User:Ricawilo/Rancho Los Alamitos

Rancho Los Alamitos takes its name from an 1834 Mexican partition of the 1784 Rancho Los Nietos, a Spanish concession, covering an area in present-day California's southwestern Los Angeles County and northwestern Orange County. Los Alamitos means the Little Cottonwoods or Poplars in Spanish, after the native Fremont Cottonwood trees there.

Rancho Los Alamitos originally included much of the area of present-day eastern Long Beach, all of Los Alamitos and Rossmoor, and most of Seal Beach, Cypress, Stanton and Garden Grove. It is also sometimes referred to as Bixby Ranch, after its last private owners. The early 19th century adobe ranch house and accompanying historic structures still stands today.

History

The history of the 28,000-acre (110 km2) Rancho Los Alamitos is almost a microcosm for the history of expansion throughout Southern California, from the Native Americana cultures to contemporary times. The area was first the location of the major circa 500 C.E. - 1780s Tongva — Gabrieliño sacred ceremonial and trading village of Povuu'nga, (Puvunga) now an archeological site. After Spanish occupation the ownership was to change and the boundaries would shrink many times. Situated in the floodplain between the mouths of the ever-shifting Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Santa Ana Rivers, the coastal plain terrain of the rancho is virtually flat rich soil and was subject to frequent flooding. The rancho building itself is located near Puvunga springs alongside Alamitos Mesa, one of the few small hills in the area.

Rancho Los Alamitos was one of five ranchos that resulted from the partition of the original Rancho Los Nietos grant given to Manuel Nieto, a former sergeant in the Spanish army, in 1784 by governor Pedro Fages, coincidentally his former commander. Nieto's grant was not only one of the first three awarded by the Spanish in Alta California, it was also the largest. After Nieto died, his children requested his original grant be partitioned. In 1834, Mexican governor José Figueroa officially declared Rancho Los Alamitos as one of the five partitions.

In 1844 the rancho was purchased by Abel Stearns, a Massachusetts native who typified the many Yankees who settled in California and merged with the ruling Mexican Californios population. Stearns, who married Arcadia Bandini, the daughter of the early Spanish regional civic and business leader Juan Bandini, became one of the leading merchants and major ranchos owners in Mexican Alta California.

The rancho was on the periphery of the battles that settled the California Campaign of the Mexican–American War by 1846. During the California Gold Rush, the rancho supplied much of the beef that would be herded north to feed the growing number of Immigrants who were flocking to the gold fields of Northern California from 1848 on. After California became a U.S. state in 1850, Rancho Los Alamitos was the headquarters of the largest cattle ranch then in existence in the United States. Through shrewd business dealings, Stearns assumed control of Los Alamitos and many other surrounding ranchos.

After a disastrous drought in the 1860s, Stearns lost control of the ranch which was then sub-let to a number of farmers until the early 1880s. In 1883, John William Bixby, a cousin of Jotham Bixby and Llewellyn Bixby who controlled the adjacent Rancho Los Cerritos, bought the rancho. The cousins were joined by Isaias Hellman, the founder of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles.

The Bixbys had once flirted with sugar beet production on properties they held in Northern California. In the 1890s, Jotham Bixby arranged to provide land on the rancho for sugar beet production and recruited the capital of William Clark, who was amongst the richest men in the United States, to build a sugar beet refinery plant on a portion of the Bixby Ranch property. A 1921 oil strike on Signal Hill leased land brought new wealth to the Bixby Family. [3] Later oil discoveries from the Long Beach Oil Field continued to fund the rancho.

The historic ranch house, surrounding ranching facilities, and some open landscape of Rancho Los Alamitos can still be found adjacent to Cal State Long Beach. The Bixby family descendants donated the property to the City of Long Beach in 1968.

Historic sites of the Rancho

Rancho Los Alamitos is nestled on a mesa just over two miles north of the Pacific Ocean, one-quarter mile east of California State University Long Beach and upslope from Los Cerritos Channel on the Tongva-Gabrielino ancestral village, Puvunga. The rancho provides visitors with historical reminders of California’s early history.

The early 19th century adobe ranch house still stands today, surrounded by its historic gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Paul Howard, and Florence Yoch & Lucile Council, all of which are on the National Register of Historic Places. The Rancho Los Alamitos historic gardens were designed as outdoor rooms each with their own serene identity. The nearly four acres of gardens were designed from 1920-1930 and include the Old Garden with Spanish fountain, Rose Garden, Olive Tree Sitting area, Geranium Walk, Cutting Garden, Back Patio, Secret Garden, Cactus Garden, Native Garden, Friendly Garden, and the Jacaranda Walk [1].

The historic outbuildings on-site represent the rancho’s working era and include the Foreman’s House (1921) in its original location. The barnyard area also includes the Feed Barn (1910), Sheepherder’s Wagon (1910), Blacksmith Shop (1923), and Milking Barn (1945).[1] The Rancho Los Alamitos house and grounds are a museum which presents the history of the rancho era, the country house era, and the region [1].

Rancho Los Alamitos