Rancho San Francisco - Later History

Later History

Following the war, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo allowed Mexican landowners to keep their lands. However, Jacoba Feliz sued for control of Rancho San Francisco. The judgment for Feliz's lawsuit was handed down in 1857. Ygnacio Del Valle received the westernmost portion of 13,599 acres (55.03 km2), Feliz (now Salazár) took 21,307 acres (86.23 km2), and her six children received 4,684 acres (18.96 km2) each.

Unfortunately, at this time Southern California experienced a great deal of flooding, and ranchers were forced to mortgage their properties in order to pay for damages. Feliz mortgaged her portion of the land to William Wolfskill, who returned a portion of it back to Del Valle in exchange for him settling her debts. Floods were followed by droughts, which again exacerbated the ranchers' problems. Finally, in 1862 Del Valle was forced to sell off most of his land to oil speculators (the Philadelphia and California Petroleum Company headed by Thomas A. Scott), keeping only his Rancho Camulos. The oilmen were unable to find any oil, and Rancho San Francisco eventually landed in the hands of Henry Newhall, whose name is now closely associated with the Santa Clarita Valley area.

Newhall granted right-of-way to Southern Pacific Railroad to build a rail line to Los Angeles and sold them a portion of the land, upon which sprang a new town that the company named after him, Newhall. Another town grew around the train station and Newhall named it after his hometown, Saugus.

After Newhall's death in 1882, his heirs formed the Newhall Land and Farming Company, which managed the lands. In 1936, Atholl McBean, Newhall's grandson-in-law, discovered oil on the property and changed the name to Newhall Ranch.