Rancho Las Putas
Encyclopedia
Rancho Las Putas was a 35516 acres (143.7 km²) Mexican land grant
in present day Napa County, California
given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena
to José de Jesús Berreyesa and Sexto "Sisto" Berreyesa. The name Las Putas came from Putah Creek
, which ran through the property. Most of the grant is now covered by Lake Berryessa
.
lived in relative ease on the rich land, as wildlife and plant foodstuffs were plentiful.
at Mission Santa Clara de Asís
on July 28, 1787. Nicknamed José, Berreyesa married María de Jesus Antonia Villela (born October 6, 1793) in 1806. The couple had eleven children, including José de Jesus born January 31, 1815 and Sexto "Sisto" Antonio born on March 28, 1818. Both brothers were born in San Francisco and christened at Mission San Francisco de Asís
.
Nasario Antonio "José" Berreyesa served as a corporal at the San Francisco Presidio during 1819–1824, then moved to become the original settler of the Berryessa Valley in the 1830s. Berreyesa engaged 100 natives
to help him manage his livestock—a herd which soon grew to 5,000 cattle and 20,000 horses, and extended eastward over Berryessa Peak into Capay Valley
. The nearby hills held deer and bear. Trails made by the bears made it possible for men, horses and cattle to find their way through the hills into Capay Valley.
Sons Sisto Antonio and José de Jesus served in the Mexican army, stationed in San Francisco, from the 1830s to 1842. In 1838, the two men married twin sisters: José de Jesus married María Anastasia Higuera, and Sisto Antonio married María Nicolasa Higuera.
In 1842, Nasario Antonio Berreyesa petitioned the Mexican Governor for a grant of eight square leagues in the names of his sons Sisto Antonio and José de Jesus Berreyesa. The Governor ordered that a title issue to the petitioners for "...as much of the land as they could settle." For some unexplained reason, the Berreyesa brothers considered that the grant was for only four square leagues, and on the following day, October 28, 1843, they presented a second petition, in which they stated that their families were very large, and included their parents, children, and brothers, and asked for a grant of eight square leagues. On this second petition, a grant was issued to José de Jesus Berreyesa and Sisto Berreyesa.
The brothers built adobe estate houses about a third of the way up the valley, beginning with a 90 by 20 ft (27.4 by 6.1 m) hacienda
for Sisto, then a 60 by 20 ft (18.3 by 6.1 m) one for José de Jesus. They expanded the livestock operation of their father to include a sizable grain harvest, and they enjoyed gambling and racing horses. Millstone
s for some of the first gristmills in Alta California
were quarried from the upper northwest Putah Canyon, near a difficult and tortuous road through narrow Devil's Gate out of Berryessa Valley into Napa Valley, a two-day trip by mule team.
After California was ceded to the United States
in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
in 1848, the Berreyesas filed the claim with the American Public Land Commission
in their wives' names in 1852, and the grant was patented to María Anastasia Higuera de Berreyesa and María Nicolasa Higuera de Berreyesa in 1863. The men used their wives' names so that the men could stand witness in front of the Public Land Commission regarding their grant and not have the commission use their interest in the claim against them.
By 1853, José de Jesus and Sisto Berreyesa had sold minor parcels of Rancho Las Putas, referred to as Berryessa Ranch by the Anglo
settlers, to pay gambling debts. They owed Edward Schultz $1,645 but couldn't pay him in cash; Schultz petitioned the county to auction a major 26000 acres (105.2 km²) section of the Berreyesa holdings. Schultz paid only $2,000 for the huge parcel, and quickly resold it for $100,000 to a consortium of developers. José de Jesus and Sisto saved four square miles (2560 acres, or 10 km2) for themselves. However, other family members contended that they owned part of the larger Rancho, based on the second grant petition which mentioned extended family. Miguel Santiago Berreyesa (b. 1831) in Berreyesa v Schultz, and Jesse Loyd Beasley (1814–1899), who married Clara Berreyesa (b. 1823) in 1848, in Schultz v Beasley, sued for ownership.
Beginning in 1858, a toll road was operated by Adam See and his family, called the Putah Creek Canyon Turnpike. It shuttled people and goods eastward from Berryessa Valley to Winters, California
and back.
