The LA Public Library exhibits this map in a “best of our collections” gallery, and it is so charming and information-rich, I snapped a photo through the glass frame just so I could have it on my phone and check it against locations as I travel around. (”Geek!”) This is a fanciful map from a title-insurance company give-away brochure. It nevertheless shows clearly how the California governors had divided Southern California into private ranchos. It’s surprising this map, and others in the series, aren’t better known. The burning central question of all California history in the Spanish/Mexican period, and for long into the American era, was “who owned the land, and who owned the water?” Was it the Indians? The neophyte Indians? The Missions? The Franciscan order? The soldier, retiring after 16 years of shivering in a Monterey sentry box without pay? The final answer, historically, lies in the grants recorded here, ultimately derived from the power of Carlos III, asserted back in 1769, according to Spain’s Law of the Indies. When Fremont drew up the Capitulation of Cahuenga ending the Mexican War, Andres Pico – who had a huge stake in Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando – got Fremont to agree these Spanish and Mexican grants would stand under U.S. law. The boundaries were parsed and reviewed endlessly by U.S. courts, but today these are the first link of most Los Angeles title chains.

W.W. Robinson was the extraordinary talent behind the Title Insurance and Trust Co.’s promotions. One of the stalwarts of the Southern California Historical Society, and a largely self-taught historian, he developed his interest in Los Angeles by being an absolute demon at land title information retrieval. He wrote umpteen books and pamphlets which are stuffed with local lore and illustrated with maps like the one above. The fanciful promotional style of the maps, belies the fact that they are based on the meticulous research of a very sharp mind.