Rancho Río de los Americanos was a 35,521-acre (143.75 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Sacramento County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to William Leidesdorff (1810–1848).
[2] William Alexander Leidesdorff, U.S. Vice Consul at the Port of San Francisco, hired a farm manager and financed construction of four adobe dwellings on the site of today's River Bend Park, near Bradshaw Road and Folsom Blvd, in the city of Rancho Cordova.
His death came twelve days before the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War.
Leidesdorff's vast estate passed to his mother, Anna Marie Spark,[3] and surviving siblings, who resided in and were citizens of St. Croix, Danish West Indies, today's U.S. Virgin Islands.
[5] In 1849, Folsom took leave from the U.S. Army, and after stopping in New York to arrange financing, went to St. Croix, where he located some of Leidesdorff's relatives, including his mother.
Folsom hired the law firm of Halleck, Peachy & Billings to force Spark to accept the final payments.
[13] In 1862, Horatio G. Livermore acquired the Natoma Water and Mining Company and 9,000 acres (36.4 km2) of Rancho Río de los Americanos.