Land in California: Story of Mission Lands Ranchos Squatters

A writer of great warmth and skill . . . Robinson has taken the complicated business of land titles and, without generalizing or avoiding statistics, he has done the unbelievable—made a story any reader will be unable to put down. Here are the original owners, who had no land titles except those from the Great Spirit; the mission priests and their overseeing of Indian lands; the presidios and pueblos; the great Spanish and Mexican land grants and how they were torn away from the dons piecemeal by loan sharks, squatters. Here came thieves and adventurers (with a few notable exceptions, such as Don Abel Stearns, the Yankee was a highwayman) swarming the pastoral lands; mining claims and railroad grants; homesteads; tidelands; and, in quite recent years, the renewed effort at showing the land grants to be worthless. . . . Here, too, are personal stories of men and women engaged in that vast struggle, often bloody and violent.—Los Angeles Times A scholarly and thorough treatment . . . Land in California merits serious consideration. W.W. Robinson [was] vice president of Title Insurance and Trust Co., Los Angeles, and his professional interest in land and its ownership has led to a comprehensive study of California properties from the Spanish grants to the sharply-criticized decision of the United States Supreme Court on the 'marginal lands' along the coast. Students of California history will find much of absorbing interest in Mr. Robinson's book. . . . A valuable contribution to Californiana and will be read carefully by everyone who is interested in the state and its development.—New York Times