Rancho Napa


Rancho Napa was a Mexican land grant in present-day Napa County, California given in 1838 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Salvador Vallejo. The grant extends along the Napa Valley, north of present-day Napa.

History

Jose Manuel Salvador Vallejo was the younger brother of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. He was Captain of militia at Sonoma and married Maria de la Cruz Carrillo. In 1839 Governor Alvarado granted to Salvador Vallejo an additional grant known as Salvador's Ranch.
Unlike most Mexican land grants in California that remained intact at the end of the Mexican era, Rancho Napa was subdivided. Salvador Vallejo subdivided and sold much of the land in 1847, retaining for himself. There were claims filed with the Public Land Commission in 1853 for 26 tracts of Rancho Napa and 4 tracts of Salvador's Rancho.
In 1863 Salvador Vallejo was a Major in the Union Army, and after the Civil War, he resigned and returned to his ranch in Napa in 1865, and died in 1876.