With over 100 cattle brands decorating the entrance, there is little question that the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum is a monument to the Texas cowboys and settlers that first developed northern Texas. Located in Canyon, just south of Amarillo, on the West Texas A&M University campus, the museum is Texas’ largest history museum and a well curated survey of the region’s past.…
El Morro
In an otherwise desolate land, with neighboring locations so harsh as to be named El Malpaís (The Bad Place), El Morro is a stunning oasis. The pool of water at the foot of this massive rock formation has sustained travelers for thousands of years. Indeed, evidence of these passers-by remain in petroglyphs and carvings that are preserved on the rock face. Native Americans, Spanish…
Cade’s Cove
Nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains are the historic homesteads of Cade’s Cover. The community that developed here saw the challenges of not only farming in developing territories but constant raids during the Civil War. Before Cade’s Cove was divided into homesteads, Cherokee Indians hunted in it for thousands of years.* While there were no large permanent settlements in the…
The Department of the Interior
While the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) scope and presence spans across the country, its main offices are found in Washington DC. There, a grand building has been the hub of public land management since its construction was completed in 1936. Along with offices, the building houses a museum and an extensive collection of murals celebrating the various roles of…
Understanding Maps
The time has come for a over of our mapping services to clear the way for further development of handy tools for our users. As such, this month we have rolled out a new map format to better allow our users to quickly peruse land patents by disposition. In order to keep the maps as clutter free as possibly, we…
Rancho La Brea and The Tar Pits
Much of California was already claimed by Mexican citizens before the state joined the US—Los Angeles included and Rancho La Brea of particular note. Rancho La Brea was named after the natural asphalt that occurred that bubbled to the surface on the land. The 4,439-acres of land was granted by the Mexican government to Antonio Jose Rocha and Nemisio Dominguez…
Understanding Patent Ownership
We receive lots of emails from people who find their name or a relative’s name on our site and want to know if this means they have some right to the land listed under that name. The short answer is, “if you have to ask, then probably not” but the complete answer deserves the time and attention that is best…
Rancho Santa Anita
Rancho Santa Anita was a 13,319 acre land grant covering modern day Arcadia, Monrovia, Pasadena, San Marino, and Sierra Madre held by Perfecto Hugo Reid in 1845. While Reid sold this land to Henry Dalton in 1847, the secession of California put the ownership of this land in flux until the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo agreed to honor preexisting…
The Innocente Homestead
Immanuel (Manuel) Innocente was of the Chumash tribe and head cattle wrangler at El Sur Rancho in San Buenaventura. In 1868, Manuel moved with his wife, Francisca – who was likely Yokut – and two children to Big Sur and purchased a homestead in what would later become Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. This homestead included dry, scrub covered hillsides, as well as a…
The Pfeiffer Homesteads
The Pfeiffer name is scattered across Big Sur, California. Be it Pfeiffer Falls, Pfeiffer Ridge, Pfeiffer Road, Pfeiffer Gulch, or Pfeiffer-Redwood Creek all these landmarks are homage to a family that settled and thrived in Big Sur since 1869. Michael and Barbara Pfeiffer were European immigrants who settled in Sycamore Canyon, Big Sur in 1869 [visit Michael’s owner page] with their four children Charles, John,…