Rancho Aptos was a 6686 acres (27.1 km²) Mexican land grant

Ranchos of California

The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...

 in present day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa

José Figueroa

General José Figueroa , was a General and the Mexican territorial Governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835.Figueroa oversaw the initial secularization of the missions of upper California, which included the expulsion of the Spanish Franciscan mission officials.This also involved the issuing of...

 to Rafael Castro. The grant on the Monterey Bay

Monterey Bay

Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....

 was immediately downcoast of his sister, Martina Castro's Rancho Soquel

Rancho Soquel

Rancho Soquel was a Mexican land grant in present day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to Martina Castro. In 1844, Martina Castro was granted by Governor José Figueroa a further grant known as the Soquel Augmentation. The grant along Monterey Bay...

, and upcoast of his father, José Joaquín Castro's Rancho San Andrés

Rancho San Andrés

Rancho San Andrés was a Mexican land grant in present day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to José Joaquín Castro. The grant on Monterey Bay extended from La Selva Beach on the north to Watsonville Slough on the south...

. Rancho Aptos went from Seacliff State Beach

Seacliff State Beach

Seacliff is a California State Beach located off Highway 1 in the town of Aptos about south of Santa Cruz, on State Park Drive. The beach is most known for the concrete ship SS Palo Alto lying in the water...

 to Rio del Mar

Rio del Mar, California

Rio del Mar is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The name "Rio Del Mar" was chosen as a "catchy" name to promote real estate in the area during the 1920s. There is no body of water by that name in Santa Cruz County...

 and included present day Aptos

Aptos, California

Aptos is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 6,220 at the 2010 census.Aptos is an unincorporated area of Santa Cruz county, consisting of several small communities...

.

History

Rafael de Jesus Castro (1803–1878), son of José Joaquín Castro and Maria Antonia Amador, received the one and one half square league grant in 1833. Rafael Castro served in various minor official posts. He and his wife, Soledad Cota (1808–1889), were primarily cattle-ranchers. Rafael Castro built a wharf, five hundred feet long, to ship hides, flour, and lumber during the 1850s.

With the cession

Mexican Cession

The Mexican Cession of 1848 is a historical name in the United States for the region of the present day southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U.S...

 of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...

 provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Aptos was filed with the Public Land Commission

Public Land Commission

The Public Land Commission, a former agency of the United States government, was created following the admission of California as a state in 1850 . The Commission's purpose was to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican land grants in California.California Senator William M...

 in 1853, and the grant was patented

Land patent

A land patent is a land grant made patent by the sovereign lord over the land in question. To make a such a grant “patent”, such a sovereign lord must document the land grant, securely sign and seal the document and openly publish the same to the public for all to see...

 to Rafael Castro in 1860.

In 1867, Castro leased the wharf to Titus Hale, who extended it five hundred more feet into the sea. In the early 1870's, divorce actions were initiated by Soledad Castro. By 1872, Claus Spreckels

Claus Spreckels

Claus Spreckels, formally Adolph Claus J. Spreckels , , was a major industrialist in Hawai'i during the kingdom, republican and territorial periods of the islands' history...

, the sugar millionaire, began buying the land from Castro.