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]

Rancho Tujunga
Land grant of Mexico
1845–1875
Area
 • Coordinates
Government
 • TypeLand grant
Grantee 
• 1845-1875
Francisco Lopez and Pedro Lopez
History 
• Established
1845
• Disestablished
1875
Today part ofUnited States

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

Etymology

The name Tujunga or Tuxunga means "old woman's place" in both Fernandeño and Gabrieliño, where Tuxu "old woman". The term is thought to relate to an ethnohistoric narrative, known as Khra'wiyawi, collected by Carobeth Laird from Juan and Juana Menendez at the Leonis Adobe in 1916. In the narrative, the wife of Khra'wiyawi (the chief of the region) is stricken with grief over the untimely loss of her daughter. In her sadness, she retreats to the mountains and turns to stone. It is thought this event became the basis for the village name. [5] In fact, there is a large rock in Little Tujunga Canyon which looks like an old woman in a sitting position.[6]

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.[7][8]

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,[9] and the grant was patented to Alexander, Mellus and Olvera in 1874.[10]

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.[11]

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. King, Chester. Overview of the History of American Indians in the Santa Monica Mountains. Rep. Topanga, California: Topanga Anthropological Consultants, 2011. Print. Prepared for the National Park Service Pacific West Region Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
  6. Johnson, John R. "Ethnohistoric Overview for the Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park Cultural Resources Inventory Project" (PDF). Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  7. Sarah R. Lombard, 1990, Rancho Tujunga: A History of Sundland-Tujunga, California. Sunland, CA, Sunland Woman's Club
  8. Marlene A. Hitt, 2002,Sunland and Tujunga: From Village to City, Arcadia Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7385-2377-4
  9. United States. District Court (California : Southern District) 52 SD
  10. Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886 Archived 2009-05-04 at the Wayback Machine
  11. Hughes v Cawthorn
  12. Adobe house on the Rancho Tujunga property, circa 1956

See also


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