Rancho Bolsa Nueva y Moro Cojo

Rancho Bolsa Nueva y Moro Cojo was a 30,901-acre (125.05 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Monterey County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to María Antonia Pico de Castro.[1] Literally translated, the name means "new pocket and lame moor". In the plains of Argentina and Uruguay, "moro" is the color of a horse, a special gray-bluish shade. This name must certainly be of Spanish origin, so it is not unreasonable to suppose that this Spanish name of a place in California does not refer to a "moor" (a muslim inhabitant of northern Africa, a very unlikely occurrence in California) but to a lame horse. The name "pocket" refers to pockets of land surrounded by marshes. The grant extended from Moss Landing on the Monterey Bay inland to present day Prunedale, and south to Castroville.[2][3]

  1. ^ Ogden Hoffman, 1862, Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Numa Hubert, San Francisco
  2. ^ Diseño del Rancho Bolsa Nueva y Moro Cojo
  3. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Rancho Bolsa Nueva y Moro Cojo