Page 12 - Exploration10LLR

Act placed the burden of proof of title on landholders. Grantees were required to prove the validity of the
grants they had received and establish their exact boundaries. The diseños available were often imprecise.
Land had until the gold rush been of little value and boundary locations were often quite vague, referring to
an oak tree, a cow skull on a pile of rocks, a creek, and in some cases a mountain range.

Even in cases where the boundaries were more specific, many markers had been destroyed before accurate
surveys could be made. Aside from indefinite survey lines, the Land Commission had to determine whether
the grantees had fulfilled the requirements of the Mexican colonization laws. While the Land Commission
confirmed 604 of the 813 claims it reviewed, most decisions were appealed to US District Court and some to
the Supreme Court. The confirmation process required lawyers, translators, and surveyors, and took an
average of 17 years (with American Civil War, 1861–1865) to resolve. It proved expensive for landholders to
defend their titles through the court system. In many cases, they had to sell a portion of their land to pay for
defense fees or gave attorneys land in lieu of payment.

Rejected Spanish and Mexican land claims resulted in conflicting claims by the grantees, squatters, and
settlers seeking the same land. This resulted in pressure on Congress to change the rules. Under the
Preemption Act of 1841, squatters were able to pre-empt other's claims to portions of the land and acquire
clear title by paying $1.25 an acre for up to a maximum of 160 acres (0.65 km2). Land from titles rejected by
the courts became part of the public domain and available to homesteaders after the first federal
Homestead Act of 1862 was passed, allowing anyone to claim up to 160-acre (0.65 km2). This resulted in
additional pressure on Congress, and beginning with Rancho Suscol in 1863, it passed special acts that
allowed certain claimants to pre-empt their land–without regard to acreage. By 1866 this privilege was
extended to all owners of rejected claims.
A number of ranchos remained in whole or in part in the sliver of territory of Alta California left for Mexico
by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, that then became part of Baja California. Rancho Tía Juana (partially in
San Diego County, California) lost its claim to title to its land in San Diego County but the balance of the
rancho was confirmed by the Mexican government in the 1880s. Rancho El Rosario, Rancho Cueros de
Venado and Rancho Tecate were each granted to citizens of San Diego in the 1820s or 1830s and lay wholly
in what is now Baja California as was the Rancho San Antonio Abad, whose origin and title is more obscure.
Their titles were never subjected to dispute in U. S. courts.