Rancho Locoallomi 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

Napa County, California Napa County () is a County (United States), county north of San Pablo Bay located in the Northern California, northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 138,019. The county seat i ...

. The rancho's lands encompassed Pope Valley, surrounded by the

Mayacamas Mountains The Mayacamas Mountains are located in northwestern California in the United States. The mountain range is part of the Northern Inner Coast Ranges, of the California Coast Ranges System. Geography The Mayacamas Mountains are located south of th ...

. It was given in 1841 by acting Governor Manuel Jimeno to William (Julian) Pope. The name originated from the

Miwok The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native Americans in the United States, Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok lan ...

name ''Lakáa-yomi'', meaning "place of the cottonwood".

History

William Pope (1805–1843) was born in

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

and became a trapper living in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. Pope went to California on the Gila route in 1827, and returned to New Mexico. In 1835, Pope and his wife Maria Juliana Salazar (1810–1900) joined an overland party led by Isaac Slover and came to

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, ...

. William Pope joined with

Cyrus Alexander Cyrus Alexander (1805–1872) was an early settler of Sonoma County, California. Cyrus Alexander was born in Pennsylvania, and his family soon moved to Illinois. In 1831, Alexander was in the Rocky Mountains trapping for the Sublette fur company ...

, William Knight and William Gordon on a trip to the Napa Valley in 1841. They stayed at George C. Yount’s home, before the four split up, each claiming a valley for his own. Pope petitioned General Vallejo and the acting governor of California, Manuel Jimeno for a two square league parcel on the east side of Howell Mountain. Juliana and the four children moved from Los Angeles and stayed at Yount’s ranch while her husband built their first home on his new property. In 1843, the Pope family moved wagons and livestock from Yount’s ranch to their adobe house. But William Pope died in an accident in 1843. 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 Locoallomi 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 the heirs of William Pope (Jose Pope, María Pope, Luciana Pope, Isabella Pope, and Delavina Pope) in 1862. A separate claim was filed by John Conn in 1853, but was rejected. Juliana Pope married neighbor Elias Barnett (1805–1880), a Missouri pioneer. Barnett had come to California in 1841 with the Bartleson-Bidwell Party. He stayed with George C. Yount until 1843, then squatted in Pope Valley, before marrying Juliana Pope.

Historic sites of the Rancho

*Aetna Springs Resort — The mineral springs resort opened in the late 1800s.NRHP.com: Aetna Springs Resort
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References

{{California history, state=collapsed Locoallomi Mayacamas Mountains Locoallomi

History

Historic sites of the Rancho

See also

References