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San Clemente Land Grant
San Clemente Land Grant History


 * (1716) Ana de Sandoval y Manzanares received San Clemente Land Grant


 * (1855) Ana’s heirs filed grant but surveyor did not act upon it


 * (1870) Bonifacio Chavez petitioned Surveyor Rush Spencer seeking confirmation of the grant. Spencer found the grant to be genuine and complete


 * (1882&1886) Bill confirming the San Clemente grant introduced in the House of Reps. No action was taken


 * (1886) Surveyor General George W. Julian held that, although he believed the grant papers were genuine, there was no evidence of any rights or title to the land


 * (1891) Court of private claims established


 * (1893) On January 21, 1893 J. Francisco Chaves, one of the legal representatives of the original grantee, filed a petition in that court seeking the confirmation of the San Clemente Grant. In an oral opinion dated August 19, 1896, sustained the government in both of its contentions and held that upon the pleadings and proof, as they then stood, the petition should be dismissed


 * (1896) Solomon Luna claimed interest in the grant by inheritance and filed a petition. The Court granted the request. Luna’s interest in the grant appeared from proof of a line of ancestry running back to the original grantee. On September 4, 1896, the Court entered a decree confirming the grant to the heirs and legal representatives of the original grantee but fixing the north boundary at the north limits


 * (1889) Once the decision became final, a contract was awarded to Deputy Surveyor John H. Walker to survey the grant. The survey was made in November 1898, and showed that the grant, as confirmed, contained 37,099.29 acres


 * (1909) Patent for the land was issued. Map Created

San Clemente Land Grant Sale


 * (1879) Eloisa marries Manuel B. Otero in 1879. Three children: Eduardo Manuel Otero, Adelina Isabel Emilia and Manuel Basilio


 * (1883) Manuel B. Otero Dies


 * (1886) Eloisa marries Alfred Maurice Bergere

Anita Isabel Eloisa; Elvira Estella (later married Aldo Leopold); Mary Bernadita (later married John J. Kenney; Antonio Jose Luna; Maria Eduvigen Consuelo (later married Herbert Mendenhall); Maria Rosina (later married Leonard Smith; Maria Nestora Christina Ysabel; Joseph Charles; Maria Dolores Berege (later married Charles Carl Leopold
 * (1886-1910) 9 children born to Eloisa and Alfred:


 * (1909) Patent for San Clemente created for Solomon Luna


 * (1912) Solomon Luna dies. Control of land went to Eduardo Manuel Otero


 * (1914) Eloisa Luna Otero Bergere dies


 * (1929) October of 1929 Eduardo and his wife Josefita give A.L. Bergere one half interest in the San Clemente Grant


 * (1930) A.L. Bergere (Antonio Luna Bergere) sells the San Clemente land grant to the Old Spanish Grant Inc. in California and parcels the land grant to sell to private owners. A.L. Bergere is the President of the company and Joseph Charles Bergere is the Secretary of the Company. The Old Spanish Land Grant Inc. sells many 10 acre parcels to people living in California.


 * (1932) Eduardo Manuel Otero dies and gives A.L Bergere his land holdings in his will

Current Issues

Perhaps one of the greatest threat to rangelands is the conversion of these areas from ranching to large-lot(typically between 5 and 10 acre parcel sizes) residential uses. It is widely recognized that increases in residential development impair rangeland function, and the function of any ecosystem for that matter, trough increased land fragmentation.

Researchers with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) found that if cattle are managed so that they graze moderately, soil quality can be restored and emissions of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) can be reduced.

Grass-fed beef mow the pastures, fertilize the ground with their manure, and tramp around, creating healthy soil that acts as a carbon sink. If the carbon storage is incorporated, they claim, grass-fed beef produces no net emissions, and can even capture carbon overall.

But the team found that while fertilizer type made little difference, different grazing scenarios produced different effects, and the grazed land produced more grass than the ungrazed land and had the greatest amount of carbon and nitrogen sequestered in soil. Sequestering carbon and nitrogen in soil has become a major goal for agriculture, because that sequestration reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

San Clemente Ranchland Trust

We’re faced with demands that can only be met on these private lands. Everything from carbon sequestration to water quality, water quantity, maintaining bio diversity, recreation, all of those things that are valuable off of land. Usually we only think of food and fiber.

It is important to stress that the San Clemente Ranchland Trust is not antigrowth, rather the trust is striving to create smart growth where human settlement doesn't fragment the land but works toward a holistic development.


 * assure the rural residential character of the area in perpetuity; which in turn will encourage higher-end residential development;


 * reaggregate currently unused and degrading rangeland into a "working ranch", allowing an area of close to 30 square miles to be managed in such a way that restores the Great Basin grasslands (building food-chain resilience and restoring wildlife habitat), and dramatically increases the land's capacity to retain rainfall (it's not inconceivable that the latter could slow, or even reverse, the decline of the past 25 years in the water table from which we all draw our potable water);


 * build resilience in our local foodshed by supporting a cattle cooperative direct-marketing natural, range-fed beef to Valencia County's communities and schools;


 * provide a market for carbon credits;


 * become a cornerstone in the science curriculum in our local schools, starting in the first grade and continuing through grade 12; and


 * bring economic development to Valencia County in a variety of ways (e.g., scientific workshops and seminars, meetings for land use planners, value-added agriculture, locally-owned restaurants serving locally-raised food, eco-tourism, and tourism related to "the old west" and Route 66). More importantly, the San Clemente project has the potential to become a national model for progressive land use policy and ecological restoration, and by capitalizing on that "brand" Valencia County can leverage its ability to attract clean, green, progressive business.