Sisto Berreyesa and his brother José de Jesús both died in 1874. They were buried in Berryessa Valley.
ted a town called Monticello
. Within a year, the valley was filled with farmers who enjoyed mild winters and bountiful harvests, especially of wheat. By 1870, Monticello contained a cemetery, a general store, blacksmith shops, hotels and various other businesses. In 1875, the toll road was opened to become a public road, maintained by the county. A four- and six-horse stagecoach ran from the 300 men working at the remote quicksilver
mining town of Knoxville south through to Monticello, where the horses were changed, then west to Napa
. The first adobe belonging to Sisto Berreyesa was left to ruin, but the second was held by a settler named Abraham Clark.
In 1900 and 1901, news of a high-quality oil strike in Berryessa Valley brought speculators and experts in drilling.
. The well-engineered bridge survived the swollen flood of Putah Creek every winter thenceforward.
As early as 1906, proposals were put forward to dam Putah Creek to form a reservoir. In 1907, the Mulholland-Goethals-Davis plan proposed a dam at Devil's Gate, the western limit of the valley. Other plans were formulated. No proposal was acted upon until 1947 when Solano County
and the United States Bureau of Reclamation
together formed the Solano Project, a combination of water plans including Monticello Dam
, the Putah Diversion Dam, the Putah South Canal, the Terminal Dam and Reservoir, the Green Valley Conduit and various related water distribution systems. Residents of Monticello protested, but California Governor Earl Warren
and Solano County promoted the dam. Residents started leaving the valley.
Dorothea Lange
and Pirkle Jones
were commissioned to shoot a photographic documentary
of the death of the town, and of the displacement of its residents, for Life
, but the magazine did not run the piece. Lange's Aperture magazine
, however, devoted one whole issue to the photojournalists'
work.
Construction of the dam began in 1953. Vegetation in the valley was chopped down, fences torn down and buildings demolished. The cemetery was moved to Spanish Flat, a bluff overlooking the valley. The Putah Creek Bridge, too well made to easily demolish, was left in place to be covered by the rising waters. Monticello Dam was completed in 1957, and Lake Berryessa was formed.
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 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena
Manuel Micheltorena
Manuel Micheltorena was a Brigadier General of the Mexican Army, Adjutant-General of the same, Governor, Commandant-General and Inspector of the Department of the California...
to José de Jesús Berreyesa and Sexto "Sisto" Berreyesa. The name Las Putas came from Putah Creek
Putah Creek
Putah Creek is a major stream in Northern California, a tributary of the Yolo Bypass. The creek has its headwaters in the Mayacamas Mountains, a part of the Coast Range...
, which ran through the property. Most of the grant is now covered by Lake Berryessa
Lake Berryessa
Lake Berryessa is the largest lake in Napa County, California. This reservoir is formed by the Monticello Dam, which provides water and hydroelectricity to the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area....
.
History
The Berryessa Valley was about 10 miles (16 km) long and 3 miles (5 km) at its widest, with Putah Creek running through its center. Several thousand years before Europeans arrived, Pomo peoplePomo people
The Pomo people are an indigenous peoples of California. The historic Pomo territory in northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point...
lived in relative ease on the rich land, as wildlife and plant foodstuffs were plentiful.
Berreyesa family
Nasario Antonio Berreyesa was born into the Berreyesa familyBerreyesa family
The Berreyesa family was a substantial clan of Basque-heritage Spanish-speaking settlers in early Northern California who held extensive land in the greater San Francisco Bay Area...
at Mission Santa Clara de Asís
Mission Santa Clara de Asís
Mission Santa Clara de Asís was founded on January 12, 1777 and named for Santa Clara de Asis , the foundress of the order of the Poor Clares. Although ruined and rebuilt six times, the settlement was never abandoned.-History:...
on July 28, 1787. Nicknamed José, Berreyesa married María de Jesus Antonia Villela (born October 6, 1793) in 1806. The couple had eleven children, including José de Jesus born January 31, 1815 and Sexto "Sisto" Antonio born on March 28, 1818. Both brothers were born in San Francisco and christened at Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions...
.
