Rancho Las Camaritas was an Alta California land grant, a square of 300 Mexican varas on each side; varas being one pace, in this case 2.75 feet (16.625 acres or 6.73 hectares) to José de Jesús Noé on January 21, 1840, by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. Millions of acres of California land was given at no charge to men between 1784 and 1846 by the Spanish (1784–1810) or Mexican governments (1819–1846) mostly for military service to raise cattle on. About 300 of the 800 Land grants were sizable varying from a few thousand to 1.5 million acres – see List of ranchos of California for the larger grants. Following the Mexican–American War, the land grants were challenged with most of them falling into American hands. Only one land grant has remained undeveloped (see Rancho Legacy). The ownership of Las Camaritas was disputed in court by the U.S. government from 1856 until 1882 due to conflicting documentation presented by its American owner Ferdinand Vassault after a string of sales initiated by Jose Noe sometime between 1842 and 1846.
History
Las Camaritas was part of the Yelamu Ohlone territory going back 5,000 years. It is located near the Yelamu's migratory summer village of Chutchui. The village is a short distance from the original location for Mission San Francisco de Asís that was first identified by the Spanish Juan Bautista de Anza expedition on March 29, 1776.
A number of Papal Bulls including the 1455 Romanus Pontifex and the 1493 Inter caetera as amended by the Treaty of Tordesillas allowed Christians to take the lands of non-Christians anywhere in the world and reduce its people to perpetual slavery. These Bulls were part of the justification used by Spain in 1769 to establish Missions from San Diego to San Francisco. However, the Spanish crown promised the Ohlone people and all other coastal tribes that they would retain control over their lands if they became Christians and followed the laws of Spain.
From June 29, 1776, until the passage of the Mexican secularization act of 1833 all the land within present-day San Francisco was under the control of Mission San Francisco de Asís. The Secularization Act shut down all of Alta California's Missions and sold them off. The Act was primarily a deal with California's Dons to retain their allegiance to Mexico, giving them control over millions of acres of lands promised to tribal people the church held prior to 1833. Governor Figueroa issued a regulation (Reglamento Provisional para la secularizacion de las Misiones) on August 9, 1834, outlining the requirements for the distribution of property (land, cattle and equipment) to each mission's neophytes. However, most of the neophytes were driven away from the Mission and never knew of the Reglamento offering them land.
Jose Noe was part of the Híjar-Padrés colony of 1834 that attempted to consolidate Mexican control over Alta California but failed. Noe was the only Híjar colony member that was able to settle in Northern California.
Noe was the last Mexican alcalde of Yerba Buena, which was renamed San Francisco after the conclusion of the Mexican–American War in 1846. Jose Noe was elected as the village's Alcalde twice: first as the 7th Alcalde (1842–1843) and again as the 12th Alcalde in 1846. Prior to Mexico becoming independent of Spain, Alcaldes were to have been elected from the indigenous tribal communities surrounding the local Catholic mission – in this case Mission San Francisco de Asís.
Noe applied to the governor on October 3, 1839, for Rancho Las Camaritas and was given the land grant on January 21, 1840. According to the state of California's summary of the Spanish and Mexican land grant era, the government required the following four steps to obtain land: The first step was the submitting of a petition by an applicant, containing the name, religion, residence occupation, and the size of the family. Along with a land description and, at times, a map of the tract (diseno). The diseno (map) and land description were usually very vague, calling to sloughs, trees, hills, and other features which were not very permanent. The second step was the inquiries by officials into the availability of the land, the character of the applicant, and the posting of the petition in case another party had objections to the approval of the application. The third step was the Informe which was usually a separate document or a note appended to the original application, stating the findings of the officials in Step Number 2. This third step usually entailed the actual grant of land or refusal of the grant of land The fourth and final step was the confirmation of the grant by the Viceroy. This final step made the title to the land perfect. The applicant or grantee was given possession by the Alcalde (local judge) who caused the grantee to pull up grass, throw stones, break twigs, and exclaim, "Viva el Presidente y la Nación Mexicana" (long live the President and the Mexican Nation). During the Mexican era, these four steps were also used with minor alterations.
In Noe's original petition to governor Alvarado, he proposed to construct a house and grow vegetables on Las Camaritas for his family. The property was known during the American era as Noah's garden. Las Camaritas means little cabins, possibly referring to Noe's small cabins he had on the property. Maps identify his adobe home and a number of other structures were located on the northwest corner of 15th and Mission Street.
The land is located in San Francisco's Mission District within the area bounded by 14th Street, Mission Street, 16th Street, and Shotwell Street, with its southern border parallel to and about 300 feet north of 16th Street (the property extending 825 feet south from 14th Street and the same distance east from Mission Street).
