Rancho Carbonera was a 2225acres Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1838 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to William Buckle (Bocle).[1] The grant was north of present-day Santa Cruz between the San Lorenzo River and Branciforte Creek. The southern section of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park is within the Rancho.
The Englishman William Buckle (1803 - 1859), captain of the whaler "Daniel" in Hawaii, came to California in 1823. He moved with his brother, Samuel Buckle (1795 - 1872), to Branciforte. He married Maria Antonia Castro. He was naturalized as Jose Guillermo Bocle, but had many aliases - Bocle, Boc, Bocle, Bucle, Thompson, and Mead were a few names he used.[2] William Bocle claimed one-half square league Rancho Carbonero in 1838 and built a sawmill there. William and his brother, Samuel, changed their names to Thompson. He was one of the foreigners arrested in the 1840 Graham affair.[3]
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Carbonera was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852,[4] [5] and the grant was patented to William Buckle in 1873.[6]
A boundary conflict between Rancho Carbonera and the adjoining Rancho Cañada del Rincon en el Rio San Lorenzo went to the US Supreme Court in 1894.[7] [8]