Rancho Tujunga

Rancho Tujunga was a 6,661-acre (26.96 km2) Mexican land grant in the western Crescenta Valley and northeastern San Fernando Valley, in present-day Los Angeles County, California. It was granted in 1840 by Mexican governor Juan Alvarado to Francisco Lopez and Pedro Lopez.[1]

The rancho lands included the present-day Los Angeles communities of Lake View Terrace,[2] Sunland, and Tujunga.[3][4]

Etymology

The name Tujunga is assumed to have meant "old woman's place" in the extinct Tongva language, where Tuhu "old woman" is a term for Mother Earth in Tongva mythology.[5]

History

The Mexican government made the land grant to brothers Francisco and Pedro Lopez in 1840. Francisco Lopez is the individual who discovered gold in Placerita Canyon in 1842.

In 1845 the Lopez brothers traded the 6,661-acre (26.96 km2) Rancho Tujunga for the 388-acre (1.57 km2) Rancho Cahuenga owned by Miguel Triunfo, an Indian who had been employed at San Fernando Mission. In 1850, Triunfo sold a half-interest in Rancho Tujunga back to Francisco Lopez, and then sold the other half-interest to Los Angeles merchants David W. Alexander and Francis Mellus. In 1851, Francisco Lopez sold his half-interest to Agustin Olvera.[6][7]

With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Tujunga was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852,[8] and the grant was patented to Alexander, Mellus and Olvera in 1874.[9]

Alexander and Mellus sold their half-interest to Olvera in 1856. In 1875, Olvera sold the entire Rancho Tujunga to Andrew Glassell. There was further legal dispute about the boundaries in 1888.[10]

Historic sites of the Rancho

References

  1. Ogden Hoffman, 1862, Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Numa Hubert, San Francisco
  2. Pitarre, Alyson. "Where country living sidles up to the city." Los Angeles Times. June 12, 2005. 1. Retrieved on March 19, 2010.
  3. Diseño del Rancho Tujunga
  4. Map of old Spanish and Mexican ranchos in Los Angeles County
  5. Marlene A. Hitt, Sunland and Tujunga: from village to city, Making of America series, Arcadia Publishing, 2002, ISBN 978-0-7385-2377-4, p. 10
  6. Sarah R. Lombard, 1990, Rancho Tujunga: A History of Sundland-Tujunga, California. Sunland, CA, Sunland Woman's Club
  7. Marlene A. Hitt, 2002,Sunland and Tujunga: From Village to City, Arcadia Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7385-2377-4
  8. United States. District Court (California : Southern District) 52 SD
  9. Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886
  10. Hughes v Cawthorn
  11. Adobe house on the Rancho Tujunga property, circa 1956

See also

External links


Coordinates: 34°16′48″N 118°18′00″W / 34.280°N 118.300°W / 34.280; -118.300

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