[1] The grant extended along the Pacific Coast from Rancho Piedra Blanca at Pico Creek, south along the coast to San Simeon Creek, [2] and includes the present-day townsite of San Simeon Acres.
Ramón Estrada was administrator of Mission Santa Clara in 1835 and grantee of Rancho El Toro in 1835.
[3] Shortly before his death in 1845, Estrada sold Rancho San Simeon to José Miguel Gomez, a Mexican priest.
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] In 1865, George Hearst (1820–1891), a successful miner during the California Gold Rush era and later a US Senator, started to acquire land in the area.