Rancho La Laguna (Manriquez)
Rancho La Laguna was a 13,339-acre (53.98 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Riverside County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Julian Manriquez. The rancho lands are included in the present day city of Lake Elsinore and Wildomar. At the time of the US Patent, Rancho Laguna was a part of San Diego County. The County of Riverside was created by the California Legislature in 1893 by taking land from both San Bernardino and San Diego Counties.
Julian Manriquez received the land grant in 1844. His adobe ranch house lay at the north end of the west side of the lake. He sold the land to Abel Stearns in 1851.
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 La Laguna was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, and the grant was patented to Abel Stearns in 1872.
Stearns subsequently sold Rancho Laguna to Augustin Machado in 1858. Augustin Machado built his house and outbuildings near the southwest corner of the Lake. From 1857 to 1861 the rancho was a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail between Los Angeles and Fort Yuma. The old Manriquez adobe was used as the site of the stage station.
In 1862, during the American Civil War the rancho provided the site for the Union Army Camp Laguna Grande, a which was used for grazing horses. After Augustin Machado's death in 1865, his eldest son, Juan Bautista Machado inherited the property.
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