Alamitos Adobe Historic Ranch and Gardens (Long Beach, California)

 museum, adobe structure, historic landmark

6400 East Bixby Hill Road
Long Beach, CA 90815
(562) 431-3541
www.rancholosalamitos.com/
www.csudh.edu/csudh/isso/hac.htm

Located next to the Southwest corner of the C.S.U. Long Beach campus. Corporal Juan Jose Nieto was one of three leather jacket soldiers (soldados de cueras) from the Catalan Regiment who came to Alta California with Don Gaspar de Portola and Father Junipero Serra in 1769 (to stop those Russians from taking over the area). When retiring from the Spanish army he received Rancho Los Nietos 300,000 acres from the King of Spain Carlos the III. Juan Jose Dominguez was the first to receive his "Rancho San Pedro" and Jose Maria Verdugo was another who received "Rancho San Rafael" in the same year. Spain issued approximately 21 Alta California haciendas from 1784 to 1821. Corporal Jose Nieto’s extremely large land grant was later divided into six ranchos: Los Alamitos, Las Bosas, Los Cerritos, Los Coyotes, Palo Alto and Santa Guertudes.

A large and old native Californian settlement called Puvungna was located near this adobe until 1805. The natives in Los Angeles, San Gabriel, Riverside and San Bernardino Valleys were of the Shoshone tribe (Ute-Aztec language group). Native Californians built all of the missions and adobes and became the first vaqueros.

Abel Stearns (a Yankee Don who married Arcadia Bandini from an Italian-Mexican family) purchased the 28,000-acre ranch in 1840. The Bixby family bought the ranch in 1860’s and lived on it for many years. Hands-on history room enriches a children’s 4th and 5th grade free tour program. For more information read their newsletter on-line.