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===Land claims===
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the Mexican land grants would be honored. In order to investigate and confirm titles in California, American officials acquired the provincial records of the Spanish and Mexican governments in Monterey.<ref>Beck, Warren A. and Ynez D. Haase, ''Historical Atlas of California'', first edition, p.24</ref><ref>[http://www.sos.ca.gov/archives/collections/ussg/grant-list.htm "Spanish and Mexican Land Grant Maps, 1855–1875"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108073057/http://www.sos.ca.gov/archives/collections/ussg/grant-list.htm |date=2012-01-08 }}, California State Archives</ref>
The new state's leaders soon discovered that the Mexican government had given a number of grants just before the Americans gained control. The Mexican governors had rewarded faithful supporters, and hoped to prevent the new immigrants from gaining control of the land. Sponsored by California Senator [[William M. Gwin]], in 1851 Congress passed "An Act to Ascertain and Settle Private Land Claims in the State of California".<ref name="blakely"/> The Act required all holders of Spanish and Mexican [[land grant]]s to present their titles for confirmation before the [[Public Land Commission|Board of California Land Commissioners]].<ref>[[Paul Wallace Gates|Paul W. Gates]], 1971, ''The California Land Act of 1851'', California Historical Society, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Dec., 1971), pp. 395–430</ref> Contrary to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, this Act placed the burden of proof of title on landholders.<ref>[http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/rancho.html "Ranchos of California"]: Extracts from Cris Perez, ''Grants of Land in California Made by Spanish or Mexican Authorities''</ref> Grantees were required to prove the validity of the grants they had received and establish their exact boundaries. The diseños available were often imprecise. Land had until the gold rush been of little value and boundary locations were often quite vague, referring to an oak tree, a cow skull on a pile of rocks, a creek, and in some cases a mountain range.<ref name="blakely"/>
Even in cases where the boundaries were more specific, many markers had been destroyed before accurate surveys could be made. Aside from indefinite survey lines, the Land Commission had to determine whether the grantees had fulfilled the requirements of the Mexican colonization laws. While the Land Commission confirmed 604 of the 813 claims it reviewed, most decisions were appealed to [[US District Court]] and some to the [[US Supreme Court|Supreme Court]].<ref>[http://www.slc.ca.gov/Misc_Pages/Historical/Surveyors_General/reports/Willey_1884_1886.pdf ''Report of the Surveyor General 1844–1886''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130320000647/http://www.slc.ca.gov/Misc_Pages/Historical/Surveyors_General/reports/Willey_1884_1886.pdf |date=2013-03-20 }}</ref> The confirmation process required lawyers, translators, and surveyors, and took an average of 17 years (including the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], 1861–1865) to resolve. It proved expensive for landholders to defend their titles through the court system. In many cases, they had to sell a portion of their land to pay for defense fees or gave attorneys land in lieu of payment.<ref>[http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb109nb422&doc.view=entire_text "Adjudication of Private Land Claims in California, circa 1852–1892"]</ref><ref>[http://www.upress.pitt.edu/htmlSourceFiles/pdfs/9780822959397exr.pdf ''Ranchos and the Politics of Land Claims'']</ref>
Rejected Spanish and Mexican land claims resulted in conflicting claims by the grantees, squatters, and settlers seeking the same land. This resulted in pressure on [[United States Congress|Congress]] to change the rules. Under the [[Preemption Act of 1841]], squatters were able to [[Pre-emption right |pre-empt]] others' claims to portions of the land and acquire clear title by paying $1.25 an acre for up to a maximum of {{convert|160|acre|km2|2}}. Land from titles rejected by the courts became part of the public domain and available to homesteaders after the first federal [[Homestead Acts| Homestead Act of 1862]] was passed, allowing anyone to claim up to {{convert|160|acre|km2|2}}. This resulted in additional pressure on Congress, and beginning with [[Rancho Suscol]] in 1863, it passed special acts that allowed certain claimants to pre-empt their land without regard to acreage. By 1866 this privilege was extended to all owners of rejected claims.<ref>[[Paul Wallace Gates|Paul W. Gates]], 2002, ''Land and Law in California: Essays on Land Policies'', Purdue University Press, {{ISBN|978-1-55753-273-2}}</ref><ref>Gordon Morris Bakken, 2000, ''Law in the western United States'', University of Oklahoma Press, {{ISBN|978-0-8061-3215-0}}</ref>
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*[http://digarc.usc.edu/assetserver/controller/view/search/CHS-13060 Los Angeles County Spanish and Mexican ranchos]
*[http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/MarinRanchos.html Marin County Mexican Land Grants]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081114181514/http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/lb/main/crm/maps/MarinRanchosMap.swf Marin County's Original Ranchos]
*[http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/MontereyRanchos.html Monterey County Mexican Land Grants]
*[http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/NapaRanchos.html Napa County Mexican Land Grants]
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*[http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/SantaCruzRanchos.html Santa Cruz CountyMexican Land Grants]
*[http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/SonomaRanchos.html Sonoma County Mexican Land Grants]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081121200039/http://www.sonomacountyhistory.org/grants.htm Sonoma County Mexican Land Grants]
*[http://tcghsoc.org/MexicanLandGrantsTC.pdf Tehama County Mexican Land Grants]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080828182002/http://www.venturacogensoc.org/SpanGrants.htm Ventura County Spanish and Mexican Land Grants]
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