By 1769, the native Pomo had inhabited Lake County for at least 10,000 years. After Mexico became independent of Spain in 1822, secularization of the Mission system provided rich land grants to Mexican citizens, including Salvador Vallejo, whose holdings included Upper Lake, Bachelor, Scotts, and Big Valleys. During the rule of his brother Mariano Vallejo, the military governor of northern California stationed in Sonoma, Anglos increasingly entered California and grew restless under Mexican rule, culminating in the 1846 Bear Flag revolt, when revolutionaries seized Mariano Vallejo and captured Sonoma. Among the first white settlers of Upper Lake were Bear Flaggers Benjamin Dewell and William Elliot. Upper Lake drew an independent and industrious population, leading to the opening of its first post office in 1858, and by the 1870s schools, churches, and mutual aid organizations such as the Grange and International Order of Odd Fellows had been established. In 1874, telegraph lines reached Upper Lake from Colusa, and by the end of the 1870s the town was the terminus of the Cloverdale and Clear Lake stage lines, bringing tourists to nearby spas and resorts including Witter Springs, Saratoga Springs, and the original Le Trianon at Blue Lakes. Lumber mills in the hills north of town brought prosperity, while Lake County industries included the Blue Lakes bean cannery, begun in 1896 and employing as many as 400 workers in some seasons, as well as cattle and dairy production, sheep, grain crops, walnut groves, pear orchards, and vineyards. From the late 1800s through the mid 1900s, Upper Lake supported a succession of shops and businesses and once had a courthouse, hospital, and several car dealerships, while in recent years a new generation of shopkeepers, restaurateurs, and innkeepers has continued its tradition of friendly service.