El Rancho Rinconada de los Gatos was a
Mexican land grant in present-day
Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...
made in 1840 by Governor
Juan Alvarado to Jose Maria Hernandez and Sebastian Fabian Peralta. Located in the southern
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
, the grant included present-day
Los Gatos and
Monte Sereno, along with about a third of
Campbell. It also included small sections of present-day
San Jose,
Saratoga and unincorporated Santa Clara County.
Los Gatos Creek flowed through the center of the rancho. The name means "corner of the cats" and is derived from the
cougar
The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...
s that are still present in the nearby hills, as well as the "corner" formed by the narrowing gap between
El Sereno and
El Sombroso mountains.
History
Sebastian Peralta and José Hernandez, brothers-in-law married to two Sibrian sisters, were granted the one and one half square league Rancho Rinconada de Los Gatos in 1840. Sebastian Fabian Peralta (1794–?) married María Gregoria Sibrian (1806–1837) in 1831. After she died, he married María Paula Sepulveda, widow of
Francisco Pérez Pacheco, in 1846. He was regidor of
San José. José Maria Hernandez (1802–?) married Maria Gertrudis Sibrian (1810–1851) in 1830. After she died, he married Maria Espectacion Pena. They built an adobe home where
Vasona Park is now.
With the
cession 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 Rinconada de Los Gatos 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 Sebastian Peralta and José Hernandez in 1860.
Approximately were sold to
James Alexander Forbes (1805–1881) in 1853, whereupon he built
Forbes Mill. The mill began operating in 1855, but Forbes went bankrupt in 1857.
Three cities have been incorporated containing large sections of land from the grant: Los Gatos in 1887, Campbell in 1952, and Monte Sereno in 1957. The grant boundary forms the modern boundary between the cities of Saratoga, Los Gatos, and Monte Sereno along Quito Road.
Grant boundaries
Counterclockwise and denoted with modern landmarks, the boundaries and corners of the grant were:
* The northwestern and western boundary followed
San Tomas Aquino Creek from John D. Morgan Park, north of
Westmont High School, and along Quito Road & Austin Way
* The western corner was near where San Tomas Aquino Creek meets Canon Drive
* The southwestern boundary roughly parallels
State Route 9 about 0.75 miles to its southwest
* The southwest corner was near the Santa Cruz Avenue exit of
State Route 17
* The southeast corner was near where Kennedy Road crosses Ross Creek
* The southern part of the eastern border was Ross Creek
* The eastern corner was near the corner of Camino del Cerro and
Blossom Hill Road
* The northern part of the eastern border was the former natural lake in what is now
Los Gatos Creek Park
* The northern boundary was along Rincon Avenue across the North end of
John D. Morgan Park in central Campbell
Plat map of the Rancho
/ref>
See also
*
References
{{Santa Clara County, California
Rinconada de Los Gatos
Campbell, California
Los Gatos, California
Rinconada de Los Gatos