There's a Nieto Avenue in Long Beach. Pamela Seager says, "Nieto is named for Manual Nieto who was the first land grantee at the ranch under Spanish rule."

Seager is executive director of the Rancho Los Alamitos Foundation. She says Nieto was a corporal in the Spanish army more than two centuries ago. He traveled with the Portola expedition through California. Instead of a pension, he hit pay dirt.

She says, "In 1790, he received 300,000 acres of land. Essentially a land grantee was not given the land, but was holding it on behalf of the Native Americans until they were sufficiently acculturated supposedly to take over the land. That didn't happen."

Long Beach was Nieto's second choice, but not a bad one. There was plenty of water for crops and cattle. To settle land disputes, Nieto's son Juan sold off his share of the rancho in 1804 to the Mexican governor of California Jose Figueroa. The price? About 2 cents an acre.

(Airdate: 2/14/2009)