Ranchos of Santa Cruz County
Twenty rancho land grants in what is now Santa Cruz County are shown on the map at right. Some of the names have survived as community names, including: Zayante, Soquel, Aptos, and Corralitos. Links to articles on all of the Santa Cruz County ranchos can be found in a sortable table in the California ranchos (Wikipedia). Other names were borrowed from nearby watercourses (as were some of the community names): San Vicente Creek, Laguna Creek, Carbonera Creek, Calabasas Creek, and Salsipuedes Creek (Calabasas and Salsipuedes creeks are tributaries of Corralitos Creek, which joins the Pajaro River).
- The roughly-drawn map was copied from Santa Cruz: The Early Years (1980 book), by Leon Rowland.
- See also History Pages: 5 - The Ranchos
- Note: "Agua Jito" is usually spelled "Aguajitos", and "Carbonero" is also spelled "Carbonera".
When Mexico ceded California to the U.S. after the Mexican-American War, a Public Lands Commission was set up to verify and confirm the rancho grants, grantees, and boundaries. The confirmed ranchos became the first land subdivisions in the state and, along with the township/section system of squares created by surveys after statehood, which emanates from the Mount Diablo meridian, became the basis for all further subdivision. The rancho boundaries and section lines can be viewed in the Santa Cruz County GIS system.