Big Valley - Little Pricetag

We’ve grown accustomed over the last couple of years to dropping land values in our valley. Prices 200 years ago, however, were so low as to shock us.

How hard is it to believe that a family bought this entire San Bernardino Valley for $800? The story of the Lugo family and their short ownership of San Bernardino is both amazing and sad.

Antonio Maria Lugo was born at the Mission San Antonio de Padua in 1775, to Spanish parents. His father, Francisco Lugo, was a Spanish soldier, who had participated in some of the first Spanish explorations of California. Antonio was also destined to become a Spanish solder when he turned 18, where he served in Santa Barbara and other Spanish missions and military outposts.

After seventeen years in the military, Antonio Maria Lugo retired with a land grant for a rancho near present-day Lynwood. He built a home in Los Angeles pueblo, and began cattle ranching on his rancho.

By 1823, the Lugo rancho had outgrown its acreage, and Antonio petitioned the governor for more land, in the area of today’s city of Bell. His request was approved, and the Lugo ranch grew in size. Spanish control over California ended by 1825, and California was now governed by Mexican government-appointed governors.

Antonio Maria Lugo, now 50 years old, with 12 children, wanted to expand his cattle ranching empire. His herds numbered in the tens of thousands, yet he wanted his sons to have a chance to develop their own ranchos.

That’s when his eyes turned toward San Bernardino. Several expeditions had passed through our valley over the years, and the San Gabriel Mission has established a farm outpost here in 1819.

The farm was irrigated by water from Mill Creek above Mentone, through a ditch called zanja. You may have seen television commercials produced by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians recently depicting the digging of the zanja. A Spanish engineer laid out the alignment of the ditch, and many local Natives worked in digging a channel to bring reliable water to a spot along Mission Road in what is now Loma Linda, near our new Heritage Park. The zanja was to become one of the most hotly-contested waterways in California history!

Back to the Lugo family. The mission outpost in our valley had moved from Mission Road to the site of the present Asistencia on Barton Road about 1830. By 1834, mission lands were confiscated by the new Mexican government and “secularized.” You can relate that to the “nationalizing” of private lands and businesses during revolutions in some countries. San Bernardino was officially now owned by the government of Mexico, and up for sale. Don Antonio Maria Lugo was interested.

In 1839, the Lugos were granted the entire San Bernardino valley, consisting of about 250,000 acres. The new rancho was 35 miles from east to west, and about 15 miles from north to south. The ranch was to be run by Antonio’s three sons, Jose Maria, Jose del Carmen and Vicente. The Lugos brought with them 7,000 head of cattle and hundreds of horses.

In 1842, a new governor was to be appointed, and Antonio Maria Lugo hastily applied for a permanent grant to the San Bernardino Valley. The land was measured, and about 35,000 acres were permanently granted to Jose del Carmen Lugo. The ranch began on the west side with “Serrito Solo,” which we know as Slover Mountain or even “Cement Mountain” along the I-10 freeway. The ranch was bounded on the north by the San Bernardino Mountains, on the south by the Loma Linda South Hills, and by the southeast with Yucaipa. The northernmost section was Cajon Pass, just beyond Cal State San Bernardino.  The official filing fee was $12, although a fee of $800 has been reported, as well.  No matter which, it was a bargain!

Could the Lugo family manage to maintain a cattle ranch in such a distant and hostile region? Native uprisings had driven other settlers out, and the weather in the upper valley was far more vicious than the Lugos had seen in their Los Angeles ranch.

Next time: The Lugos face many dangers, toils and troubles.

For further reading about the Lugos, and the Spanish and Mexican periods of our history, read Lugo: A Chronicle of Early California by Roy E. Whitehead. Published 1978 by the San Bernardino County Museum Association. Available at the San Bernardino County Museum gift store.  It’s 475 pages, so be ready sit a spell!