Rancho Olompali


Rancho Olompali was a Mexican land grant in present-day Marin County, California given in 1834 by governor Manuel Micheltorena to Camilo Ynitia, son of a Coast Miwok chief. The name Olómpali comes from the Coast Miwok language and likely means southern village or southern people. The land grant is between present-day Novato and Petaluma. A part of this land now comprises the Olompali State Historic Park.

History

In 1843 Mexican governor Micheltorena granted Rancho Olompali to Camilo Ynitia. Camilo was the only Native American on the northern frontier of Alta California to secure and keep a large land grant for his tribe.
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Olompali was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, and the grant was patented to Camilo Ynitia in 1862.
In 1852 Ynitia sold most of his land to James Black, grantee of Rancho Cañada de Jonive and one of the largest landowners in Marin County. Black's daughter, Mary, married Dr. Galen Burdell. Black's wife, Maria Agustina Sais, died in Dr. Burdell's dental chair in 1864. In 1866 Black married Maria Loreto Duarte, Ygnacio Pacheco’s widow. James Black died in 1870.

Historic sites of the Rancho