Rancho Cañada de los Alisos
Rancho Cañada de los Alisos was a Mexican land grant of about 10,668 acres in what is now Orange County, California. It was given in 1842 by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado to Jose Antonio Fernando Serrano and was enlarged in 1846 by Pio Pico. The name means “Glen of the Alders,” after the White Alder trees that grew there. The rancho included land that is now Lake Forest (formerly El Toro) and the area of the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro and the Orange County Great Park in Irvine.
Jose Antonio Fernando Serrano (1804–1870) received the grant in 1842. He married Maria Petra Avila. The Serrano family grew crops and, mainly, ran cattle, selling hides and tallow.
After the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo promised to honor existing land grants. To prove ownership, Serrano filed a claim with the Public Land Commission in 1852, and the grant was patented to him in 1871.
A series of droughts from 1863 to 1883 pressured the ranch. The 1863–1864 drought killed many cattle, leading to foreclosure to Los Angeles banker J. S. Slauson. Slauson divided the ranch into ten parcels, the largest around 10,000 acres.
In 1884 Boston businessman Dwight Whiting bought most of the land. He tried to develop an English village called Aliso City, encouraged subdivision, brought in the railroad, and planted olive trees, grape vineyards, and about 400 acres of eucalyptus. However, the dry climate and poor soil made farming difficult, and the project was not very successful.
In 1959 the remaining Whiting properties were sold to V. P. Baker and Associates, and the area has since been developed for homes and towns.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 05:52 (CET).