Rancho Colus was a 8,877-acre (35.92 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Colusa County, California given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to John Bidwell.
[1] The name is derived from the name of a Native American tribe living on the west side of the Sacramento River.
The grant extended two leagues along the west bank of the Sacramento River, and encompassed present-day Colusa.
[2] John Bidwell (1819 – 1900) was born in Chautauqua County, New York, and led the Bartleson-Bidwell Party to California in 1841.
[3] 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.