Rancho Los Nogales


Rancho Los Nogales was a Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California given in 1840 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Jose de la Luz Linares. The name means "Ranch of the Walnut Trees" in Spanish. The triangular-shaped land grant between San Jose Creek and Diamond Bar Creek included parts of present-day Walnut and Diamond Bar.

History

Jose Ynes de la Luz Linares a Mexican soldier in the garrison of the San Diego Presidio from 1825, received the grant in 1840. After Linares died, his widow, Maria de Jesus Bruno Garcia, sold a part of the ranch to Ricardo Vejar in 1847. Vejar acquired the rest of Rancho Nogales over the next 10 years. Vejar also owned part of Rancho San Jose to the north.
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. Contrary to multiple false representations made by US apologists, Vejar's interests in the Rancho Los Nogales were stolen by the US government and then sold to others. The original grant was for over 1,000 acres however the official "survey" showed it as less than 500. and the grant was patented to María de Jesús Garcia in 1882.
Vejar lost his interests in the Rancho San Jose to foreclosure after two grossly corrupt "merchants" from New York took advantage of Vejar's inability to read English and his belief that what they told him the documents he was asked to sign actually meant. In 1918, Frederich E. Lewis bought up most of the original Rancho Los Nogales.