Rancho Laguna Seca was a Mexican land grant in present-day Monterey County, California given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to Catalina M. Munrás.Ogden Hoffman, 1862, Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Numa Hubert, San Francisco "Laguna Seca" means "Dry Lake" in Spanish, referring to the seasonal lake, Laguna Seca. The grant was east of present-day Monterey.Diseño del Rancho Laguna Seca

History The half square league grant was made to Catalina Manzanelli de Munrás who was the wife of Esteban Munrás (1798–1850) a Monterey trader, amateur painter, and a grantee of Rancho San Vicente. Catalina Manzanelli de Munras was also grantee of Rancho San Francisquito.Luther A. Ingersoll,1893, Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.

With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican–American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Laguna Seca was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852,United States. District Court (California : Southern District) Land Case 16 SDFinding Aid to the Documents Pertaining to the Adjudication of Private Land Claims in California, circa 1852-1892 and the grant was patented to Catalina Munrás in 1865.Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886

Frank Bishop acquired the ranch from the Munras family in 1953; the Bishop family raised Thoroughbred horses and developed some of the land. They divested the last of their holdings in the 1990s.https://ncmonterey.com/About_Us/Club_History.html

Geography and drainage On the property a prominent ridge of terrain exists that extends in an east-northeasterly direction to eventually reach Fort Ord.Seaside Quadrangle, U.S. Geological Survey, 1947, photorevised 1974 On the south side of this ridge, drainage and groundwater flow is to the south. Surface water flows into the Carmel River, which parallels State Route 68. A series of surface drainage ditches and gullies run south from the higher terrain of Fort Ord to join this flow. Berwick and Canada de la Ordena Canyons also exist on the south and southeast portions of the Laguna Seca Ranch. Berwick Canyon almost borders the eastern side, , while Buckeye Canyon parallels the eastern border less than off the ranch to the east.

See also Laguna Seca Raceway

References