Rancho Cañada de los Alisos

[2][3][4][5] Jose Antonio Fernando Serrano (1804-1870) was granted Rancho Cañada de Los Alisos in 1842.

Serrano and his sons raised crops to sell, however, their principal industry was cattle, from which hides and tallow were sold.

[6] 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.

[9] A series of droughts, beginning in 1863 and lasting intermittently through 1883, forced the Serrano family to divide the ranch and mortgage several sections.

Unfortunately, the drought of 1863 and 1864 caused the death of Serrano's herds, forcing foreclosure of the ranch to Los Angeles banker J.S.

Rancho Cañada de los Alisos was granted in 1842 to José Antonio Serrano. By 1863, the community that grew up in Serrano's rancho came to be known as El Toro. Nearly 150 years later, in 1991, El Toro incorporated and changed its name to Lake Forest .