Page 7 - eternalvalley1958

In 1837, he asked Don Pablo de la Guerra to draw a map of the for a few days in the old adobe milk house, which stood on the slope slightly above the
Rancho from his verbal description. It is believed that at that cienega and below the rancho house.
time a portion of the Rancho was being utilized by the del Valle The treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, under which California passed into possession of the
, family for grazing purposes under some grant or permission from
United States by purchase, went into effect February 2, 1848. It provided for the con-
authority.
tinuity and protection of existing land titles. Rancho San Francisco was only a cattle
Don Antonio del Valle petitioned Governor Alvarado for the Rancho range and its isolation seemed to insure its protection as such.
on January 22, 1839. The petition was granted and the Mission The Gold Rush in 1849 created unlimited money and business in the mining camps and
Asistencia became the first del Valle rancho home. cities of the north. There were pioneer merchants in the sleepy Pueblo de Los Angeles -
FIRST PROSPECTORS
After del Valle's death in 1841, the rancho was partitioned the area that is today the Olvera Street Mission in downtown civic center - who were
and divided among his children. A portion of the Rancho called fully aware of the possibilities developing. Accustomed to surmounting handicaps, these
Camulos was always associated with Don Y gnacio del Valle, Antonio's oldest son. rugged frontiersmen intended co get their full share of whatever development might take
However, tradition tells us that it was from the old Asistencia that Francisco Lopez, del place elsewhere.
Valle's cousin, and two friends, Manuel Cota and Domingo Bermudez, made the first Los Angeles County Records show that at the time the appropriations, subscriptions and
authenticated gold discovery in California. It led to the settlement of the first mining expenditures co get a passable road to and through Rancho San Francisco northward
camp in California at Placeritas Canyon. were more than all the money spent on ocher roads in the county combined.
In 1847, John C. Fremont and his party of 429 passed through the Rancho, traveling The building of this road had a terrific impact on the Rancho, and in 1852, Antonio
through the steep mountain ranges with covered wagons and a cannon, which had to del Valle's widow, Don Ygnacio del Valle, who was elected County Recorder, and the
be let down the southern slope with ropes. Today there is a plaque on Highway 6, near ocher children, petitioned for confirmation of the title to Rancho San Francisco.
the place where the Fremont expedition encamped, calling attention to Fremont Pass.
It gives the erroneous impression that the cut made by E. F. Beale in 1863 is Fremont's LYON'S STATION OPENS AT
Pass.
ETERNAL VALLEY SITE
Two years later, an exaggeratedly contrasting party of footsore pioneers stumbled out of In about 1851 the necessity arose for a staging connection from the Pueblo inland and
the mouth of the Soledad Canyon. It was the "Jayhawker" party-what was left of them
co the North. It is believed that Henry C. Wiley and Jose Ygnacio del Valle established
- ending their tragic trek through Death Valley to the gold fields. The party convalesced the first station.

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