In 1839, the Mexican Government granted Antonio del Valle some 48,000 acres in the Santa Clarita Valley known as the Del Valle Rancho. On March 9, 1842, Francisco Lopez y Arbello, Antonio del Valle’s brother-in-law, visited the rancho and slept beneath a great oak tree, dreaming that he was surrounded by gold and very rich. After waking, he picked wild onions growing around sycamore trees just north of the oak, and several small pieces of gold were attached to their roots. Francisco Lopez y Arbello’s find marked the first recorded discovery of gold in California, and the great oak became known as the Oak of the Golden Dream.
