Rancho Los Alamitos takes its name from a Mexican land grant in southern California. Los Alamitos means the Little cottonwoods or Poplars in Spanish. Rancho Los Alamitos originally included much of present-day eastern Long Beach, and all of the Orange county cities/communities of Los Alamitos and Rossmoor and most of Seal Beach, Cypress, Stanton and Garden Grove. It is also sometimes referred to as Bixby Ranch, after its last private owners. The ...
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Rancho Los Alamitos takes its name from a Mexican land grant in southern California. Los Alamitos means the Little cottonwoods or Poplars in Spanish. Rancho Los Alamitos originally included much of present-day eastern Long Beach, and all of the Orange county cities/communities of Los Alamitos and Rossmoor and most of Seal Beach, Cypress, Stanton and Garden Grove. It is also sometimes referred to as Bixby Ranch, after its last private owners. The early 1800s adobe ranch house, still stands today, housing a museum which presents the history of the area.
The history of the 85,000-acre (340 km) Rancho Los Alamitos is almost a microcosm for the history of westward expansion in the United States. Its ownership was to change and its boundaries would shrink many times. Situated in the flood plain between the mouths of the ever-shifting Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Santa Ana Rivers, the terrain of the rancho is virtually flat, and was subject to frequent flooding. The rancho building itself is...
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