Rancho El Piojo was a 13,329-acre (53.94 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Monterey County, California given in 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Joaquín Soto.
[1] The grant extended along Piojo Creek south of Rancho San Miguelito de Trinidad.
The three square league Rancho El Piojo was granted to Joaquín Soto.
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.
[6] The rancho was bought at a foreclosure sale by Charles B. Polhemus, who sold it in 1871 to his business partner, Henry Mayo Newhall, and along with Rancho San Miguelito de Trinidad, it became part of the Newhall Land and Farming Company.