Rancho Del Paso was a 44,371-acre (179.56 km²) Mexican land grant in present-day Sacramento County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Eliab Grimes. The grant extended along the north bank of the American River and was bounded roughly by today’s Northgate Boulevard, Manzanita Avenue, and Elkhorn Boulevard. The grant encompassed present-day North Sacramento, Del Paso Heights, Rio Linda, Arden-Arcade, and a portion of Carmichael.

History

John Sutter gave the land north of the American River to Eliab Grimes, Hiram Grimes, and John Sinclair. Captain Eliab Grimes (1780–1848), a native of Massachusetts, was a Honolulu merchant of many years and operated with his nephew Hiram, as the firm E & H Grimes. Hiram Grimes would later own Rancho San Juan and Rancho Pescadero. Eliab Grimes persuaded Sinclair to occupy the Rancho Del Paso until such time as he (Grimes) could take legal title to it. In 1843, John Sinclair, who had gone to work for Sutter in 1840, and his wife Mary Sinclair, occupied the Rancho. In 1844, Eliab Grimes received the official ten square league land grant. Over the next four years, Grimes and Sinclair, raised cattle and harvested wheat on the property.