History

• The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), which ended the Mexican-American War, guaranteed recognition of previous Mexican and Spanish land grants to Mexicans after the transfer of the Mexican territory to the United States. Afterward, the California Land Act was passed in 1851.
  
  

Features

• The California Land Act gave Mexican landowners in the transferred territory a two-year window to prove ownership starting from the time the California Land Act was passed. If ownership was not proved, the property went into the public domain after the two years were up.
  
  

Execution

• The Board of Land Commissioners was established to investigate ownership documents, and the surveyor general was charged with surveying validated land grants.
  
  

Considerations

• There were 813 claims presented to the Board of Land Commissioners, out of which 604 were validated. An individual could dispute a decision of the commission in the federal court system. Cases taken to court averaged 17 years to reach a settlement due to the numerous legal appeals of the cases.