Rancho Tres Ojos de Agua was a 176 acre (0.71224736 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 Santa Cruz 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 Nicolás Dodero. The name means "Three Springs". The grant was located on present day High Street in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz, California

Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...

.

History

Nicolás Dodero (1804–), an Italian sailor came California on the "Maria Ester" in 1827, was living in the Pueblo of San José in 1829. Dodero married Josefa Higuera (1812–). He was granted the 1,300 varas square Rancho Tres Ojos de Agua in 1844. Dodero built a Grist mill on the creek formed by three springs from limestone formations on the hill above and diverted water to the Mission Santa Cruz

Mission Santa Cruz

Mission Santa Cruz was established in 1791 and named for the feast of the Exultation of the Cross, the name that the explorer Gaspar de Portolà gave to the area when he camped on the banks of the San Lorenzo River on October 17, 1769, and erected a wooden cross...

 plaza and reservoir.

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 Santa Cruz 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 Nicolás Dodero in 1866.

The land passed into the hands to Nelson Alvin Bixby (1829–1904) who came overland and arrived in the Santa Cruz area in 1859. Bixby sold it to Henry Meyrick in 1877. Henry Meyrick built the Hotel Del Monte in Monterey. In 1906, Charles C. Moore bought the property. Charles Caldwell Moore (1868–1932) was a prominent San Franciscan business man who was the president of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition

Panama–Pacific International Exposition

The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California between February 20 and December 4 in 1915. Its ostensible purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely seen in the city as an opportunity to showcase its recovery...

in San Francisco in 1915.