On this day in 1873, Santa Barbara attorneys Charles H. Fernald and Jarrett “J.T.” Richards purchased Rancho San Francisco at a sheriff’s auction for $33,000 — about 75 cents an acre. The sale, recorded October 20, 1873, marked another turning point in the turbulent ownership of the 48,829-acre rancho that once stretched across much of today’s Santa Clarita Valley. Rancho ...

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