After returning to Sutter’s Fort, Peter Lassen sought land in the North Valley, where no settlements yet existed, and on October 11, 1843, he filed an application with Governor of California General Manuel Micheltorena for a vacant place on the Sacramento River called Bosquejo. While waiting for a decision, he pursued naturalization because Mexican policy required grantees to be Mexican citizens, and on July 25, 1844, at Monterey, then the capital of California, Micheltorena certified that Pedro Lassen, a native of Denmark, had met the legal requirements for naturalization. Five months later, on December 26, 1844, the Mexican government approved Lassen’s land grant of five square leagues, about 22,000 acres. Soon afterward, Lassen left the Cosumnes River with his cattle, horses, and mules for Bosquejo on the Sacramento River, traveling with his housekeeper, the Dutchman Sargent. Flooding at Cordua, now Marysville, delayed them for at least a month before they could continue in February 1845. After reaching his new home, Sargent soon left, and Lassen remained the only white man there, living alone among Indian tribes with his herd. The property later became known by several names, including Lassen Grant, Lassen’s Ranch, Lassen Rancho, and Deer Creek Ranch, but Lassen gave it the Spanish name Bosquejo Rancho, meaning wooded land.