Essence of Life

It was first the Spanish and later Mexican governments who founded a network of Catholic missions, presidios, and pueblos and granted vast amounts of rancho lands to private individuals in their quest to settle present day California.

After signing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in February, 1848, the Mexican government relinquished present day California to the United States and ended the Mexican-American War.  In this Treaty, the United States respected the rights of Mexicans to pre-war land title claimed within the conquered territories. California was annexed into the United States on September 9, 1850.  In order to confirm these pre-war private land claims, Congress in 1851 established the Board of Land Commissioners by virtue of an Act entitled, "An Act to Ascertain and Settle Private Land Claims in the State of California" and established the California State Surveyor-General's Office. 

The burden of proof was placed upon the individuals seeking confirmation of their land claims, which proved to be a long and costly process (sometimes too long and cost prohibitive).  Once private claims were confirmed, the courts ordered a survey of the lands to be performed at the expense of the claimant.  Boundary descriptions for these land claims, missions, presidios, pueblos, and ranchos, were very difficult to ascertain due to unique units of measurement cited (such as a "smoke" - a unit of measurement defined as the the distance covered by a man on horseback while smoking an entire cigar), ambiguous calls to terrain features, conflicting calls, etc., and more often than not the boundaries had never been surveyed before.

The pre-war confirmed private land claims had to be surveyed before the U.S. Government could conduct their valuation surveys of the newly acquired territories, as these prior land claims were senior to the newly acquired lands and could not be sold by the U.S. Government to other private individuals.  While the rancho boundaries were being surveyed, U.S. Government surveyors were establishing the basis for implementing the United States Public Land Surveys System (USPLSS).  It was determined that California due to its size and terrain required three "initial points", the first being a monument set on the top of Mt. Diablo in Contra Costa County in 1851, then on San Bernardino Mountain in San Bernardino County in 1852, and finally on Mt Pierce in Humboldt County in 1853. From these three initial points, Baselines and Meridians were established in cardinal directions.  Standard parallels were then established north and south at 24-mile intervals parallel with the Baseline, and guide meridians were established east and west at 24-mile intervals, parallel to the Principal Meridian. Once these lines were established, unclaimed public lands were divided into six mile-square townships and then further subdivided into 36 one mile-square sections.

California upon being admitted to the Union acquired sovereign ownership and control of all navigable waters and underlying lands for the public trust, subject to Constitutional authority, for the protection of certain public uses - navigation, commerce and fisheries.  These waters were incapable of private ownership.  It happened that the prior Spanish and Mexican governments held similar views on navigable waters and had enacted similar limitations to private ownership of these waters.  Navigable waters, and the determination thereof, also had to be quantified under the USPLSS. 

Congress passed the Swamp and Overflow Lands Act of 1850, which provided a mechanism for transferring title of federally owned swamp and overflow lands to private parties, in California and other states, agreeing to drain these lands otherwise unfit for cultivation and turn them into agricultural lands and lands for other productive uses.  These lands also required to be surveyed prior to the passage of title, and due to the confusion over what was considered swampland the Government surveyors were relied upon to make the designation and show these lands on their township maps.

Surveyors played a prominent role in California's history.  Many land title problems that exist today trace their origins back to these rancho lands and how they interface with the USPLSS surveys.  Countless land title problems also exist with lands bordering waters reserved for the public trust and lands determined, or not, to be swamp and/or overflow lands. 

It is likely that your local land surveyor could trace the origins of your parcel of land all the way back to the original rancho or government surveys of the mid 1800s.


For more information on the establishment of California's missions, presidios, pueblos, and ranchos, follow this link: 

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/rancho.html