Rancho Posolmi also known as Ranch Yñigo was a 1,696-acre (6.86 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Clara County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Lupe Yñigo. [1] [2] The name refers to Posolmi village of the Ohlone. The grant encompassed present-day Moffett Field in Sunnyvale. [3] [4]
History
Lupe Yñigo (1781-1864), an Ohlone Indian, who was appointed an alcalde at Mission Santa Clara, was given a land grant in 1844, and retained over 800 acres (3 km2) until his death in 1864. [5] Yñigo was one of the last of the Ohlones to be associated with Mission Santa Clara de Asis. [6]
Robert Walkinshaw was a native of Scotland, who came from Mexico in 1847 to take charge of the New Almaden Quicksilver Mine for Baron, Forbes and Company, a British trading firm.
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 Posolmi was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, [7] [8] and the grant was patented to Thomas Campbell, Robert Walkinshaw, and Lopez Yñigo in 1881. [9]
In July 1931, 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) were sold by eight of the landowners, then purchased by Bay Area communities and sold to the Navy for $1, to be used for an air base, later named Moffett Field. [2] They sold the land for $1 in order to make the deal more attractive to the Navy, this sale was orchestrated by local real estate agent Laura Thane Whipple. [2]
References
- ^ Ogden Hoffman, 1862, Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Numa Hubert, San Francisco
- ^ a b c DeBolt, Daniel. "One woman's indelible mark on Silicon Valley". Mountain View Voice. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
- ^ Diseño del Rancho Posolmi
- ^ Early Santa Clara Ranchos, Grants, Patents and Maps
- ^ Laurence H. Shoup, Randall T. Milliken, 1999, Inigo of Rancho Posolmi: The Life and Times of a Mission Indian, Malki-Ballena Press, Novato, California, ISBN 978-0-87919-142-9
- ^ "Portrait of Lupe Yñigo". Calisphere, University of California. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
- ^ United States. District Court (California : Northern District) Land Case 410 ND
- ^ Finding Aid to the Documents Pertaining to the Adjudication of Private Land Claims in California, circa 1852-1892
- ^ Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886 Archived 2013-03-20 at the Wayback Machine