Rancho Los Nietos

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Rancho Los Nietos is situated in Alta California.

In 1784, the largest Spanish land grant in Alta California was awarded to Manuel Nieto. It consisted of 300,000 acres of land and extended from the San Gabriel River to the west and the Santa Ana River on the east. The road from San Gabriel to San Diego, El Camino Real, formed the northern boundary (about where Whittier Boulevard is now), and the Pacific ocean was the boundary on the south. The priests at Mission San Gabriel protested that Nieto's land encroached on theirs, so some acres were pared away, but enough remained that it was still the largest rancho granted. At first it was called La Zanja, but later it was known simply as Rancho Los Nietos.

Today, parts of Long Beach, Lakewood, Downey, Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs, Whittier, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Bolsa Chica State Beach, Seal Beach, Anaheim, Buena Park, Garden Grove, and many smaller cities including Cerritos are located on what was once the enormous Nieto Rancho.

Smaller rancho's were established within the rancho lands through the years including; the Rancho Los Cerritos and the Rancho Los Alamitos, where their main adobe houses still stand today.

[edit] references

• City of Cerritos Official home-site, historical section, 3.