Rancho Entre Napa
Encyclopedia
Rancho Entre Napa was a 7000 acres (28.3 km²) Mexican land grant
Ranchos of California
The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...

 in present day Napa County, California
Napa County, California
Napa County is a county located north of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is coterminous with the Napa, California, Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010 the population is 136,484. The county seat is Napa....

 given in 1836 by Governor Mariano Chico
Mariano Chico
Colonel Mariano Chico served one of the briefest terms as Alta California governor from April 1836 to July 1836. He was both preceded and succeeded by the equally unpopular Lieutenant Colonel Nicolas Gutierrez, who joined him in exile in Mexico on November 5, 1836, by a northern...

 to Nicholas Higuera. The grant extended along the west bank of the Napa River
Napa River
The Napa River, approximately 55 miles long, is a river in the U.S. state of California. It drains a famous wine-growing region, called the Napa Valley, in the mountains northeast of San Francisco. Milliken Creek is a tributary of the Napa River....

 from present day Napa
Napa, California
-History:The name Napa was probably derived from the name given to a southern Nappan village whose people shared the area with elk, deer, grizzlies and cougars for many centuries, according to Napa historian Kami Santiago. At the time of the first recorded exploration into Napa Valley in 1823, the...

 south to Carneros Creek.

History

Nicholas Higuera was a soldier in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

 from 1819–1823, and alcalde
Alcalde
Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...

 at Sonoma
Sonoma, California
Sonoma is a historically significant city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Mexican colonial past. It was the capital of the short-lived California Republic...

. Higuera married Marta Frias. Higuera was granted the one square league Rancho Entre Napa, and the 2588 acres (10.5 km²) Rancho Rincon de los Carneros.

Unlike most Mexican land grants in California that remained intact at the end of the Mexican era, Rancho Entre Napa was sudivided. Higuera subdivided and sold much of the land in 1847, retaining 877 acres (3.5 km²) for himself. With the cession
Mexican Cession
The Mexican Cession of 1848 is a historical name in the United States for the region of the present day southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U.S...

 of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...

 provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, 16 claims were filed with the Public Land Commission
Public Land Commission
The Public Land Commission, a former agency of the United States government, was created following the admission of California as a state in 1850 . The Commission's purpose was to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican land grants in California.California Senator William M...

 in 1852 for 14 tracts (Land Cases 80 ND, 108 ND, 113 ND, 152 ND, 160 ND, 171 ND, 172 ND, 176 ND, 177 ND, 231 ND, 242 ND, 244 ND, 260 ND, and 365 ND) of Rancho Entre Napa and 2 tracts (Land Cases 282 ND and 296 ND) of Rancho Rincon de los Carneos.

Nathan Coombs
Nathan Coombs
Nathan Coombs was a California pioneer and founder of the city of Napa, California.-Life:Nathan Coombs lived in Massachusetts and came overland to Oregon in 1842. Coombs came to California in 1843, first working for Steven Smith in Bodega Bay; and then for William Gordon at Rancho Quesesoni in...

 (1826–1877) arrived in the Napa Valley in 1845, and bought a small piece of Rancho Tulucay
Rancho Tulucay
Rancho Tulucay was a Mexican land grant in present day Napa County, California given in 1841 by Governor pro tem Manuel Jimeno to Cayetano Juarez. The Tulucay name originates with the names Tulkays and Ulucas that were applied to the inhabitants of a Patwin village in the area...

 on the east side of the Napa River from Juarez Cayetano. Coombs purchased 325 acres (1.3 km²) of Rancho Napa
Rancho Napa
Rancho Napa was a Mexican land grant in present day Napa County, California given in 1838 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Salvador Vallejo. The grant extends along the Napa Valley, north of present day Napa.-History:...

 on the east side of the Napa River from Salvador Vallejo in 1847. Coombs purchased 80 acre (0.3237488 km²) of Rancho Entre Napa from Nicholas Higuera in 1847, and founded and laid out the town of Napa on Rancho Entre Napa in 1848.
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