Nasario Antonio "José" Berreyesa served as a corporal at the San Francisco Presidio during 1819–1824, then moved to become the original settler of the Berryessa Valley in the 1830s. Berreyesa engaged 100 natives
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
to help him manage his livestock—a herd which soon grew to 5,000 cattle and 20,000 horses, and extended eastward over Berryessa Peak into Capay Valley
Capay Valley
Capay Valley is a mostly rural valley west of the Capay Hills, and northwest of Sacramento in Yolo County, California, United States.Cache Creek flows through the valley and the Capay Valley AVA...
. The nearby hills held deer and bear. Trails made by the bears made it possible for men, horses and cattle to find their way through the hills into Capay Valley.
Sons Sisto Antonio and José de Jesus served in the Mexican army, stationed in San Francisco, from the 1830s to 1842. In 1838, the two men married twin sisters: José de Jesus married María Anastasia Higuera, and Sisto Antonio married María Nicolasa Higuera.
In 1842, Nasario Antonio Berreyesa petitioned the Mexican Governor for a grant of eight square leagues in the names of his sons Sisto Antonio and José de Jesus Berreyesa. The Governor ordered that a title issue to the petitioners for "...as much of the land as they could settle." For some unexplained reason, the Berreyesa brothers considered that the grant was for only four square leagues, and on the following day, October 28, 1843, they presented a second petition, in which they stated that their families were very large, and included their parents, children, and brothers, and asked for a grant of eight square leagues. On this second petition, a grant was issued to José de Jesus Berreyesa and Sisto Berreyesa.
The brothers built adobe estate houses about a third of the way up the valley, beginning with a 90 by 20 ft (27.4 by 6.1 m) hacienda
Hacienda
Hacienda is a Spanish word for an estate. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even business factories. Many haciendas combined these productive activities...
for Sisto, then a 60 by 20 ft (18.3 by 6.1 m) one for José de Jesus. They expanded the livestock operation of their father to include a sizable grain harvest, and they enjoyed gambling and racing horses. Millstone
Millstone
Millstones or mill stones are used in windmills and watermills, including tide mills, for grinding wheat or other grains.The type of stone most suitable for making millstones is a siliceous rock called burrstone , an open-textured, porous but tough, fine-grained sandstone, or a silicified,...
s for some of the first gristmills in Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
were quarried from the upper northwest Putah Canyon, near a difficult and tortuous road through narrow Devil's Gate out of Berryessa Valley into Napa Valley, a two-day trip by mule team.
After California was ceded to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the 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...
in 1848, the Berreyesas filed the claim with the American 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 their wives' names in 1852, and the grant was patented to María Anastasia Higuera de Berreyesa and María Nicolasa Higuera de Berreyesa in 1863. The men used their wives' names so that the men could stand witness in front of the Public Land Commission regarding their grant and not have the commission use their interest in the claim against them.
By 1853, José de Jesus and Sisto Berreyesa had sold minor parcels of Rancho Las Putas, referred to as Berryessa Ranch by the Anglo
Anglo
Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to the Angles, England or the English people, as in the terms Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-American, Anglo-Celtic, Anglo-African and Anglo-Indian. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British Isles descent in The Americas, Australia and...
settlers, to pay gambling debts. They owed Edward Schultz $1,645 but couldn't pay him in cash; Schultz petitioned the county to auction a major 26000 acres (105.2 km²) section of the Berreyesa holdings. Schultz paid only $2,000 for the huge parcel, and quickly resold it for $100,000 to a consortium of developers. José de Jesus and Sisto saved four square miles (2560 acres, or 10 km2) for themselves. However, other family members contended that they owned part of the larger Rancho, based on the second grant petition which mentioned extended family. Miguel Santiago Berreyesa (b. 1831) in Berreyesa v Schultz, and Jesse Loyd Beasley (1814–1899), who married Clara Berreyesa (b. 1823) in 1848, in Schultz v Beasley, sued for ownership.
Beginning in 1858, a toll road was operated by Adam See and his family, called the Putah Creek Canyon Turnpike. It shuttled people and goods eastward from Berryessa Valley to Winters, California
Winters, California
Winters is a city in Yolo County, California. The population was 6,624 as of the 2010 census. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is near Lake Berryessa. It is noted as the one-time residence of cartoonist R...
and back.
