Picture a map of California cut up into Ranchos like a crazy quilt, dotted with twenty-one Missions and a handful of Pueblos. Picture a people browned by the sun, happy, prosperous and carefree. Picture a white-walled hacienda on each of the ranchos, every one open with a never failing hospitality and welcome. That was California when the Americans took it.

With the advent of American ownership the tide of population turned to California in a never ending stream. By sail, steamboat, covered wagon and finally by train came a new people. The great Spanish ranchos soon passed to new owners and took on a new character. There is a record of Spanish ranchos traded for nearly every commodity and necessity. Ranchos like the Malibu and the Centinela exchanged for wines and groceries, the Los Alamitos bought with hides and tallow, the La Canada deeded for an attorney’s fee, ranchos for horses, for vines, for surveyor’s fees and many ranchos for mortgages.

It was a period of rare honor. Don Abel Stearns refused to take advantage of a technicality in his favor and lost a 29,000 acre rancho. Juan Matias Sanchez to help his friends, William Workman and F. P. F. Temple, signed their mortgage to “Lucky” Baldwin and lost his own rancho in the San Gabriel Valley, wholly without consideration.

With progress and development the ranchos gave way to the towns and farming communities. Many of these towns, now grown to cities, were named for the ranchos on which they were built. In Los Angeles County, Ranchos Santa Monica, San Fernando, Azusa, La Canada, Puente and Tujunga all gave their names to the towns founded within their borders. Santa Ana and La Habra in Orange County likewise took their names from their ranchos. Santa Barbara was an original Spanish Pueblo but still farther north in San Luis Obispo County, Arroyo Grande, Pismo, Santa Margarita, Atascadero and Paso Robles all correspond with the rancho of the same name.

Many names of roads and highways all over California can be traced directly to the rancho over which they pass. Many others were named for an illustrious owner, who perhaps in bright velvet and astride a silver saddle, rode down the same road when California was a land of great ranchos in the days of the Dons.