Rancho San Lucas: A Mexican Land Grant

In eighteen forty-two, California's Governor Juan Alvarado granted eight thousand eight hundred seventy-five acres of Salinas Valley land to Rafael Estrada, who happened to be the governor's own half-brother. The grant ran along the west bank of the Salinas River south of present-day San Lucas and became known as Rancho San Lucas.

Estrada later sold the property to James McKinley, a Scottish sailor who had arrived at Monterey in the eighteen twenties and built a successful trading career. The rancho changed hands over the decades after California joined the United States, when Mexican land grants faced legal challenges in American courts. Unlike many, Rancho San Lucas survived. It remains an operating ranch today, still owned by the Trescony family, who bought it in eighteen sixty-two.