Sisto Berreyesa and his brother José de Jesús both died in 1874. They were buried in Berryessa Valley.
Monticello
In 1866, the developer holding the majority of land in the valley divided Rancho Las Putas into smaller parcels to sell to farmers, and platPlat
A plat in the U.S. is a map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. Other English-speaking countries generally call such documents a cadastral map or plan....
ted a town called Monticello
Monticello, California
Monticello was a town in Napa County, California. The site of the settlement is completely covered by Lake Berryessa.-History:Monticello was a town erected within Rancho Las Putas, a Mexican land grant of given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to José de Jesús Berelleza and Sexto "Sisto"...
. Within a year, the valley was filled with farmers who enjoyed mild winters and bountiful harvests, especially of wheat. By 1870, Monticello contained a cemetery, a general store, blacksmith shops, hotels and various other businesses. In 1875, the toll road was opened to become a public road, maintained by the county. A four- and six-horse stagecoach ran from the 300 men working at the remote quicksilver
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
mining town of Knoxville south through to Monticello, where the horses were changed, then west to 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...
. The first adobe belonging to Sisto Berreyesa was left to ruin, but the second was held by a settler named Abraham Clark.
In 1900 and 1901, news of a high-quality oil strike in Berryessa Valley brought speculators and experts in drilling.
Damming Putah Creek
In 1896, a heavy stone bridge with three large arches was built across Putah Ceek about 1.5 miles (2 km) from Monticello, along the road leading to Napa. The bridge cost $19,500 and, at 298 feet (91 m) long, was the largest stone bridge west of the Rocky MountainsRocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
. The well-engineered bridge survived the swollen flood of Putah Creek every winter thenceforward.
As early as 1906, proposals were put forward to dam Putah Creek to form a reservoir. In 1907, the Mulholland-Goethals-Davis plan proposed a dam at Devil's Gate, the western limit of the valley. Other plans were formulated. No proposal was acted upon until 1947 when Solano County
Solano County, California
Solano County is a county located in Bay-Delta region of the U.S. state of California, about halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento and is one of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. The county's population was reported by the U.S. Census to be 413,344 in 2010...
and the United States Bureau of Reclamation
United States Bureau of Reclamation
The United States Bureau of Reclamation , and formerly the United States Reclamation Service , is an agency under the U.S...
together formed the Solano Project, a combination of water plans including Monticello Dam
Monticello Dam
Monticello Dam is a dam in Napa County, California, United States constructed between 1953 and 1957. It is a medium concrete-arch dam with a structural height of 304 ft and a crest length of . It contains 326,000 cubic yards of concrete...
, the Putah Diversion Dam, the Putah South Canal, the Terminal Dam and Reservoir, the Green Valley Conduit and various related water distribution systems. Residents of Monticello protested, but California Governor Earl Warren
Earl Warren
Earl Warren was the 14th Chief Justice of the United States.He is known for the sweeping decisions of the Warren Court, which ended school segregation and transformed many areas of American law, especially regarding the rights of the accused, ending public-school-sponsored prayer, and requiring...
and Solano County promoted the dam. Residents started leaving the valley.
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration...
and Pirkle Jones
Pirkle Jones
Pirkle Jones was a documentary photographer born in Shreveport, Louisiana. His first experience with photography was when he purchased a Kodak Brownie at the age of seventeen. In the 30's his photographs were featured in pictorialist salons and publications...
were commissioned to shoot a photographic documentary
Documentary photography
Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle significant and historical events. It is typically covered in professional photojournalism, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or academic pursuit...
of the death of the town, and of the displacement of its residents, for Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, but the magazine did not run the piece. Lange's Aperture magazine
Aperture (magazine)
Aperture is a quarterly photography magazine and a book publisher based in New York, New York. The magazine is published by Aperture Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to fine art photography.-Magazine:...
, however, devoted one whole issue to the photojournalists'
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
work.
Construction of the dam began in 1953. Vegetation in the valley was chopped down, fences torn down and buildings demolished. The cemetery was moved to Spanish Flat, a bluff overlooking the valley. The Putah Creek Bridge, too well made to easily demolish, was left in place to be covered by the rising waters. Monticello Dam was completed in 1957, and Lake Berryessa was formed.