Geography
Rancho Las Camaritas is located in California on the San Francisco peninsula that lies between the San Francisco Bay to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Its location between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates makes it one of the most seismically active regions in the world. The San Francisco Bay is part of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta(the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast) that was shaped by the last ice age. Due to the coastal updwelling of minerals and cold water from the California Current, it is also one of the world's most biologically active regions. It was once home to one of the largest populations of birds in the world and is along the Pacific Flyway. The peninsula's Mediterranean climate is tempered with mild winters followed by cool, dry, but foggy summers. Due to its seismic activity the peninsula has many hills, with Twin Peaks to the west, forming a fog break for Las Camaritas and the Mission District, giving it a warm sunny Microclimate that is protected from foggier areas of the city that make its temperature warmer than the rest of San Francisco. This climate played a prominent role in its selection as Spain's Mission in 1776.
Las Camaritas was originally bordered by a sausal (Spanish for willow wetland) along 14th Street, and the salt marsh of the tidal estuary called Mission Creek on the east side. A tiny lake was indicated, by at least one map, partially on the property at its southwestern corner, north of the corner of Sixteenth and Mission Streets today, but probably not as close to 16th as the rough sketch map implies. Early maps identify Harrison Street as the Mission Creek's stream bed crossing 16th, then called Center Street. Mission Creek was navigable by boat up to the 16th Street wharf (or the Mission Embarcadero) for the Mission San Francisco de Asís. Las Camaritas has alluvial soil making it a good candidate for agricultural use which was how the land was used during its early years after America took control of California. During the early American era, the Mission Woolen Goods factory was located along its east border, reflecting the period's ranching background.
The lagoon located along its west side known as Lake Dolores was very likely the same body of water that the original Mission was founded next to back in 1776. In this case, much reduced in size due to the large cattle operations that the church operated combined with many years of droughts. The evidence of the lagoon's existence can be seen with its very high-water table and the problems BART had constructing its underground line back in the 1960s.
The Mission Creek was filled in by an order of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on August 24, 1876, after a number of prominent San Franciscans(Claus Spreckels and John Center) failed to convince the supervisors to turn the creek into a canal all the way to 18th and Harrison Street.
Annexation
Following the Bear Flag Rebellion and Mexican–American War the United States signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with the Republic of Mexico that included the promise to respect the title of lands (Ranchos) held by the citizens of Alta California made prior to 1846. The Public Land Commission was formed in 1851 to settle control of nearly 800 land claimsFinding Aid to the Documents Pertaining to the Adjudication of Private Land Claims in California, circa 1852-1892 that led to nearly 40 years of legal challenges covering over 8 million acres of prime real estate with most Ranchos taken over by Americans.
"Afore I came away from hum, I hed a strong persuasion thet Mexicans worn't human beans, - An ourang-outang nation, A sort o' folks a chap could kill An' never dream on't arter, No more'n a feller'd dream of pigs That he hed hed to slarter; I'd an idee that they were built arter the darde fashion all, An' kickin' colored folk about, you know, 's a kind o' national." -James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, First Series, No. II (1848)
After 1846, Jose Noe retreated from his homes he had at Yerba Buena and Las Camaritasto to live at his Rancho San Miguel in present-day Noe Valley. He supposedly turned control of Las Camaritas over to former Alcalde Francisco Guerrero who was killed in 1851 while coming back to the Mission from a Public Land Commission hearing.
Between 1850 and 1854, the state of California passed a series of legislative actions proposed by San Francisco that progressively annexed the original Pueblo – Mission San Francisco de Asis, which had been the district capital for the area between Santa Clara to Sonoma county, including the East Bay during the Mexican era. Known today as the Mission District, its citizen's sent repeated petitions to the state legislature opposing the city's annexation proposals.
On April 2, 1855, the San Francisco Board of Aldermen (predecessors of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors) adopted Alderman Van Ness's "scheme for the settlement of City Titles... The city relinquishes all her right and claims to lands in favor of present possessors... situated within the corporate limits of the city... as passed April 15th, 1851..."
The primary goal of the ordinance was to allow squatters to take control of land within the city limits annexed by the city in 1851 that was contrary to the federal Land Commission's certification on February 3, 1853, of the four square league land claim of Joseph Yves Limantour for most of San Francisco. This included the squatters that took possession illegally across the Mission. One of the earliest squatters who took extensive lands in the Mission was John Center, who according to future Mayor Sunny James Rolph donated the property to construct the Marshall School, that had previously been the state's first insane asylum.
Following the state legislature's approval of the "Van Ness Ordinance", on March 11, 1858, California Governor Weller signed it into law. The Limantour and Santilan land claims for most of San Francisco that took until 1879 to resolve were thus ignored by the city and state.