Rancho Piedra Blanca

Hearst Ranch, looking down the access road from Hearst Castle to Highway 1 and San Simeon; wooded peninsula is San Simeon Point
Pacific coast on the old Rancho Piedra Blanca, with Piedras Blancas Light Station in background.

Rancho Piedra Blanca was a large, 48,806-acre (197.51 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day San Luis Obispo County, California given in 1840 by Governor Juan Alvarado to José de Jesús Pico.[1] The name means "white rock" and refers to rocks painted white by its bird population. The grant extended south along the Pacific Coast below Big Sur from Ragged Point to Pico Creek (formerly Arroyo del Pinal), where it adjoins Rancho San Simeon.[2] The land grant includes the original townsite and post office for San Simeon, the Hearst Ranch headquarters, and Hearst Castle.

  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. ^ Survey plat of Ro. Piedra Blanca (1876)