"Rancho Los Laureles" was a 718 acres (2.9 km²) Mexican land grant in present day Monterey County, California given in 1844 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 Agricio, an Ohlone

Ohlone

The Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...

 Indian. The grant extended along the north side of the Carmel River

Carmel River

The Carmel River is a river on the Central Coast of California in Monterey County that originates in the Santa Lucia Mountains. The river flows northwest through the Carmel Valley with its mouth at the Pacific Ocean south of Carmel-by-the-Sea. It is often considered the northern boundary of Big Sur...

 and the Carmel Valley, was bounded to the east by the Boronda Rancho Los Laureles

Rancho Los Laureles

Rancho Los Laureles was a Mexican land grant in present day Monterey County, California given in 1839 by Governor Juan Alvarado to José M. Boronda and Vicente Blas Martínez. Los Laureles refers to the California Bay Laurel tree...

.

History

The 2000 varas square Rancho Los Laureles was granted to Jose Agricio, a resident of the Carmel Mission

Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo

Mission San Carlos Borroméo del río Carmelo, also known as the Carmel Mission, is a Roman Catholic mission church in Carmel, California. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and a U.S...

, in 1844.

Colonel Leander Ransom (September 5, 1800–May 14, 1874), came to California in 1851 as the U. S. Deputy Surveyor General for California. Ransom established the Mount Diablo Base and Meridian lines in 1851. This was the initial point for surveying public lands in two-thirds of California and all of Nevada. Ransom also examined San Bernardino Mountain in southern California to see if it would be feasible to establish an initial point on it’s summit. Ransom served as Chief Clerk in the California Surveyor General's Office in San Francisco from 1851 to the 1860’s. Ransom died in 1874 as the result of an accident, and was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco.

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, a claim for Rancho Los Laureles was 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 1853, and the grant was patented

Land patent

A land patent is a land grant made patent by the sovereign lord over the land in question. To make a such a grant “patent”, such a sovereign lord must document the land grant, securely sign and seal the document and openly publish the same to the public for all to see...

to Leander Ransom in 1871.