The diseño featured here is part of the land claim of Rancho San Miguelito de Trinidad, located within the ancestral lands of the Salinan-speaking people of present-day Monterey County. It features the Nacimiento River flowing through the property and a California grizzly bear marking a tree. The Santa Lucia Mountains drawn at the top of the map, demarcate the boundaries of this tract of land. This is a fine example of the approximately 1,400 hand-drawn maps deposited at The Bancroft Library that form part of the Spanish and Mexican land claim files in California.

In 2021, the Bancroft Library launched a large-scale digitization project to provide online access to the more than 133,000 pages in the California Land Case Files, dating from 1852 to 1892. The information in the cases offer evidence of life in early California from the perspective of Mexican Californians, or Californios, and provide a unique view into the transition from Mexican to American rule in the state. This important collection includes transcripts, witness depositions, materials presented as evidence, and other legal documents associated with all 857 private land claims in California brought before the Board of California Land Commissioners. 

The 1,450 corresponding Land Case Maps, digitized in 2004, include both formal surveys and more impressionistic diseños, showing property boundaries, buildings, and natural features and were included as evidence in the Land Case Files. Together, these digital collections create a comprehensive online resource for studying the historic ranchos and life in early California from the perspective of Mexican Californians, or Californios. 

The Land Case Files and Maps are now available online through UC Berkeley’s digital collections repository at digital.lib.berkeley.edu under search terms ‘Adjudication private land claims’ and ‘Private Land Grant Maps.’

The Bancroft library has recently launched an interactive map in ArcGIS which allows users to explore our digital collections related to the historic Spanish and Mexican Land grants in California. This map contains 540 GIS boundaries of Mexican and Spanish land grants, drawn as they were originally patented and recorded by the U.S. Public Land Survey System. Each boundary contains popup information with links to associated maps, diseños, Land Case Files, and case summaries documenting the private land claims presented before the American courts after the U.S. annexation of California in 1848.

The Bancroft Library is the primary special collections library at UC Berkeley, and one of the largest and most heavily used libraries of manuscripts, rare books, and unique materials in the United States. Bancroft supports major research and instructional activities and plays a leading role in the development of the university’s research collections.