Rancho Aptos

Rancho Aptos was a 6,686-acre (27.06 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to Rafael Castro.

Rafael Castro built a wharf, five hundred feet long, to ship hides, flour, and lumber during the 1850s.

[4] 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.

[7] In 1867, Castro leased the wharf to Titus Hale,[8] who extended it five hundred more feet into the sea.

By 1872, Claus Spreckels, the sugar millionaire, began buying the land from Castro.

U.S. Surveyor General's 1859 map of the 6686-acre land grant