Rancho Tzabaco
Rancho Tzabaco was a 15,439-acre (62.48 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Sonoma County, California given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to José German Piña (often misspelled as "Pena" in historical documents). The grant extended along Dry Creek, a tributary of the Russian River, north west of present-day Healdsburg and encompassed present-day Geyserville and the Dry Creek Valley AVA. The grant was immediately north of Henry D. Fitch's Rancho Sotoyome.
José German Piña (1829–1847), son Lázaro Piña (d.1847), a soldier who had come to California in 1819 and grantee of Rancho Agua Caliente, received the four square league Rancho Tzabaco grant in 1843. By 1846 German Pina and his brothers were running the rancho. José German Pina died in 1847 leaving an undivided one fifth share to each of his four surviving brothers (José de Jesús (b. 1826), Francisco(b. 1831), Antonio(1831–1853), and Luis(b. 1834)) and a sister Clara (b. 1836).
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 Tzabaco was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, and the grant was patented to José de Jesús Piña et al., heirs of José German Pina, in 1859.
From 1850 onward the Piña family fell into increasing debt. Led by Elisha Ely in 1851, American squatters began to settle on the grant. In 1853, Antonio Piña was murdered by squatters. General Vallejo was named executor of the estate.
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