Rancho Temescal (Serrano)

Rancho Temescal was a Mexican land grant in present-day Riverside County, California, granted by Governor José María de Echeandía in 1828 to Leandro Serrano.

The grant extended along the Temescal Valley south of present-day Corona and encompassed El Cerrito and Lee Lake. At the time of the grant claim, Rancho Temescal was a part of San Bernardino County. Riverside County was created by the California Legislature in 1893 by taking land from both San Bernardino and San Diego County. The claim for the grant was rejected by the US Supreme Court in 1866.

Rancho Temescal has two Native American historic sites within the land grant borders.

Leandro Serrano (? –1852) was the son of one of the soldiers who came to California with Junípero Serra in 1769. Leandro Serrano was mayordomo of San Antonio de Pala Asistencia for the Mission of San Luis Rey. Serrano received the written permission of the priest of the Mission of San Luis Rey, or of the military commander of San Diego, to occupy the five square league Rancho Temescal (Mission of San Luis Rey land), and took possession in about 1818 or 1819. The Serrano Boulder (California Historical Landmark (#185), marks the site of the first house erected by Leandro Serrano about May 1824. By 1826 he had in addition to the adobe house, a garden with fruit trees, considerable cattle and horses. From 1828, Leandro was mayordomo of Mission San Juan Capistrano. In the early 1830s, another home was erected upon a knoll just above the first site, which commanded a far-reaching view, because of threatening trouble with the Mission Indians when the Missions in California were being closed. The ruins of this second adobe were still standing during the 1880s. In the 1840s Leandro built his third and last adobe on the road between San Diego and Los Angeles, which later became part of the Southern Emigrant Trail during the California Gold Rush. The Serrano family occupied the adobe until 1898. The site of this third adobe is on the northeast corner of I-15 and Old Temescal Road, 8 miles Southeast of Corona. Leandro continued to reside there with his family until his death in 1852. After his wife, Maria Presentacion Yorba (1791–1835) died in 1835, he married Josefa Montalva. His son, Jose Antonio Serrano, was grantee of Rancho Pauma.

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