Rancho San Dieguito as it was called in 1841, included 8,824
acres, and was acquired by the first political "alcalde" of San
Diego, Juan Maria Osuna, under a land grant from the governor of Mexico, Pio
Pico. In 1906 the Santa Fe Railway, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka &
Santa Fe Railway, purchased the entire ancestral grant of the Osunas to plant
eucalyptus trees for railroad ties, but Eucalyptus wood proved too soft to hold
railroad spikes. The railroad then formed the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company
to develop a planned community of country estates.
During 1917 through 1918 the Santa Fe Land &
