribe, P ...

. In 1904 Walter L. Vail, already a successful ranch owner in Arizona, started buying ranch land in the Temecula Valley; buying Rancho Santa Rosa,

Rancho Temecula Rancho Temecula was a Ranchos of California, Mexican land grant in present-day Riverside County, California given on December 14, 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Feliz Valdez. The grant extended south along the east bank Murrieta Creek to ...

, Rancho Pauba and the northern half of Rancho Little Temecula. The Vails continued to operate their cattle ranch for the next sixty years. In 1964, the Vails sold the ranch to the Kaiser Steel Company, which master-planned the community of Rancho California, which now comprises the cities of Temecula and

Murrieta Murrieta is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States. The population of Murrieta was 110,949 as of the 2020 census. Murrieta experienced a 133.7% population increase between 2000 and 2010, making it one of the fastest ...

Historic sites of the Rancho

Apis Adobe

Apis built two adobes on his land; the second is still referred to as the Apis Adobe. Apis built the later adobe house on the south side of Temecula Creek at the point where the road, part of the

Southern Emigrant Trail :''The Southern Emigrant Trail should not be confused with the Applegate Trail, which is part of the Emigrant Trail, Northern Emigrant Trails.'' The Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Gila Trail, the Kearny Trail, the Southern Trail and ...

, crossed the creek to the north side of the creek, just upstream from the Luiseño village on the creek. In 1858, the Apis Adobe had become the location of the Temecula stagecoach station of the

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service in ...

. The foundation of the building was studied and archaeologically excavated in 1989, in anticipation of new development. In 1990, the adobe site was bulldozed.

Wolf Store

The Wolf Store was built by Louis Wolf on the north bank of Temecula Creek, on the west side of the place where the old road from

Los Angeles 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, ...

Fort Yuma Fort Yuma was a fort in California located in Imperial County, across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. It was established in 1848. It served as a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from 1858 until 1861. The fort was retired from ...

crossed the creek. It was directly across the creek from the old Luiseño village and northwest of the Apis Adobe, the former Butterfeild Overland Mail stage station. It was the center of the old settlement of

before the town relocated to the west along the railroad. Later the building was incorporated into the Vail Ranch headquarters; the store still remains. Map of the village of Temecula and vicinity, showing the several historical sites which clustered around the mission-era pond. Bibb, Leland E. (Fall 1991). "Pablo Apis and Temecula". The Journal of San Diego History (The San Diego Foundation). Retrieved January 28, 2010.
/ref> The store is now part of Vail Headquarters, a shopping center built around the ranch headquarters buildings.

References

External links