Joseph Yves Limantour

Joseph Yves Limantour (1812, Ploemeur, France - 1885, Mexico City, Mexico) was a French merchant who engaged in the California sea trade during the years preceding American occupation of that Mexican province in 1846. He was also known in California as José Limantour.

Limantour, was a Breton trader and sea captain who traded all along the Pacific coast from Valparaíso to California. He arrived in Veracruz in 1831, and was based after 1836 in Mexico City.

Limantour Beach bears his name because he wrecked his schooner, the Ayacucho, on Point Reyes in October 1841. Although much of the cargo was saved, Limantour was stranded in California with no means of transport. During his time in northern California, Limantour sold his cargo for cash and credit to the local elite, but the value of the Ayucucho’s cargo far exceeded the local capacity for purchase. General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, Commander General of California, was a major exception and he owned Rancho Suscol in Sonoma with plenty of cattle. Joseph Gale and his company from the Oregon Country wanted cattle to drive back up north, and Limantour wanted a schooner. In a three-way deal, Vallejo purchased the Gale's schooner Star of Oregon for 350 cows, and then transferred ownership to Limantour.

In 1853, Limantour filed claims at the Public Land Commission for 47 square leagues (200,000 acres) of Mexican land grants. The claims included eighty square leagues of Cape Mendocino; Tiburon peninsula, the Farallones, Alcatraz; four square leagues of San Francisco (all the land south of California Street); Rancho Ojo de Agua; the eleven square league Rancho Laguna de Tache; the eleven square league Rancho Cienega del Gabilan; the eleven square league Rancho Lupyomi; and the six square leagues Rancho Cahuenga. All granted by Mexican governor Manuel Micheltorena. His claims were judged fraudulent in Federal court. Limantour arrested in December 1857, but posted bail and went back to Mexico.

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