Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ranching & Homesteading
A
S
M
EXICO REDISTRIBUTED
the vast mission holdings as land grants, homesteaders
claimed several outlying areas of Big Sur. Monterey soon developed into an important
Pacific trading port, and the United States began to set its sights on California. Ten-
sions arose between land-owning
Californios
, as they called themselves, and Americ-
an pioneers immigrating through the treacherous passes of the Sierra Nevada. Conflict
erupted at the outset of the Mexican War in 1846. In 1848, Mexico ceded California
to the United States. The following year, gold was discovered in the foothills of the
Sierra, and statehood was declared in 1850.
Pioneers and prospectors headed to California in droves. By this time, many
outlying areas, including the Carmel, Nacimiento, and San Antonio River Valleys,
were already privately owned. Two land grants spanned Big Sur: the 8984-acre Ran-
cho El Sur, owned by Juan Bautista Alvarado, covering most of Point Sur, and the
8876-acre Rancho San Jose y Sur Chiquito, from the Carmel River to Palo Colorado
Canyon.
Would-be homesteaders found the remaining steep, rocky terrain ill suited for
farming, difficult to cross, and isolated from the world. Nonetheless, by the late 1800s
a small community of determined pioneers had settled in Big Sur. These strong-willed
folks survived by hunting, fishing, foraging, raising livestock, planting orchards, and
tending gardens amid the lush canyons and steep ridges. Today, much of the land is
named for these early pioneer families, including the Pfeiffers, Posts, Plasketts, Pre-
witts, and Partingtons.
