The folder contains a letter in Spanish to the Prefect of the 1st District regarding lands solicited by Stephen Smith and Don Victor Prudon.

Bodega Bay was discovered by Lt. Francisco de la Bodéga y Cuadro. The Russian American Company laid claim to part of the land around Bodega Bay, and Ivan Kuskov founded Romanzov, a settlement that grew wheat and hunted sea otter. In 1835, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo gave American sailors on the border of the Russian land in order to curtail Russian expansion. In 1841, the Russian land was sold to John A. Sutter, and Governor Micheltorena granted thousands of acres of Bodega land, including some of the former Russian land, to Stephen Smith. Smith created the Rancho Bodega.

1 folder

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