Rancho Las Mariposas
Rancho Las Mariposas was a 44,387-acre (179.63 km2) Mexican land grant in Alta California, located in present-day Mariposa County, California.
It was granted in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Juan Bautista Alvarado. The grant takes its name from Mariposa Creek, which was named for the monarch butterflies (butterfly = "mariposas" in Spanish) in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
The grant was west of Yosemite, in the foothills of the western Sierra Nevada . It encompasses the present day city of Mariposa, and the former towns of Agua Fria and Ridleys Ferry on the Merced River.
Juan B. Alvarado, a former Mexican governor of Alta California, was awarded the grant in 1844. The ten square league grant was described as being located generally along Mariposa Creek, between the San Joaquin River, Chowchilla River, Merced River, and the Sierra Nevada. This is much bigger area than ten square leagues, and the intent was that Alvarado would select the particular ten square leagues within these boundaries - what has been called a "floating grant". Alvarado never complied with the usual requirements for a grant due to the Miwok Indians being hostile to the invasion of their longstanding homelands.
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