Rancho La Bolsa Chica

Rancho La Bolsa Chica was an 8,107-acre (32.81 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day coastal northwestern Orange County, California given in 1841 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Joaquín Ruiz.

The rancho lands include the present day city of Huntington Beach, the community of Sunset Beach, and the significant Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve.

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] By 1860 Rancho La Bolsa Chica was acquired by Abel Stearns, the most significant land owner in Southern California at the time, and in 1868 it became part of the Robinson Trust.

Archeological items such as cog stones, from the Tongva settlements preceding the rancho at the estuary for 8,000 years, are at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.